Finger Knife with Double Hook
Pokot, Kenya
Iron
Late 19th / early 20th century

This unusual finger knife, with two slightly-diverging hooks, is made from a single piece of iron, coiled into a ring at one end, and split at the other. Spring recorded that such weapons were used by the Pokot, Lango, Turkana, and Karamojong. Worn on the middle finger, they were also used as eating utensils. Totty suggests that the Pokot acquired these finger hooks from their northern Turkana neighbors, from whom they also acquired septum ornaments and rectangular shields. Spring described a Pokot chief who greeted subordinates by allowing them to touch the tip of his hook, while his equals were greeted with a handshake (Spring, African Arms & Armor, 1993; Totty, The People & District of West Suk, 1944).

An extremely similar example is in the collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, collected in 1922, and attributed to the Pokot (1922.12.6).

3 in :: 7.5 cm

InventoryID #13-2985

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