Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (3.1976/1979)

THE XHOSA SPADE

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Fig. 2. Wooden spades (from left to right) from
Nyaturu, (Ba)-Kalahari, Balante and Pogoro.
(After Baumann 252 Table V 1, 2, 6 and 8).
Holzspaten (von links nach rechts) der Nyaturu
(Ba)-Kalahari, Balante und Pogoro. (Nach
Baumann 252 Tafel V 1,2,6 und 8).



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Fig. 3. Wooden spades (from left to right) from
Wapogoro (East Africa), Galla (Africa) and
South-East Asia (from WertZ? 131 no. 7, 129 no. 5
and 130 no. 5).
Holzspaten aus Wapogoro (Ostafnka), Galla
(Afrika) und Siidostasien (Nach WertZ? 131 Nr. 7,
129 Nr. 5, und 130 Nr. 5).

Natal tribes” (Casalis 172). Fritsch also con-
trasts “die kleinen Schaufeln” of the Xhosa, of
which he unfortunately gives no diagram,
with the large hoes of the Tswana (Fritsch 87).
The iron hoe was also known among the Zulu.
For N. Isaacs, writing in the 1830s reports that
the Zulu melted iron and “made hoes of a
rather crude construction which were effec-
tive for their rather limited knowledge of hus-
bandry” (Isaacs 1970, 308).2 Reports from the
Ndebele, a Zulu tribe led by one of Shaka’s
generals, Mzilikazi, confirms that they then,
perhaps because they had in their early career
overrun many Sotho tribes, had already
“picks of native iron and native manufacture
with a blade as long as a man’s hand which
instead of an eye (like a European hoe) had a
shank (thorn) 8-10” long to pass through the
handle” (Kotze 128). The Ngoni of Central
Africa also knew how to manufacture the
pronged hoe (Read, 81; Barnes, 9). Recently
M. Shaw has reaffirmed the contrast between
the Nguni wooden tool (hoe) and the non-
Nguni iron hoe although she does not refer to

the spade (1974, 91). As I have shown, the
contrast was not absolute.
The wooden one-piece spade is also known
outside the Southeastern Bantu culture area.
The Kalahari have an oar-shaped spade
(Baumann 1944, 252, 272) and Vedder men-
tions the Damara (or Bergdama) digging stick
with a shovel-like end which is easily blunted;
it is used for gathering veldkos (Vedder 1923 I
39, 57ff). In 1928 Vedder refers only to a
pointed fire-hardened stick (Vedder 1928/
1966, 59) whereas Hahn talks of the simply
constructed (iron) hoe of the Ambo (Hahn
34). However Werth reporting his own obser-
vations, credits the Ambo with a spadoon
(Grabscheit) (Werth 128ff). The grubbing
stick used by the Bushmen whom Passarge
observed is called by him a Spatenstock; it is
spade-like, flattened at one end and is used by
men and women for various purposes
(Passarge 1907, 38, 40, 45, 68, 70, 79, only on
p. 92 ff with stone weight). Kraft mentions the
sharpened Grabstock of Bushmen and Dama-
ra which seems to be an unwarranted identifi-