African Bow
 

Hello everybody, here are some pictures of an african bow that i have. The seller told me that is a North Congo bow and i see in a museum some magbetu bows that has a leather strip like this one. Any comment is welcome. Thank you

Very nice. Do not try to impress your friends with how well it works. I have done so in the past and have been lucky to get away with just a snapped string which is bad enough when you have such a complete bow, you also look a little silly snapping your own string :o . Tim

It is a nice bow, and I'm suspect that you've positioned it upside down. Either the grip has slipped, or it's an asymmetric bow a la Japan.

The other thing is that the some Africans tend to like to have a long end to their bow strings that they wrap repeatedly around one end. I've seen it both in berimbaus (the musical bows in Capoeira) and in west African bows. That said, I would be interested to see a picture of the other end. I'm curious about whether there's a groove at that tip, or whether it is knotted in the proper place.

Neat piece!

F

Hello Fearn, here are some other pictures of the other end: there isn’t a groove but, as you said, the string is wrapped repeatedly. As you can see in the third picture there is, lightly under where now is the knot, an impression of the string. This is the sign that the other end is the part that was assembled for second.
For the leather strip I don’t think that is “the grip” and so it doesn’t slipped: in the mangbetu bows that I have seen the leather strip is in the exact position. Maybe is a grip but only for the stripping of the bow, to avoid that the bow slides in that moment. In the picture from Spring’s book (African arms and armour) is portrayed a man that stringed his bow. In the other pictures some ways to stringed bows and some African bows from the book Waffen aus Zentral Afrika :)

Isn't that a fun book? Thanks for showing the other end, Flavio.

F

A very nice bow, Flavio.

Do you have any measurements? (overall length, thickness/width of limbs, brace height) Just curious..

Hello Slow, the length is 142 cm and the max thickness is 1,8 cm :)

Thanks, Flavio.

The classic shape of the D-bow never ceases to please the eye :)