Bouclier ·  Kenya, Chagga (aussi Dschagga, Tschagga, Waschagga) / Masai · ID: 3052303

Description

buffalo hide, colour pigments (red and black), wood (carrying stick),

Hans Heinrich Josef Meyer was born on March 22, 1858, in Hildburghausen. He came from the Meyer family, renowned as the publishers of Meyer’s Encyclopaedia.

Meyer studied German philology, history, political science, ethnology, and botany in Leipzig, Berlin, and Strasbourg. After completing his doctorate, he took over the family publishing house in 1884 together with his brother Arndt, focusing especially on geography. In 1882 he had already undertaken a two-year journey to East Asia and North America; the family’s wealth enabled him to finance further research expeditions on his own.

In 1887, he travelled to East Africa and began the scientific exploration of the Kilimanjaro region. Here he encountered Chief Marealle of Marangu, who in the 1890s became the most powerful “mangi” (ruler) of the eastern Kilimanjaro region. He was called “Kilamia, the Conqueror.”

To secure Marealle’s support for climbing and exploring Kilimanjaro, Meyer presented him with gifts. This was also the case during his third Kilimanjaro expedition in late summer 1889, which he described in detail in his book “Ost-Afrikanische Gletscherfahrten” (East African Glacier Journeys) published in 1890: “Marealle himself came to the camp every day with his entourage and was deeply moved when I finally fulfilled his dearest wish and gave him not only one of my Berlin tin suitcases, but also a European woollen suit with lace-up boots, a lantern, a large enamel washbowl…”. “In return, Marealle presented me with a Dschagga shield carefully painted with Maasai patterns and a spear of no less beauty, which I had seen him forge several times myself.” (ibid., p. 225).

The mentioned Chagga shield refers to the piece offered here.

The collections of the Weltmuseum Wien include two other Massai shields of similar size, which the Austrian African explorer Oskar Baumann, companion of Hans Meyer on his second East Africa expedition, brought back from one of his journeys.

Littérature comparée

Barbier, Jean Paul & Purissima Benitez-Johannot, Shields, Munich, London, New York 2000, p. 118 f.

Publications

AHDRC: 0075245