African Weapons & Tools

The smith, in Dogon and Senufo belief, kept a private understanding with fire. African weapons and tools are forged in iron, wood and brass. Throwing knives from the Kirdi and Sara of northern Cameroon and Chad branch into blades meant to spin through the air; Kuba ceremonial knives from the Congo and Tuareg takouba swords from the Sahara were carried as much for status as for use. Dogon and Senufo smiths forged hoes, adzes and ritual blades; Lobi, Mbole and Yoruba pieces add axes, staffs and iron implements of initiation and divination. Prehistoric knapped stone blades from Kenya reach back to the Oldowan and Acheulean.

The iron is hand-hammered and dark, the hafts worn smooth, and many have the graphic economy of modern sculpture. Mounted in a row on a wall or on slim steel armatures in a study, they read as pure silhouette. Smiths, it seems, knew about line.