Tanzania blacksmith clan forge ahead

A saliva-charcoal liquid can help weld pieces of metal together


Twenty-year-old Tanzanian blacksmith Samweli Kangaga chews a piece of charcoal to create a saliva-charcoal liquid that he will use to join two pieces of metal.
It may seem like an old-fashioned story of alchemy, but it is a technique which has been passed down generations of the Wahunzi clan of blacksmiths living in the remote rural town of Haydom in northern Tanzania.
The liquid charcoal is spat onto a stone; a red hot piece of metal is extracted from the fire and hammered into the spit creating a tiny explosion, which signifies the welding of two pieces of metal.
"I learnt this from my father and he was taught by his father," says Samweli Kangaga. "It takes a lot of skill and I am still learning. This is a good way to join two pieces of metal."
Little has changed in hundreds of years for the Wahunzi blacksmiths. Their workshop is a shady spot under a qalelend thorn tree; bellows made from cow hide provide oxygen to keep the charcoal fire hot and it is this fire which is used to smelt the metal.