Three African spears for ID

[Iain]

I have yet to take proper pictures but members might enjoy a quick look at a monster example from northern Nigeria recently acquired. This was in a museum since 1913 and field collected between 1905 and that date. Shown with a takouba to give a sense of the scale, this one is 92cm overall and with shaft would have been around 3 meters overall, quite sharp still!

[Gavin Nugent]

That's an impressive example Iain!

Ed, you dig up some great references here and with the Sudan shield, great image from the French book.

[TVV]

I hope you would not mind if I add this Mossi(?) lance head to the thread. The tip, not counting the socket is 70 cm long (27.5 inches). It makes a decent size lance from Northern Cameroon look small. When I see these huge lance heads, I always think of Denham's drawing of a Bornu bodyguard.

Teodor

[Iain]

That's another monster Teodor! How long is that one? Also curious for the details of the attribution to the Mossi. I always found them a very interesting group often referenced but with very little to know information out there on how to distinguish their arms/armour.

[TVV]

Iain,

The entire thing with what is left of the shaft is 160 cm. I need to measure the length of head and socket together, but the head is 70 cm without the socket, so it is truly monstrous. I wonder how these lances were balanced, as the heads are so ridiculously heavy.

The attribution is a good question. I believe I saw similarly decorated spears in one of Wofgang's photo albums identified as Dogon or Mossi. Since the Dogon are not really known for their heavy cavalry, I assumed it must be Mossi. That being said, I am not even close to being certain about this attribution.

Teodor

[TVV]

I measured the head with the socket, and it is 101.6 cm or exactly 40 inches.

[Martin Lubojacky]

Originally Posted by Iain

I have yet to take proper pictures but members might enjoy a quick look at a monster example from northern Nigeria recently acquired. This was in a museum since 1913 and field collected between 1905 and that date. Shown with a takouba to give a sense of the scale, this one is 92cm overall and with shaft would have been around 3 meters overall, quite sharp still!

Hi Iain,
Finally possibility to assign this old sword (photos below), which is very similar to the sword which is on your photo together with the spearhead an takouba. - Do you, please, know the tribe ?
Best,
Martin

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

Hi Iain,
Finally possibility to assign this old sword (photos below), which is very similar to the sword which is on your photo together with the spearhead an takouba. - Do you, please, know the tribe ?
Best,
Martin

Hi Martin, I wish I could give you a better answer but I'm also not sure. My guess has always been Mundang or Wandala. I posted it before here http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17871

[Martin Lubojacky]

Thank you for reminder of this interesting previous thread. I nearly forgot....
The drawings of the swords are from
"Handbook of ethnic units in Nigeria" (Veroffentlichungen des Frobenius-Instituts an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat zu Frankfurt/Main)
or
"Die materielle Kultur der nicht-islamischen Ethnien von Nordkamerun und Nordostnigeria" (Studien zur Kulturkunde) (German Edition).

I think I could buy this book on Amazon.
Best
Martin

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

"Die materielle Kultur der nicht-islamischen Ethnien von Nordkamerun und Nordostnigeria" (Studien zur Kulturkunde) (German Edition).

Hi Martin, It should be this title I think. Unfortunately as I recall the text does not include much more detail and I don't believe there are any actual photos of similar pieces in the book - still it is valuable reference material.

[Iain]

I finally got around to shooting some proper images of this lance, so I thought I'd add them to the thread.