Spear; Segai; Lerumo
Item
Title
Spear; Segai; Lerumo
Creator
Unrecorded
Subject
Weapons
Description
Physical Description: A spear with a blunt, narrow leaf blade made of iron. This blade is attached to the wooden shaft with a band of interlaced brass wire. There is a hide band near the bottom of the shaft.
Contextual Description: 02:51:10 SL: I asked the crazy question ‘what were the spears used for?’ and he said, ‘those were like our guns.’…You go out, if you are hunting you have dogs, a pack of dogs, they corner the animal, surround it then it doesn’t move anywhere, you get closer and you pick the vital spot, which was mostly underneath their fore arm, fore leg and you get it by, you know, cut across the heart, you see those guys falling down and the feet going upwards and then you know that the family pot is going to be full and greasy on the side. Transcription by KL of MAC_BB_20190817_RPM3 SL Interview with Tshupo Ntono, Village Elder, Language: Setswana with English translations by SL, 2019
Publisher
Making African Connections
Date
Pre 1899
Type
PhysicalObject
Format
whole: 1090 mm x 30 mm x 20 mm
Wood; Iron; Brass
Identifier
R4007/119
Source
Collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a Christian missionary, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate (1885-1966). It is now the Republic of Botswana, having gained independence from Britain in 1966.
From 1889-92 Willoughby was pastor at Union Street Church, Brighton (now The Font pub). From 1893 to 1898 he worked for the London Missionary Society in Bechuanaland. He assembled this collection of objects during this period. This was a period of social and technological changes and these objects represent traditional lifestyles and skills, rather than the contemporary lives of the people Willoughby met.
Willoughby's collection was loaned to Brighton Museum in 1899 when he returned to the UK. The loan was converted into a donation in 1936, and accessioned as acquisition R4007.
Some objects were re-numbered with the WA (World Art) numbering system in the 2000s. These numbers have been reverted to the original R4007/... numbers where possible for consistency in 2019.
This object was on display in the exhibition 'Missionary Collectors' in the James Green Gallery of World Art, from July 2004 to January 2005.
From 1889-92 Willoughby was pastor at Union Street Church, Brighton (now The Font pub). From 1893 to 1898 he worked for the London Missionary Society in Bechuanaland. He assembled this collection of objects during this period. This was a period of social and technological changes and these objects represent traditional lifestyles and skills, rather than the contemporary lives of the people Willoughby met.
Willoughby's collection was loaned to Brighton Museum in 1899 when he returned to the UK. The loan was converted into a donation in 1936, and accessioned as acquisition R4007.
Some objects were re-numbered with the WA (World Art) numbering system in the 2000s. These numbers have been reverted to the original R4007/... numbers where possible for consistency in 2019.
This object was on display in the exhibition 'Missionary Collectors' in the James Green Gallery of World Art, from July 2004 to January 2005.
William Charles Willoughby
Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
1893-1898
Space/Place
Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
Cultural Group: Tswana
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International