[kronckew]

no, that's a fairly std. ceremonial axe. the one i'm after is the one with the green background below, or similar. i have a nice chevron shaped axe with a heavy battle blade, also below with the red background. it's been cleaned, rust stabilised, and oiled since.

the zulu demanded weapons from subjected tribes in tribute, so they did use a lot of shona/xhosa. shaka frowned on the use of axes in battle as he was trying to standardize on the iklwa for his regiments, much like roman legionaries were. a volley of throwing spears followed by an advance with short stabbing weapons was not just effective in rome, but in south africa as well. the axe, like the iwisa was relegated to mostly ceremonial use as a badge of authority at the time. older battle ones are harder to find.