Spear; Segai; Lerumo

Item

Title

Spear; Segai; Lerumo

Creator

Unrecorded

Subject

Weapons

Description

Physical Description: Spear with a narrow leaf blade. The shank is squared and the sides are decorated with incised chevrons. The wooden shaft is attached to the blade with an iron spiral. The lower part of the shaft has three vertical bands of incised chevrons.
Contextual Description: rare because guns overtook in little of 19c, only other one NP has seen is ceremonial, this is functional. It is a throwing spear. Notes from Tshepo Skwambane and Neil Parsons initial visit to view objects, 2017

Publisher

Making African Connections

Date

Pre 1899

Type

PhysicalObject

Format

Whole: 1550 mm x 30 mm x 20 mm
Iron; Wood

Identifier

R4007/127

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.
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

Item sets