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Originally Posted by colin henshaw
Hi Iain
Thanks for your comments and the excellent photos. Glad you like the piece. The third image of the man on ox back is particularly striking.
Reading up on the late 19th century Mahdist period and the various military encounters with the Anglo-Egyptian forces, it seems the Mahdists also employed large units of foot soldiers armed solely with these long spears and perhaps a sword. Presumably the idea was to simply overwhelm the opposition with a charging wall of steel, as in European mediaeval times ?
Makes me think a little of the Scottish "schiltrons" and their very long spears...
Looking forward to further comments on this topic.
Regards.
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While I'm more familiar with the western Sudan as you know, I imagine the tactics were similar. Heavy spear men functioned a bit like European pike men, being ideally suited to countering cavalry charges.
Smaldone's "Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate" has a nice in-depth chapter on the typical tactics in use.
Of course as reliable repeating firearms became available, they became a defunct force tactically. But they seem to have coexisted at least in the western Sahel along with muskets for quite a while.