Zulu shields

Posts : 19 Join date : 2011-08-27

Can anyone tell me where might be a good place to visit to see collections or displays of Zulu shields? I recently had the fortune to look at the collection stored in the vaults of the ROM in Toronto. Some beautiful pieces including one which was labelled as having been owned by Cetswayo himself. There is no provenance attached to this shield. It is one of the smaller sized shields. I was able to assist in the proper identification of some of the collection which had errors in the descriptions. The assegais and iwisas are not as spectacular as the shields. We have at the Royal Canadian Military Institute a large tribal weapons collection that was donated in 1936. The Zulu throwing spear and chief's iwisa are very ornately decorated and seemingly quite unique.
Andy

Subject: zulu shields Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:26 am

Hi intombe
Sorry , I cant think of anywhere , JY hopefully will see this he may know , Brecon Museum may have some but I'm not sure ?
90th Salute

Subject: Re: Zulu shields Sun Apr 10, 2016 9:46 am

Andy,

The KwaZulu Cultural Museum at Ondini, Ulundi is a good start.

The Eshowe Museum at Fort Nongqayi used to have a collection of shields, that said I haven't visited there since the 120th anniversary so things might have changed.

The Natal Museum, now renamed the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, again used to have a collection of Zulu weapons including shields, but I know pilfering has occurred there.

The still closed National Army Museum in Chelsea has a shield from the former Middlesex Regiment collection, that the 57th acquired from John Dunn that was attributed to King Cetshwayo. However, enquires made by the Zulu Royal House to see the shield have drawn a blank.

Most regimental museums with a Zulu War connection have the odd shield or weapon on display. Nottingham Castle has some weapons collected by John North Crealock, he obviously had to do something when he wasn't cooking the books or drawing!

John Y.

Posts : 19 Join date : 2011-08-27

Thanks for the info guys. I did visit the museum at Brecon two years ago and looked at their exhibits. I will keep looking.
Andy

Subject: Zulu Shields Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:02 pm

Hi intombe / JY
There weren't any shields from memory at Fort Nongqayi when I was there in 2014 .
JY is the Kwa Zulu Museum the old Durban natural history museum or similar named ? , I've never seen any Shields there the two times I've been scratch

.
90th

Subject: Re: Zulu shields Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:31 pm

Gary,

No the KwaZulu-Natal Museum is in PMB, it looks like an typically British museum transplanted into SA.

The museum at Fort Nongqayi used to hold a decent Zulu history section has that disappeared as well?

JY

Subject: zulu shields Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:22 pm

Hi JY
Thanks for clearing that up , there are still many Zulu items on hand at Ft Nongqayi , these are in large glass display cases , but I don't remember seeing any shields , certainly not many , if I saw one at all ? . I fly out on the 26th April to Durban .
Looking forward to it as you can imagine .
90th Salute

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