Description: I have for sale a GENUINE antique African SLAVE BRACELET or "Manilla" Manillas are a form of commodity money, usually made of bronze or copper, which were used in West Africa They were produced in large numbers in a wide range of designs, sizes, & weights Originating before the colonial period, perhaps as the result of trade with the Portuguese Empire, manillas continued to serve as money & decorative objects until the late 1940s & are still sometimes used as decoration on arms, legs & around the neck In popular culture, they are particularly associated with the Atlantic slave trade Origins & etymology The name manilla is said to derive from the Spanish for a 'bracelet' manilla, the Portuguese for 'hand-ring' manilha, or after the Latin manus (hand) or from monilia, plural of 'monile (necklace) They are usually horseshoe-shaped, with terminations that face each other & are roughly lozenge-shaped The earliest use of manillas was in West Africa As a means of exchange they originated in Calabar Calabar was the chief city of the ancient southeast Nigerian coastal kingdom of that name It was here in 1505 that a slave could be bought for 8–10 manillas, & an elephant’s tooth for one copper manila Manillas bear some resemblance to torcs in being rigid & circular & open-ended at the front Africans of each region had names for each variety of manilla, probably varying locally. They valued them differently, & were very particular about the types they would accept Manillas were partly differentiated & valued by the sound they made when struck A report by the British Consul of Fernando Po in 1856 listed 5 different patterns of manillas in use in Nigeria. The Antony Manilla was good in all interior markets; the Congo Simgolo or 'bottle-necked' was good only at Opungo market; the Onadoo was best for Old Calabar, Igbo country between Bonny New Kalabari & the kingdom of Okrika; the Finniman Fawfinna was passable in Juju Town & Qua Market, but only half the worth of the Antony; & the Cutta Antony was valued by the people at Umballa. The proliferation of African names is probably due more to regional customs than actual manufacturing specialization. The 'Mkporo' is likely a Dutch or British manilla & the 'Popo' is French, but the rest are examples of a single evolving Birmingham product An important hoard had a group of 72 pieces with similar patination & soil crusting, suggesting common burial. There were 7 Mkporo; 19 Nkobnkob-round foot; 9 Nkobnkob-oval foot; & 37 Popo-square foot The lightest 'Nkobnkobs' in the hoard were 108 gm & 114 gm, while they are routinely found (called Onoudu) under 80 gm, this implies that the group was buried at a certain point in the size devolution of the manilla. Mkporo are made of brass The weight correspondence of the oval-foot Nkobnkob with the high end of the round-foot range suggests that it is either the earlier variety, or contemporary with the earliest round-foots. The exclusive presence of the 'square-foot' variety of French Popo, normally scarce among circulation groups of Popos, suggests that this is the earliest variety The earliest French manillas as likely to be contemporaries of the earliest British pieces Sometimes distinguished from manillas mainly by their wearability are a large number of regional types called 'Bracelet' monies & 'Legband' monies Some are fairly uniform in size & weight & served as monies of account like manillas, but others were actually worn as wealth display The less-well-off would mimic the movements of the 'better-off' who were so encumbered by the weight of manillas that they moved in a very characteristic way The larger manillas had a much more open shape New Zealand residents FREE NZPO Courier delivery anywhere in New Zealand 🙂 But SORRY but you pay GST @15% on purchase price 🙁 Because we must PAY GST on all locally-delivered eBay sales 🙁 A GST receipt will be provided if requested at time of payment Track Page Views With Auctiva's FREE Counter
Price: 145 USD
Location: Auckland (aprox. 12,000 "clicks" from USA)
End Time: 2024-11-21T03:30:01.000Z
Shipping Cost: 21.9 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Color: Bronze
Original/Reproduction: Original
Material: Bronze
Maker: British Slave Traders
