TOPOKE LIGANDA CURRENCY ARCHIVES, DRC

These pieces of currency have all been sold. For educational and reference purposes please visit our archive page:

Forms like these iron shaped "weapons" and blades were recognized and used by the Topoke people as a bride price. They are called Liganda and range in size from the dihunga (59" x 9.5") to an unnamed size (64" x 12') to the doa (69" x 14"). They were used well into the middle of the 20th century. Ours are all embossed with a number of parallel lines close to the left edge, which shows through on the other side as well.

They are much too thin to have ever been intended as functional weapons and are not sharp.

-Digital library of Georgia, Tubman African-American Museum