A Nice 'Trio'... 3 Zande(?) spears for comment.

Freddy · 16th July 2007, 06:20 PM

I looked in some books and these types of spears originate in the UBANGI-region of Congo. To be more specific : the border region of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic.

In the book 'Waffen aus Zentral-Afrika' (Etnographic Museum , Frankfurt am Main) a similar spear is identified as Mangbetu.

The Zande-tribe and the Mangbetu-tribe were two strong neighbouring tribes. So it could be easily explained that weapons of this kind were found with eiter groups (through war ?).

In the book 'IJZERWERK VAN CENTRAAL-AFRIKA' (Ironwork from Central Africa) by H. Westerdijk, the author says that this type of spear was used by both tribes as a war spear.
And you are right, they would cause terrible wounds.

Anyway, it's nice to find complete spears. I have two spear blades from the same region. Both have vicious barbs. Lengths are 40,5 and 33 cm.

16th July 2007, 06:20 PM	#2
Freddy Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Sint-Amandsberg (near Ghent, Belgium) Posts: 830	Very nice ! I looked in some books and these types of spears originate in the UBANGI-region of Congo. To be more specific : the border region of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic. In the book 'Waffen aus Zentral-Afrika' (Etnographic Museum , Frankfurt am Main) a similar spear is identified as Mangbetu. The Zande-tribe and the Mangbetu-tribe were two strong neighbouring tribes. So it could be easily explained that weapons of this kind were found with eiter groups (through war ?). In the book 'IJZERWERK VAN CENTRAAL-AFRIKA' (Ironwork from Central Africa) by H. Westerdijk, the author says that this type of spear was used by both tribes as a war spear. And you are right, they would cause terrible wounds. Anyway, it's nice to find complete spears. I have two spear blades from the same region. Both have vicious barbs. Lengths are 40,5 and 33 cm.