80
SECTION VII: Blades of Value
Equally compelling designs conceived by Sub-Saharan
blacksmiths are found in the shapes of
precolonial currency tokens, often derived from
blade forms of tools and weapons. So essential
was the role played by forged iron objects to
local and regional economies that they were
synonymous with value itself. These tokens
stood as payment in the exchanges that mattered
most in life: marriage; litigation; ransom
of battle captives; and the purchase of horses,
enslaved persons, and other prized commodities.
Hoe blade–shaped currencies were created
as bridewealth tokens by many African societies
(fi g. 27), linking agricultural productivity to the
reproductive power and labor a wife brings to
a household.
Currencies used as bridewealth constituted
material praise of the woman: recognizing her
as an individual with life-sustaining capacities.
Bridewealth was (and sometimes still is) the glue
of small-scale Sub-Saharan societies; it depended
upon solidarity among the prospective
husband’s kin and among the wife’s
even as it created a bond between the two
parties. After the two families negotiated
the terms of bridewealth, the young man
turned to his parents, who then networked
with kin to accumulate the goods required.
The gifts were amassed in a festive display
as testimony to the status of bride and
groom and afterward redistributed, most
likely so that young men of the bride’s lineage
could marry (fi g. 28).
Currency forms were produced most
often as bars or blades at sizes suitable to
FIG. 33 (right):
Lamellophone, chisanji.
Chokwe; Angola.
Late 19th century.
Wood, iron. H: 36.2 cm.
Musical Instrument Museum, inv.
2013.56.1. Ex Mr. and Mrs. F. and F.
Boulanger-Bouhière.
Photo: Troy Sharp, 2016. © Musical
Instrument Museum.
This lamellophone possesses threetiered
keys and sound-enhancing
elements including iron beads on a
piece of bent wire attached to the
bottom of the wooden soundboard.
Under the keys are tiny balls of
hornet’s wax applied for tuning
purposes. The rich iconography of
the board presents motifs often
found in Chokwe material culture,
adding to the beauty of the chisanji
musician’s “tone poems.”
being exchanged in bundles of several or more.
Some are dramatic in scale—as tall as a person—
and drew value from the amount of iron
required and from blacksmiths’ forging achievements.
SECTION VIII: Sounding Forms
Rhythmic sounds of the forge reverberate beyond
the workplace when hot iron is struck by
hammers and bellows are pumped with air. This
measured resonance translates as “music” and
is important to iron production from beginning
to end, with prayers and songs to the forge often
serving as preludes to blacksmiths’ tasks.
Music is also produced using forged iron instruments
that can be categorized as idiophones.
These create sound through the vibrating core
of their principal material—whether struck,
plucked, scraped, or rubbed—and without the
aid of strings or membranes. Examples of iron
idiophones include bells (fi gs. 32 and 34), rasps,
and rattles used to set the steps of dance and
“thumb pianos” with different-sized keys that
are plucked to play tone poems (fi g. 33).
The sounds of iron, by virtue of the spiritual
and supernatural potencies attributed to the
metal itself, are sometimes equated with voices
from ancestral realms. Instruments are kept in
the treasuries of chiefs; held in the hands of ritual
experts such as diviners; and used at occasions
marking social transitions such as initiation,
marriage, and funerals. Such sonorous iron
instruments contribute to more than just an
evening’s entertainment—they often serve as
vehicles linking the forge to the community, to
ancestors, and to divinity itself.
FIG. 32 (above):
Bell, mokengue.
Tsogo; Gabon.
Early 20th century.
Iron, wood. H: 44.45 cm.
Fowler Museum at UCLA, inv.
X86.1893; gift of Helen and Dr.
Robert Kuhn. Image © courtesy
Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photo:
Don Cole, 2018.
Created for the Tsogo men’s
initiation association called Evovi,
“the judges,” this forged bell would
have been struck at a tempo to
symbolize a man’s heartbeat. The
head that surmounts the handle may
represent the mythical entity Kombe,
who is the sun, the source of life,
and the supreme judge of humans.
The fi nely sculpted face is typical of
Tsogo fi gurative carving.
ART ON VIEW