An onzil (or osele or musele) is a throwing knife of ethnic groups from eastern Gabon (Kota, Fang, Mbété).
Uses Looking like an axe, the onzil has a calao-shaped blade.Fernand Grébert, Le Gabon de Fernand Grébert, 1913-1932 - Page 91 Its handle, often made of wood, is covered with copper wire, iron or brass. Sometimes handles are made of ivory.Mémoire africaine The onzil served as sacrificial weapons or for war.Mary H Kingsley, West African Studies (1899), London, MacMillan, 1901 The Kotas called them osele or musele, and the Fang called them onzil. Early forms of this style knife, associated with the Fang people, had shorter straight handles. Kota people are neighbors of the Fang and likely from them adopted this style of knife.http://papke.med.ufl.edu/brian/Handfuls/V2%20Theo/chapter-8/1890-kota-bird-head.html
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Bibliography Jan Elsen, De fer et de fierté, Armes blanches d’Afrique noire du Musée Barbier-Mueller, 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2003, Louis Perrois, L'esprit de la forêt : terres du Gabon, 1997, p. 141 Manfred A.Zirngibl-Werner Fischer, Afrikanische Waffen
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