Shoka
| Shoka | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Information | |
| Weapon type: | Axe |
| Designations: | Soka |
| Use: | Weapon, traditional weapon |
| Working time: | til today |
| Region of origin / author: |
Kingdom of the Congo , ethnic groups around Lake Tanganyika |
| Distribution: | Republic of the Congo |
| Blade length: | Top side approx. 19 cm, side cutting 9 cm each. |
| Handle: | Wood, metal |
| Lists on the subject | |
The Shoka (also Soka , swahili for ax) is an African battle ax that was used by the tribes around Lake Tanganyika in the former Kingdom of the Congo , now the Republic of the Congo .
history
The Shoka was designed as an agricultural implement. It was made in the Kasongo area south of Lake Tanganyika, today's Republic of the Congo. The original tool was later used as a battle ax.
description
It resembles a hatchet used by the tribes to work, also called a shoka . However, its blade is made a little longer and thinner than the blade of the tool. The stem is thick and club-shaped at the front end of the head. At the end of the handle it is thinner and the end of the handle is tapered. The blade is triangular and the edges are rather blunt. The leaf is attached to the handle with an iron tang. The top of the blade is about 19 cm long, the length of the cutting edges each about 9 cm.
See also
literature
- George Cameron Stone , Donald J. LaRocca, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times , Courier Dover Publications, 1999, ISBN 978-0-486-40726-5 pp. 562 [1]
- Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, Lawson Forfeitt, Emil Torday, George Grenfell and the Congo: a history and description of the Congo Independent State and adjoining districts of Congoland, together with some account of the native peoples and their languages, the fauna and flora; and similar notes on the Cameroons and the island of Fernando Pô, the…, Volume 1 , Verlag Hutchinson & Co., 1908
- Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London , Volume 29, J. Murray, 1859, p. 380.
- Carl Gösta Widstrand, African axes, Volume 15 of Studia ethnographica Upsaliensia , Verlag Almqvist & Wiksell, 1958, page 93
- Diagram Group, The New Weapons of the World Encyclopedia: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 BC to the 21st Century , St. Martin's Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-312-36832-6