Interesting East or Southern African(???) spear-sword

[Araña_del_Sol]

Hi all,

I stumbled on this interesting specimen unlike anything I have seen before. It has a very long curved blade that is tanged. The shaft/hilt has a monitor lizard skin sleeve on one end and a large brass coil on the butt end. Though unusual, southern Africa was the first area that came to mind for its place of origin. However, the Ngoni people migrated up into East Africa (Tanzania, Malawi, etc.) due to the Mfecane and influenced the weaponry and tactics of several of the people they encountered. The Hehe, Sangu, Ganda, and others were known to have adopted Ngoni weaponry including short stabbing spears. I wonder if this specimen might be an example of an adapted East African "Iklwa" or similar short spear. Any thoughts are appreciated (sorry for the poor lighting in the pictures).

Spear length: 78.8 cm (~31 inches)

- ADS

[Tim Simmons]

Very interesting. I have not seen monitor lizard skin objects from southern Africa . No way am I an expert
So your ideas seem good to me. What I might add is that I thick possibly even further north like south Sudan. Great thing.
https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/southernsud...+.2/index.html

[Araña_del_Sol]

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

Very interesting. I have not seen monitor lizard skin objects from southern Africa . No way am I an expert
So your ideas seem good to me. What I might add is that I thick possibly even further north like south Sudan. Great thing.
https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/southernsud...+.2/index.html

I think you solved it, great find! That Pitt Rivers Museum example looks close to me, so it would seem that it has South Sudan/Uganda origin. Thank you!

- ADS