onzil
{{Redirect|Osele|the Italian badminton player|Lukas Osele}}
An onzil (or osele or musele) is a throwing knife of ethnic groups from eastern Gabon (Kota, Fang, Mbété).
Uses
Looking like an axe, the onzil has a calao-shaped blade.Fernand Grébert, Le Gabon de Fernand Grébert, 1913-1932 - Page 91 Its handle, often made of wood, is covered with copper wire, iron or brass. Sometimes handles are made of ivory.[http://www.memoire-africaine.com/zooms/zoom-onzil.html Mémoire africaine] The onzil served as sacrificial weapons or for war.Mary H Kingsley, West African Studies (1899), London, MacMillan, 1901 The Kotas called them osele or musele, and the Fang called them onzil. Early forms of this style knife, associated with the Fang people, had shorter straight handles. Kota people are neighbors of the Fang and likely from them adopted this style of knife.http://papke.med.ufl.edu/brian/Handfuls/V2%20Theo/chapter-8/1890-kota-bird-head.html {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}
Gallery
COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Metalen werpmes TMnr 5938-2.jpg|Classical onzil
Kota Onzil Axe.svg|Rare fish shaped onzil
Bibliography
- Jan Elsen, De fer et de fierté, Armes blanches d’Afrique noire du Musée Barbier-Mueller, 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2003, {{ISBN|88-7439-085-8}}
- Louis Perrois, L'esprit de la forêt : terres du Gabon, 1997, p. 141
- Manfred A.Zirngibl-Werner Fischer, Afrikanische Waffen