We offer for sale a rare Buckler (Hand Shield) of the Batammaliba tribe residing in the northern areas of Togo and Benin, just on the borders of Burkina Faso. This is basicly a defense shield used mainly against arrows but now also in use as a ceremonial artifact used in war dances and other ceremonies of the Batammaliba people. It is 11 inches in diameter, made of spiral canes wrapped with thin rattan fibers and reinforced with radial rattan strips. A spiral cane cone rises from the center of the shield covered with animal hide (probably a phallic symbol). For more details on this bucklers please see: Boucliers d’Afrique, d’asie, du Sud-Est et d’Oceanie du Musee Barbier-Mueller. p.36. Good condition. Two of the radial strips are missing and very few rattan fibers are broken.