Vintage Zulu Warrior’s Assegai Stabbing Spear

Length: 87cm

A fine example of a late-19th Century Zulu warrior’s Assegai Ikwla stabbing spear. This was a common type of weapon in Africa but it was with the Zulu Nation that this spear is most famously known. It has various names, including Assegai, Umkhonto and interestingly, Ikwla – apparently so-named because of the sound it made when withdrawn from a victim’s wound. This was the type of weapon used against the British Army during the Zulu Wars of the 1870’s. With finely hand wrought and hammered blade and hardwood shaft. The Zulu produced at least 20 different types of spear. Perhaps the best known of these is the assegai, which was also used by several other Nguni groups in Southern Africa. The conventional assegai, is light and around 1.8m long (as tall as a man). In the hand of a skilled thrower, its range was 60-70m. Several assegai were carried in the left hand, behind the shield, and thrown one by one, prior to charging.

As the Zulu nation expanded, the warrior-leader Shaka (c.1787-1828) ordered all assegai be returned to the smiths to be melted down and re-forged into a new type of stabbing spear, iklwa, which had a shorter shaft and broader, more triangular blade. Under Shaka’s successor, Dingaan, the throwing spear was reinstated and ultimately the two types of spear were used together in combat to good effect.

The composition of these weapons, added to the warrior’s skill in using them, helped the Zulu become a potent military force; Zulu iron usually contained significant quantities of charcoal from the smelting process, so the finished blades possessed some steel-like qualities in terms of durability, resistance to rust, and the ability to keep a hard edge or point.