Iklwa
 

A couple of weeks ago while out shooting model cannons I met a guy who said had he has some spears he would sell me.

I went up and visited him and sure enough he had a bunch of spears, most large bladed spears that surely must be iklwa's. I settled on one. It is the long bladed one in these pictures. There were two others that interested me.

http://www.fototime.com/9A568BD01470281/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/D60C9C15A6CF5B1/standard.jpg

Later my friend wanted a spear so I took him over to look at spears. My wife went along and she decided she need some knobkerrie's. So she got those and I went home empty handed. See post on Tsonga Club for her knobkerries.

Later, after a visit to the ATM I went back over and got three more Iklwa's

http://www.fototime.com/0B2AF6B523DAE79/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/7383B38966323DC/standard.jpg

The top three in the blades pictures and the bottom ones in the spears picture came from this last visit.

Over the next couple of days I will take some close-up and tell you the "story" given for the one spear.

The tiles in the spears picture are 13 inches/330 mm wide

DD it seems you and your wife are caught up in some sort of ....Arms Race :)
We all told you that this collecting lark......is contagious...... probably more so than heroin :eek:

Nice spears, by the way :cool:

Nice spears! They look quite old. :D Now why can't more wives be like yours :)

Congrats



Lew

A new syndrome: " Sexually-transmitted obsession with arms collecting". If only I could isolate the virus, I would be a rich man..... :D :D

Two of my spears I believe to be true Iklwa's. Two others I have with long heavy blades I believe may only be heavy hunting spears that have had the hafts cut down. But I’m just not sure

http://www.fototime.com/0967BEDBF1D03F0/standard.jpg

There is a lot that has been written historically about Iklwa's and one can only guess how much is based on fact and how much is based on conjecture. Historical works on arms are notoriously inaccurate.

I have Spring' African Arms and Armour but he has only a few pages on Zulu weaponry. Fortunately he has a good bibliography. I would hope that his sources are a bit more scientific than the historical references.

I spent the afternoon with www.abebooks.com and found the 2 volume set of Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe. It's coming from the U.S. so it could be here in 3 or 4 weeks.

Spring makes reference to Eileen Krige listing over 20 different designs used by the Zulu's in her book The Social System of the Zulu's. Search of www.abebooks.com for her book brought real pleasant surprise. An old book store two blocks from my office in downtown Durban has the book. Tomorrow, I will walk over and get the book. Then hopefully I will be better able to understand what I have here and will be able to share that information with others here who have an interest in Zulu weapons.

I will also I hope, be better able to identify what my spears really are.