Gentlemen,

I'm the Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 137 here Fredericksburg and just returned from Wood Badge training.

There, I learned that Boy Scout Founder (and big game hunter and war hero) Robert Baden Powell use to use a kudu horn to call Boy Scouts to attention (see below). I thought it’d be fun if our Troop got a kudu horn for this purpose.

Does anyone have a “spare” kudu horn anywhere?

It doesn’t have to be big, just big enough to drill a hole into in order to make it into a “horn” horn.

I can't pay you for the horn but can offer to pay for shipping...Let me rephrase...the Troop can pay for shipping.

Thanks for the consideration!


The Kudu Horn was used to summons the very first scouts at Brownsea Island in 1907.
As a Colonel in Africa in 1896, the Kudu Horn was first identified by Lord Baden Powell, as he and his men were on a raid down the Shangani (SHAN-GAH-NEE) river, and were puzzled at how quickly alarm was spread among the Matabele warriors. They later found that the Matabele were using a War Horn of tremendous sound carrying power. A code existed, and as soon as the enemy was sighted the alarm would be sounded. This war horn, turned out to be the KUDU HORN.
It is strange that some eleven years later, in 1907, this Matabele war horn would be used to summons the very first Scouts at Brownsea Island.

Gayne, there are plenty of them listed on Ebay for sale from around 25.00 to 50.00, depending on size. The seller is based in Florida. Hope this helps.

That's correct. When I was chosen to be the Scoutmaster for a Wood Badge course years ago, I ordered a Kudu horn online and had it shipped to me. I then had someone carefully drill a hole in the horn down a number of inches from the tip end and bevel it out so it could be blown and used to gather the troop at assembly each morning. I also made a nice tooled leather strap with I believe, the words WOOD BADGE SCOUTMASTER,and my name, among other things, and attached it to both ends of the horn. It turned out great. If I can locate it in the house, I'll take a couple of pics and post. Good luck!

The story of the Scout movement's partial African origins, including the kudu horn of Baden-Powell's and Frederick Russell Burnham's involvement was covered in the September issue of MAN Magnum Magazine by I J Larivers. Might be worth having to go with the horn. I subscribe so not sure but you could probably get an e copy from mail@manmagnum.Co. za

As a new assistant scoutmaster, I have to say that this sounds quite interesting. I think I'll propose it to our committee and pursue it as well. Thanks for bringing this up.

Here are some pics of my Wood Badge Scoutmaster Kudu Horn. Note: You do not need a really long horn. Shorter is easier to blow and handle, and you are not trying to impress anyone about the length of the horn. Our Jewish friends use the Kudu horn as a Shofar, substituting it for a ram's horn, and a ram's horn is short: The beads are African trade beads that I added to spice it up a little. Hopes this helps you Scouters/Wood Badgers out there! By the way IJ Larivers, who is the editor of African Hunter Magazine as well, is originally from Reno, Nevada. He has lived in Zimbabwe for over 30+ years.

I have one.

Jeff

Thanks for all the input guys. Use enough gu's looks great!
Bwana, PM me please!

..are you still doing the podcasts with Boddington? I enjoyed those and was looking forward to more.

Sorry for the thread hijack...

Thanks for the compliment.
Craig and I had fun but the company that sponsored us went bye bye