Arrow

Used for weapon in warfare and hunting, although guns were increasingly used in warfare. Hunting was often conducted by a hunting-class among the Chokwe; there was considerable social and religious prestige associated with hunting. Chokwe peoples conducted hunts communally, whether as a village or as a group of villages banded together as one group. Collective hunts, whether by the hunting-class or by a communal group, occurred during the spring and summer, when the grass was high. Collective hunters would divide into two groups: one would light grasslands aflame and drive animals downwind, the other would capture and kill the animals fleeing. Individual hunting was also a profession. A professional hunter, known as a chianga or nyanga, would often be a small farmer in the off season. Hunters make their own arrow shafts with feathers; points are made by village blacksmith. Arrows are carried into field in a quiver of skin or woven basketwork. Arrow would have been used with bow taller than a person.

The collector, Nellie Taylor, served as a nursing missionary (1900-1920), first with the Ovimbundu at Bihe, then with the Chokwe at luma Kasai. She belonged to a group who sponsored several missions across Central Africa from 1881-1931.

Hunting

Whipping around end of feather attaches feathers to shaft as well as prevents the archer from cutting themselves on the feathers; whipping underneath self-nock prevents shaft from splitting past fibre if arrow is shot incorrectly.

Yellow brown wood shaft that has one end inserted with tang of metal arrowhead then tightly lashed with fibre and one long section followed by shorter one further up shaft. All lashing winds around circumference, always touching, never overlapping. Tang section below head, slightly bulbous. Head composed of two long wide barbs, one on each side curving forward. Head has small point. Shaft's butt end is notched and whipped with fibre. Short cut pieces of a dark brown feather and fibre-lashed vertically around shaft's circumference.