Hand Crafted Ethnic African Candle

Candle Size:
Height: 13 ½ inches
Width: 2 ½ inches
Length: 13 ½ inches

This candle is depicting a Zulu warrior with his spear and shield.

The whole disk is the candle, when lit it burns down the center leaving two wings, thus the candle is known as an angle wing candle. The candle has a bronze finish and comes boxed with the stand underneath.

About a Zulu Warrior

Shaka revolutionized contemporary Black warfare by introducing the short stabbing spear to enforce fighting at close combat. This method proved to be so effective that the Zulus were still using it sixty years later in the war against the British.

The Zulu military had come of age in 1818 during the reign of King Shaka who provided a new organization, strategy and tactics. By 1879, when the Zulu War began, it had become a formidable opponent in the field. The basic unit of the Zulu army was the regiment or ibutho which was formed from young males of a common age group. Warriors ranged in age from 20 to 40 years. Regimental size varied from 500 to 2000 men. Each regiment was given a unique name meant to characterize its qualities and serve as a source of esprit de corps. uMbonambi means “the Evil Omen.”

The regiments were identified by the color and markings of their shields. To understand the appearance of the Zulu warrior it is important to know that they were a pastoral people whose economy was based upon cattle. Once a regiment had been formed, it was assigned its own herd that had matching hides symbolic of that regiment. These hides provided the necessary color-coded shields. The age and experience of the warrior was also symbolized by color. A new young regiment would have black shields while the older more experienced ones had white. The bull or cowhide after cleaning and curing provided the skin for two shields. The shields varied in size but by 1879 the most popular size was 40 inches high by 20 inches wide. The shield pictured here is referred to as the amalunga style or black with white markings. White strips and slits, amagabele, arranged in rows down the center of the shield are both decorative and functional, providing a lacing that secured the hide to the shield pole. The top of the pole is decorated with tails of the genet (a cat-like animal) wrapped around it. This decoration was meant to distract the enemy by its movement. The other end of the pole was often sharpened to serve as a secondary piercing weapon in combat.

There were 2 types of spear carried by the Zulu warrior: a lightweight throwing spear and a heftier stabbing spear called an assegai characterized by a wider iron blade. The uMbonambi figure above is carrying one of these stabbing spears. The Zulus were trained to make very effective use of the shield and assegai as mutually supporting weapons in close hand-to-hand combat. Some Zulus carried a wooden club known as a knobkerrie and others had firearms obtained from traders or picked up on the battlefield.