Fist shield, from Kenya, small ovate piece of hide with wooden twig handgrip stitched on with sinew. Two wooden bridges hold the hand grip away from the shield. A design on the face is made by removing the top layer of the hide. It is possible that this is a model of a body shield and not a fist shield.
Community Commentary by Njeri Gachihi within research project: 'Rethinking Relationships and Building Trust Around African Collections' 2021: Talking to a number of people from Luhya, they all denounced this object as belonging to them. They quickly said that this was shield belonging to the Sabaot community of Mt. Elgon. The Sabaot are a subgroup of the Kalenjins, a highland Nilotes subgroup of Kenya occupying the Rift Valley. The Sabaot neighbour the Luhya, a Bantu subgroup in Western Kenya, and they even share a county known as Bungoma. This hence could be an object shared by both communities but probably originally from the Sabaot. They are made from a rhino skin that it’s so hard for the spear to penetrate.
fighting
