Maasai Rungu Club
The rungu is a short throwing club of the Maasai, a knobbed head on a tapering wooden shaft that herders and warriors carry as they move with their cattle. In the past the rungu was a practical weapon for defending livestock against predators and for settling disputes, thrown with a spin that drove the heavy knob home with force. Today it is still carried, but its main work is ceremonial and social: elders raise the rungu to command attention at meetings, and the club is a badge of authority for spokesmen and age-set leaders. Decorated rungu, carved with rings and bands and sometimes tipped wi