Rare old shield

rattan, grass fibre, leather,
In the mid-1980s, the well-known Afrrica traveller Gerd Chesi visited the towered loam castles of the Tamberma, living in the isolated Atacora Mountains in northern Togo and in the bordering regions of the Republic of
Benin.

He reported that these shields were used in often bloody ritual whip fights fought by young men of the "lifoni" society.