Sudanese Spear

  • Sudanese Spear

  • Sudanese Spear

  • Sudanese Spear

  • Sudanese Spear

  • Sudanese Spear

  • Sudanese Spear

Sudanese Spear
Sudanese Arab
Mahdist Sudan (Sudan - South Sudan)
Late 19th century (ca. 1880 - 1898)
Iron, wood (Tamarix aphylla)
Blade: 23,8cm
Blade & Socket: 40cm
Spatulate Butt: 19,7cm
Overall Length: 179,7cm
Collection Date: 2016
Collection Number: 85

Ex. Late Lew Waldman Collection: Fayetteville, New York, USA (2016)

A Mahdist Sudanese spear from the late 19th century. Lew dated this example between 1885 and 1898. The leaf- shaped iron spearhead blade is forged with a raised medial ridge. At the base, incised decoration of cross- hatching is present at the iron socket. Wooden shaft of Tamarix aphylla, which, according to Rohlfs, is very tough, durable, but relatively light wood taken from the roots of the Ethel tree. The spear ends in an iron spatulate butt piece.

This spear is somewhat difficult to attribute to a certain group or locality. The spearhead shape and decoration is seen throughout the Sudan and South Sudan with blades in Bahr el Ghazal stretching into the Upper Nile, but those spears are usually absent of a butt piece or if one is present, they are in the style of an iron spike. The spatulate butt piece here is not often found in this area and is more common in the Arab North of Sudan or neighboring Chad. Baggara spears are similar in shape but much wider and without the end pieces as they were used as calvary spears from horseback. In my opinion, this spear is Sudanese and was probably made in Omdurman in the late 19th century and reflects both Arab and South Sudanese aspects. The cross-hatching and line decoration very much resembles Sudanese attribution, particularly in the South, and can be seen on Dinka and Shilluk spears of the Nile Valley from which Africans were recruited by the dominant Mahdist Arabs ofmomentous to fight against the occupying British. A very well-made and balanced spear with good steel quality. Similar examples in collections from the Mahdist Sudan war campaigns collected as war trophies and momentoes from the captured and deceased ansars.