THE ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS. 1 



[With 1 plate. 1 



By Henkt Balfour, M. A. 



Considerable interest has been aroused in the discovery, now many 

 years old, of crossbows in certain parts of western Africa, amid con- 

 ditions of primitive culture; and the fact has given rise amongst 

 ethnologists to speculation as to how a somewhat specialized weapon 

 of this kind, which does not belong at all to African culture in gen- 

 eral, has come to be adopted by uncivilized tribes in a restricted por- 

 tion of the African continent. The range of the crossbow in Africa 

 is very limited and more or less connected, and its isolation is a 

 noteworthy feature. 



To account for the presence of the crossbow in West Africa as an 

 article of native manufacture and use, two alternatives are, of course, 

 open to us. It must either be indigenous and have been evolved by 

 the natives themselves, or its prototype must have been introduced 

 from some foreign source. Paul du Chaillu, who recorded the use 

 of a crossbow amongst the Ba-fan in 1861, 2 and who brought home 

 specimens, two of which are now in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Ox- 

 ford', does not offer any suggestions as to its origin, and is content 

 with a description of its use. Sir Richard F. Burton, 3 on the other 

 hand, in referring to the nayin (the native name of the crossbow 

 among the Mpongwe of the lower Gaboon), describes it as "peculiar 

 to this people and probably a native invention, not borrowed, as 

 might be supposed, from Europe." The contrary opinion is, how- 

 ever, held by most modern ethnologists, and there seems to be but 

 little doubt that the theory of the exotic origin of the West African 

 crossbow is correct. There are probably few nowadays who seriously 

 maintain that the weapon is either indigenous or of any considerable 

 antiquity in the region. At the same time, the details in regard to 

 the source whence it was derived do not appear to have been dis- 

 cussed, and I venture to bring forward some evidence of a very sug- 

 gestive kind. 



1 Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the African Society, London ; No. 32, 

 vol. 8, July, 1909. 



- Explor. in Equatorial Africa, 1861, pp. 77, 78. 

 3 Gorilla Land, 1876, vol. 1, p. 207. 



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