Weapons & Warriors: The Tomahawk of the Native Americans

Art by TL Jeffcoat

This little axe is so dynamic that it is still used in the modern American militaryand is currently issued to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many military vehicles have Tomahawks for use in case of emergencies. The original design and concept of the Tomahawk was purely for combat, but the Native Americans were never ones for wasting anything and made use of the Tomahawk for a variety of tasks. They can chop wood, hammer stakes, and perform other survivalist tasks.

The main difference between a Tomahawk and other axes is the weight. In Europe, axes made for combat were generally large. Even the one handed axes had heavier blades and were meant to strike with the weight to add to the blow. They used their weight and momentum to damage armor or dismember opponents. The tomahawk was built for speed. Instead of weight, it relies on its speed to strike faster and with more control. The momentum of greater speeds gives the tomahawk equal deadly force with every strike as any European hand ax against an unarmored part of the body

Weapons & Warriors: The Kpinga of the Zande Warrior

This is one of my most favorite throwing weapons in the entire world. It only serves one purpose, to kill or maim. The Kpinga was engineered to do it better than any other throwing weapon ever made. It is basically a perfectly crafted giant throwing knife. Unlike your standard throwing knife, the Kpinga actually has multiple blades at different angles so that once thrown, there was always at least one razor edge pointing at the target no matter what part of the spinning rotation it was in.

Many African tribes used this weapon in battle, and it had many names, but the Azande people called it the Kpinga. Another name it is known as is Hunga Munga, which is on of its more popular aliases. I can imagine that name may be as descriptive as any name as to what inspired the shape and design of at least one of the blades. Just look at the picture and you’ll know what I mean. It’s okay; I’ll give you a moment to pull your mind out of the gutter. Have your eyes shrunk back to their normal size yet? Good, let’s move on.