It was my love and understanding of world weapons and culture that sparked a desire for me to properly understand African weapons and culture. My somewhat tenacious studies of African arms have been strenuous, enduring six years. The radical complexity that one encounters involving African weapons are not encountered with weapons from many other cultures. This is spawned from the flux of artistically expressive ceremonial weapons commonly seen in most publications (books or the internet) and auction houses rather than functional examples. African weapons can be separated into three basic categories: functional utility, functional expressive, and ceremonial weapons.