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FIG. 22 (left): Knife, empute.
Lokele/So/Mba/Topoke/Genya; DR Congo.
Late 19th to early 20th century.
Iron, wood, leather, copper, brass. H: 59.6 cm.
Barbier-Mueller Collection, Geneva, inv. 1026-343.
Image courtesy Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva. © Studio
Ferrazzini-Bouchet Photographies, 2009.
An embellished blade and iron-clad scabbard declared
a blacksmith’s prowess. The solid iron pommel atop this
blade is forged in the stylized form of an anvil. Among the
largest of its type, the ensemble was intended to be more
magnanimous than menacing.
FIG. 25 (right):
Long-handled throwing knife.
Teda/Daza/Zaghawa; Chad, Niger, Sudan.
Late 19th to early 20th century.
Iron, plant-fi ber cordage. H: 62.5 cm.
Barbier-Mueller Collection, inv. 1027-155.
Image courtesy Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva. ©
Studio Ferrazzini-Bouchet Photographies, 2009.
FIG. 26 (far right):
Wadai man carrying a throwing knife on
his left shoulder.
Photo © Cliché Lacombe, Chad. Published in Maurice
Delafosse, Enquête coloniale dans l’Afrique française
Occidentale et Équatoriale (Paris: Société d’éditions
géographiques, maritimes et coloniales, 1930).
FIG. 23 (left): Shield, kermin.
Fali; Nigeria. Mid 20th century.
Iron. H: 90 cm.
Agnès Woliner, Paris. Photo: Brigitte
Cavanagh, 2017. Courtesy of private
collector.
Originally shaped from animal hide, Fali
shields called kermin readily adapted to the
early twentieth-century infl ux of salvaged
sheet metal from automobiles and oil
barrels. Kermin offered young men cover in
battle and protected boys during initiation
ordeals as they learned to hunt. The central
protrusion provides room to attach a carrying
handle on the opposite side. It can also be
read as a “navel” surrounded by a “torso”
with cold-punched bumps patterned by a
blacksmith to refer to the ritual scarifi cation
of both male and female bodies to mark
their transition into adulthood.
FIG. 24 (right): Ceremonial
adze. Luba; DR Congo.
19th century.
Iron, wood. H: 34.3 cm.
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase
College, State University of New
York, inv. 1999.06.112; gift of
Lawrence Gussman in memory of Dr.
Albert Schweitzer. Image courtesy
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.
Luba dignitaries use this type of
fi gurative adze as an emblem of
status. Worn over the shoulder
by men in the Mbudye Society,
overseers of Luba royal activities, the
adze has miniature anvils (vinyundo)
“closing” the spirit heads at either
end of the handle. The heads look
in opposite directions so that the
dignitary who wore it or danced
with it in hand was graced with
ancestral wisdom and foresight.