A MONGO SHIELD

[Flavio]

Hello everybody!! This is arrived today. It's a Mongo shield, probably not so old, but anyway quite nice! Comments are welcome :)

[Aqtai]

Beautiful shield, thanks for sharing it :).

Pardon my ignorance but who or what are the Mongo? I though that Mongo was the planet where Flash Gordon had his adventures. :D

[Flavio]

:D Sure, this is true, but the Mongo are also a population located in western-center Congo, near some other groups like the Konda. :)

[Tim Simmons]

I like that can you give some dimensions. Tim

[Flavio]

Hello Tim, the shield is along 137 cm. and wide 40 cm.

[Tim Simmons]

It is going to look splendid with a couple of spears. Tim

[Flavio]

Yeah, it is exactly what I have in mind to do :D

[Freddy]

Nice shield, Flavio.

I also found one last week. In fact, I knew where it was for some time, but the price was too high. So, last week I was able to get it for a good price.

In the shop, I had already examined this shield a few times. It looked OK. But when I got home, I started wondering in which way the handle was fastened to the basketry part. To my surprise, I found out it was screwed to the rattan part ! ! ! :eek: ! ! !
In my opinion, the handle was of bit 'off-centre'. When I look at pictures of similar shield, the handle is always in the middle.
I guess, the original handle was lost and replaced at some time by the current one.

But still...it's a very nice and old shield. Some damage at the edges, where it touched the ground. But nothing too serious.
Now, I'm planning to restore it.

Flavio, could you post a detailed picture of the handle of your shield and the way it's fastened ? It would be a great help. Could you also tell me what kind of material (rattan ?) is used to fasten the wooden handle to the basketry ?

Here are some pics of my Mongo shield. It measures 147 cm.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/keris_hanuman/Afbeelding1455.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/keris_hanuman/Afbeelding1458.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/keris_hanuman/Afbeelding1459.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/keris_hanuman/Afbeelding1460.jpg

Often we speak of the Mongo people. This is a name given to a group of different tribes from a region in Congo, among them : the Ngandu, Saka, Tsongo, Kota, Kote, Nkole and Northern Ntomba.

[Tim Simmons]

I have this long bladed Massai type spear with a screw repair, it looks quite old and well done so that the screw is flush with the socket. The length of the blade puts a lot of leverage on this part of the spear. The wood had a split in it which I sealed with diluted PVA. I think it is possible that the original screw repair was made prior to being collected ?

[Tim Simmons]

The boys are back in town!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/jamhappy/boys.jpg

[Flavio]

Great shield Freddy! Sorry but for the moment i can't take pictures with my camera (is dead!! R.I.P :( ). Anyway i can tell you that the handle of my shield is quite in the middle (just lightly moved towards the top). At the moment the handle is fastened with rattan, although a little loose.

[Flavio]

Hello Freddy, here, at the end, are some pictures of the handle of my mongo shield. What i think is strange is the longitudinal passing hole :confused: