The Swords of the Zande Empire in the Congo - Swords of Africa an African Weapons History

Weapons in Africa with their great varieties and fearsome power are an amazing part of African history, especially in the Congo rainforest. African swords were not only tools great strength in combat but also imaginative works of art. Each sword design is both interesting aesthetically and most likely very effective tools for fighting. The blades are typically made of iron, but can be made of other metals as well. The weapons we'll see today are from Central Africa, specifically the country of the Democratic Republic of Congo which is the larger of the two Congos. These Congo swords we are looking at in this video come from the Azande people A.K.A Zande people. Other alternative names for them include Asande, Zandi, Pazande, Sande, and Badjande. The Zande kingdom grew to become a powerful empire and they did so with a variety of weapons including spears which they called the Baso, throwing knives which were called Kpinga and swords known as the Mambele. We will discuss these Congolese swords from a historical and cultural perspective.
This video also features on the neighbors peoples of the Azande such as the Boa, Angba, Mangbetu and others.
Plus, if you are a fan of things like Final Fantasy 7 and Star Wars you are in for a treat because we compare the African weapons featured in the video to the weapons of Final Fantasy and the Star War's light sabers.
If you enjoy learning about African history, culture, and art, be sure to stay tuned to the Red Spirit Mask channel. Africa is a big place and has a lot of cool weapons and we have other African weapon videos as well and there's more to come!
#Swords #Africanweapons #RedSpiritMask
The educational sources for this video will be posted at a later date on the Red Spirit Mask Facebook.
/ redspiritmask
The following information is regarding the attribution of the music that plays in this video.
"Duel of the Fates" by First Congregational Church of LA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: • "Duel of the Fates"
Artist: incompetech.com/

[@jerrynkumu]

As a Congolese myself, designer and fan of both FF and SW I’m impressed by your quality of research and your devotion. thanks for this 😉

[@redspiritmask]

That's awesome! I'm always happy to hear from viewers that come from the countries I'm talking about. Thanks for commenting my friend. By the way, which Final Fantasy and Star Wars are your favorites in the serieses? For me I grew up with FF4 so I love that old game and as for SW its a harder choice to make but definitely one from the original trilogy, I think I'll go with A New Hope.

[@jerrynkumu]

@@redspiritmask FF9 my all time favorite. As far as Star Wars it’s « Empire Strikes Back » Cheers 😉

[@emmanuelmorris7653]

I could see Maul using that sword. And thank you for that Outlaw star reference.

[@redspiritmask]

Hell yeah my friend, Outlaw Star is one of my favorites animes!

[@Smitty753]

Thank you for saying that most black characters have electric abilities in all forms of media my friends and I said this in high school. I got cussed out on Twitter for saying the same thing you said and people try to argue with me lol. Still I would like to see some form of the Shango TV comic or video game series because his abilities are just farther than Electric

[@redspiritmask]

Oh for sure Shango could make for a great main character in a videogame. That'd be cool.

[@omar1545]

Huh all jokes aside I never realized how many black electric powered people there are hell even miles morales Spider-Man has some kinds bio electric control pretty cool.

[@Gwagia]

Have ya'll seen the show Static Shock. Soooo good deserved more seasons. Same thing but takes to to the next step with magnatism aswell, but like electromagnetism not like Magneto.

[@WynnofThule]

You opened with some BARS!

[@redspiritmask]

😀 Thanks always glad to see that people enjoy the extra effort I put into these videos

[@stantonlance4615]

A curved sword with a hook could be used against shield walls by trapping a spear shaft with the curve, and hooking to pull shields out of alignment to make openings for spear thrusts.

[@redspiritmask]

You are correct. I recall some curved African swords being used for that purpose.

[@JohnFrancisWasi-ip7sp]

As a zande in south sudan 🇸🇸 ❤❤❤

[@redspiritmask]

That's awesome! I'm very happy that you approve of the video \(●‿●)/

[@freedoo69]

All those s sword can be found in neighboring countries due to trade. We (central African republics and Congolese) used to trade a lot.

[@redspiritmask]

Yep you are correct about the trade situation and if I remember correctly in addition to that some Blacksmiths even traveled around parts of Central Africa which further spread their sword forms.

[@frogmad13]

Thank You for the fun info. I love learning about swords and other weapons.

[@redspiritmask]

Thanks for watching and enjoying the show. ∩(︶▽︶)∩

[@FromNothing]

Wow that double bladed sword though... Never seen it before.

[@paradyne1T101]

Nice rap at the Beginning and end of video

[@redspiritmask]

Thanks Paradyne! I actually made that sorta last minute because when this video still included the larger Mangbetu half of the script, I had a completely different intro and ending.

[@Gwagia]

That first one just looks like a Xiphos with some extra steps. I love it.

[@ibrahimsuleiman8473]

Thank you for this.

[@redspiritmask]

I'm happy you liked the video. These sword videos take a lot of time to make.

[@shadowconvoy]

Great info on your page. SUBSCRIBED

[@redspiritmask]

Thanks for subscribing! :D

[@theafricantriforce8878]

Thank you for what you are doing!

[@redspiritmask]

No problem my friend, I'm glad people like my work. By the way, since you're a fellow Zelda fan, I'll let you know that eventually I hope to do a video discussing my opinions on all of the masks in Majora's Mask. I know other KZbinrs have done that kind of video before but I feel like mine will be unique enough. Anyway, not sure when that will be, honestly I've been thinking to do a video like that for years lol. But eventually it will happen.

[@theafricantriforce8878]

@@redspiritmask I can't wait to see it!👍

[@KenKwameWrites]

I may use this vid as a reference later on!

[@redspiritmask]

Sounds good to me, thanks for watching. Oh and I checked out your channel, looks interesting so I subscribed.

[@KenKwameWrites]

@@redspiritmask Thanks! :)

[@emmanuelmorris7653]

the Aruwimi is probably my favorite.

[@redspiritmask]

Nice choice! 😄 Supposedly the only way we'll likely ever figure out exactly where the sword comes from is if the etched in designs on the blade can be matched with a particular culture's designs and patterns. Which obviously hasn't happened yet. I personally think another option exist though which is simply to have more archeological digs in Africa. I might have said this in a video before but it bares repeating. Sub-Saharan Africa really does not get enough attention from archeologist. For every ton of dirt excavated in Egypt, only about a teaspoon is dug in the rest of the continent.

[@Pablo-nb8ws]

En algun lugar del Congo se practica la esgrima con esa espada? Buen video mi amigo

[@redspiritmask]

Hola Pablo. Gracias por ver el vídeo. Estoy utilizando un programa de traducción para escribir esto porque no hablo español. Así que espero que mi mensaje se entienda y sea comprensible. Para responder a tu pregunta, todas estas espadas en este video en particular provienen del noreste del Congo. Algunas espadas africanas se utilizaban en combate, mientras que otras se usaban sólo en ceremonias o se utilizaban como símbolos de estatus. La mayoría de las espadas del vídeo de hoy se utilizaban en combate, excepto la espada de cobre de dos caras que se muestra. Esa era un arma ceremonial según mis fuentes. En tiempos históricos, los africanos practicaban el uso de sus armas, incluida la esgrima, como has preguntado. Aunque en nuestros tiempos modernos del siglo XXI, la mayoría de los soldados africanos utilizan armas de fuego en el combate. Sin embargo, algunos pueblos africanos siguen practicando formas históricas de combate por deporte. Así que es posible que algunos africanos sigan practicando hasta hoy la esgrima con espada. Gracias de nuevo por su comentario. Espero que todo lo que he dicho se haya traducido correctamente.

[@elshebactm6769]

👍🏿🤠👍🏿

[@redspiritmask]

Thanks ⚔️😁⚔️

[@blaf55]

i tought the trowing knife is called Bwaka

[@redspiritmask]

African throwing knives come in many varieties and are made by multiple cultures. each culture gives their knives different names. So the knives have many names depending on who made them