Ethiopian oromo shield
 

This shield i picked up the other day , oromo tribe i believe , its very heavy thick hide , maybe hippo ? i guess its 19th century ,difficult to date , im note sure if these were ever made for tourist trade ? whats your thoughts

I like this very much !

Very nice shield, and there is not much to add to what you wrote. I doubt there was a vibrant tourist sector in Southern Ethiopia in the 19th century, and to me this looks like intended for actual use, even if just ritual.

Beautifull and as said previously, it could be end of 19th or early 20th c. African like yemeni objects are difficult to date precisely.
I like the old repair, probably done by a spear and repaired later, definitively not tourist

:)

This one is real. There is "new"/later handle fastening.
Currently they started to produce also imitations for tourists, but this is not the case.

You can find old photos here:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...040#post240040

Now I think they were (also) used by various peoples from Sidama and Arusi regions, maybe up to Bale Mountains ..., also allegedly Wolayta people and others (but now round, more classic shield is attributed on internet to Wolayta...). So "Oromo" is probably "not too much exact".

There were various modifications of this kind of shield from heavy, nearly round to smaller of more oval shape (for horseman ?), with rolled up rim or normal, with carved ornamentation to the skin or smooth ...

it appears and is described on various references as hippo hide..

please see https://www.pinterest.com/pin/108367...59740/?lp=true

and at https://www.hamillgallery.com/ETHIOP...nShield08.html

~ where shades of red colouring were added apparently on the front surface which were intricately decorated being hammered over a wood former .

The red colour was allegedly added when the owner of the shield killed an enemy or a dangerous animal (also on "Amaro/Ometo" shields)