CONGOLESE SLAVER’S SPEAR, SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY

Collected by Methodist Missionaries (Methodist Missionary Society) and circulated among churches in England on Mission Sunday to raise money for the missions. 61” length. Made in three pieces with medially ridged elongated leaf shape head with butted seam conical. Matching spike form iron base piece and wood haft with faceted swell below transverse carved motifs and three segments of iron tape wrap. The tape wrap is European, traded in the coastal slave markets. As well as decorative, the wrap and swell served to position the hands in combat when eyes must be focused on the adversaries. Tribal war at the time served the sole purpose of providing captives for the slave market.