Smithsonian Libraries African Art Index Project DSI Search this
Type:
Articles
Maps
Place:
Burundi
Rwanda
Great Lakes Region (Africa)
Date:
1989
Notes:
Illustrations, maps, table.
The main purpose of this paper is to give a synthesis of the different techniques of iron ore reduction in the interlakes area of East Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, Buha) and a summary of the activities of blacksmiths. These techniques are regional bound to the degree that along the border zones some transition techniques can be observed. The techniques correspond to the limits of the borders of old kingdoms that existed before the kingdoms of Rwanda, Burundi, and Buha, which were still expanding at the end of the nineteenth century; the limits of the observed techniques are not related to the borders of these three kingdoms. The importance of metallurgy is attested by the use of iron symbols of power (hammers and spears), by the use of hoes for dowries or for barter. Blacksmiths were very respected; most of them were Hutus; some Pygmies forge iron, but they never smelt ore. -- original abstract.
