Rare old shield ·  Togo / Benin, Tamberma (Batammaliba) · ID: 3047189

Description

rattan, grass fibre, leather,
In the mid-1980s, the well-known Afrrica traveller Gerd Chesi visited the towered loam castles of the Tamberma, living in the isolated Atacora Mountains in northern Togo and in the bordering regions of the Republic of
Benin.

He reported that these shields were used in often bloody ritual whip fights fought by young men of the “lifoni” society.

Comparing literature

Zirngibl, Manfred A. & Dieter Plaschke, Afrikanische Schilde, München 1992, p. 130