Southern African Nguni Cowhide Shield in the Zulu Style

This is a Southern African shield of the Nguni type, traditionally associated with the Zulu or Swazi peoples. The item is of elliptical form, constructed from a single piece of black and white mottled cowhide with the hair left on. Two vertical columns of slits have been cut into the hide, through which contrasting strips of light-coloured hide are woven to secure the central wooden supporting staff. The reverse of the shield shows the untreated underside of the hide and the full length of the wooden staff. The staff is fitted with hide thong loops forming a handgrip, along with several decorative triangular hide tabs attached to the central wooden section. There are faint handwritten marks in pencil or ink on the reverse; near the bottom centre-left are the numbers 114 and below that 9/9. Towards the centre-right, there is a mark resembling a caret followed by AF. These notations likely represent previous dealer or inventory codes.