African shield for pleasure and opinion
 

Hi,
Recently I acquired this shield and I would be interested in your opinion. Is it Turkana ? Or another neighboring tribe ? Length: 123 cm, width 59 cms. Decorations made of alluminium (wire, cap, plate). The place under the handle is reinforced with a very thick (dark brown) hide. The shield is a little bit twisted, but, I think, it will be possible to repair (flatten out) at least a little. The pompon made of feathers is nicely dense. I like this shield a lot
Regards,
Martin

and a few details
 

details

I really like the pompom, nice finish. I have a large spear with a small pompom. This form of shield is used by many different peoples as far as I know.

A good example of this type, I like it. Could be Turkana or a neighbouring tribe, hard to say... Aluminium was/is used in quite a few native artefacts from Kenya.

Sometimes see this type of shield made from scrap iron.

Regards.

Hi Martin,

very nice Turkana shield. Many collectors don't like when aluminium is used by ethnograhic items but I am sure that this will change in 100 years! :D This shield is tribal used and it was used the material which was available, I see this very relaxed. ;) Again, very nice shield.

Regards,
Detlef

Thank you all for comments !
Detlef, I see it also very relaxed. They really used material which was available and which they considered nice. (I already wrote, I think, in some old thread, that once, when I was in a desperate need of money, I offered a few pieces of things I brought from Ethiopia to Naprstek´s Muzeum in Prague. The museum has chosen two things and one of them was a wooden vessel, adorments of which were made of green plastics. It was real, used by willagers and very nice artefact ...). I like this shield incliding its aluminium parts and I think aluminium has also been in use in Africa "for a couple of years", from the Second World War at least (I personally consider African artefacts older than 40 years as "old" ones. But the most important is natural beauty - either old or new).
Refards,
Martin

I agree complete with you, I have two well used Halmahera shields (salawaku) in my collection where the inlays are from white plastic! :eek:
Both have a very nice patination so I am sure that they were in use for a couple of decades and I like both very much. I think both are from the 40th until 50th last century and in my eyes are good ethnograhic examples for this time when plastic was for this people a new and maybe valuable material.

Regards,
Detlef

I think Africans have used Aluminium for well over a century.

I agree, aluminium was already used in the 1920ties in former Belgian Congo, possibly even before that.