Item:
ON8847

Original Zulu War Knobkierie with Woven Wire Binding - Circa 1878

Item Description

Original Item: Only one available. Once the Battle is over, the victorious have the right to stroll the field looking for spoils to bring home to remind them of their Victory. England has been full of such items but sadly in years since WW2 most everything has gone.

This Zulu Knobkierie is a very fine example of clearly an important Zulu officer that no doubt some young trooper has found on the battle field that he then told all his friends that he had personally dealt with!

The club stands 33" overall length with a 3" ball to top, all cut from one solid piece of hardwood. The shaft is bound in four 2.5 sections with intricate fine interlaced copper and steel colored wire. There is one age crack in the ball confirming that this is almost certainly 150 years of age

or older.

Hard to believe that the Zulu Native warriors destroyed most of a Regiment (24th of Foot)

in 1879 being armed with clubs, spears and shields. Wonderfully recalled in the Movies ZULU and ZULU DAWN.

A Knobkierie, also spelled knobkerrie, knopkierie or knobkerry, is a form of club used mainly in Southern and Eastern Africa. Typically they have a large knob at one end and can be used for throwing at animals in hunting or for clubbing an enemy's head. The knobkierie is carved from a branch thick enough for the knob, with the rest being whittled down to create the shaft.

The name derives from the Afrikaans word knop, meaning knot or ball and the Nama (one of the Khoekhoe languages) word kierie, meaning cane or walking stick. The name has been extended to similar weapons used by the natives of Australia, the Pacific islands and other places.

Knobkieries were an indispensable weapon of war, particularly among southern Nguni tribes such as the Zulu (as the iwisa) and the Xhosa. Knobkieries was occasionally used during World War I. The weapon also being carried by British soldiers in Siegfried Sassoon's fictionalized autobiography.

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