Found in someone's stable

[Freddy]

As I always say : there is still a lot to be found in Belgium. Numerous people had relatives who lived and worked in Congo when it was still a Belgian colony. When they returned to Belgium, almost all of them took with them some souvenirs. These could be masks, statues and of course....weapons.

Recently, I came in contact with an elderly man who told me he had some African arrows for sale. He couldn't send me pictures, but as he lives not to far from my place, I decided to pay him a visit this evening. I didn't know what to expect.

First he showed me a bunch of arrows in a quiver, probably originating from West-Africa. The arrows were a mixed bunch with several pieces from Congo (amongst them some Pygmee arrows).

Then he said he also had some 'machetes' and he wanted to know if I was interested, too. To my surprise he gave me : a Ngombe execution knife, a double execution knife (Lobala, Ngbaka, Bondjo), a Bandia or Boa sickle knife and last, but not least...an old Ngbaka throwing knife. There was also some smaller stuff like : a small knife, some arrowpoints and three spearheads.

This person got this 'ironwork' from his uncle who, at one time, lived in Congo. These items had been in his attic for a long time and were then moved to the stable. Some of the arrows were still packed in a newspaper dating from 1953 (That's older than me ). The person didn't know what to do with this stuff. He just wanted to get rid of them....and he found the right person

Here are some pics, I took when I got back home.

I'm planning to clean these weapons a little bit. I will show them when they are finished.