FINE MANGBETU CANNIBAL’S SPEAR

19th century. 14 5/8” length, finely forged with elongated section leaf-shaped point. Finely forged hexagonal section socket with alternating forged and bright polished surfaces in chevron patterns and uniform tool finish. As with most Congolese tribes, the Mangbetu were slavers in East African trade which supplied the Arab countries, South America and the flesh market. That last, flesh for human consumption, had largely been ignored but for a few accounts like Glave. Recent anthropological studies assisted by the wealth of information compiled on the internet document a much greater proportion of the slave harvest to the cannibalism market. The Mangbetu specifically, are noted to be cannibals during the period