new club + 2 ?s in 1 thread Afr/Aus origin
 

It has been a long while since I added an African item to my collection. I could not let this club slip by without having a go. It was sold as South African Boer war throwing club, but it is from the South Sudan border people like the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk and others. On receiving the item I made the customary inspection and comparison to all similar or related pieces in the collection.

This is where the second part of the thread comes in, the bi-pointed sticks. I have had them for many years. I assumed they were Australian as the Aborigines do use a bi-pointed fighting stick. After searching Australian bi-coloured woods and timber I realised that one {the Bi-coloured item} was clearly made from African black wood and most probably from the same South Sudan border regions, but what about the other one????

It is not carved from lumber as is the bi-coloured piece, rather it is fashioned from a limb as can be seen from the thin papery bark and the fissure in the limbs growth. The points appear to have been fire hardened. This seems to me to be atypical of African wood weapons except for some Lesotho club sticks. I have reason to believe that there are some knowledgeable collectors of Aus Aboriginal material that lurk and at times join in here, so what are your thoughts?

The new item is the only singular picture of one complete item in the series of pictures.

From the images, the paler double-pointed item looks like an Australian Aboriginal woman's digging stick. I believe the women also used it when fighting among themselves...

Just thought I might add this rather confirming comparison for one bi-pointed stick. The funny thing is that at any one time, one can count about 10 ulas at great expense on a world wide market place auction site. Yet these Sudan pieces come up far less frequently and sell for very little :shrug: one common and the other not so common?