Rare prestige dagger with scabbard "omuele guosipika"

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Description

wood, copper sheet and wire,

The Ondonga are one of the eight great Ovambo tribes, a Bantu people inhabiting northern Namibia (Ovamboland) and southern Angola. They are famous in particular for the beauty of their - very rare - knives.

According to the Finnish missionary Martti Rautanen, who settled in 1870 in Ondonga territory, this type of prestigious knife was named “omuele guosipika”, and was the property of the king, who awarded it, like a military medal, to some senior men. When they died, they became royal property again.

According to Tönjes (1911), the unusual shape of the dagger sheath, which is reminiscent of a fish tail, is supposed to be a depiction of buffalo horns. A comparable knife published in Szalay, 1979, p. 114.

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Comparing literature

Szalay, Miklós, Die ethnographische Südwestafrika-Sammlung Hans Schinz 1884-1886, Zürich 1979

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