Is this African????????

[hulksmashyou]

Its only 5ft long. Metal spear tip with heavy wood carved.

[Hoss]

Hulksmashyou I moved this over to international artifacts for you. Not sure what it is myself but if it is African you will get a quicker response in this section for this type of item.
From the welds it does not appear old to me. However I have been wrong before. In this section our International Moderator "Painshill" will get a better chance to see it.
Thanks and  :welcome: to arrowheads.com

[painshill]

I doubt that it's African in the sense that you are asking the question. It's a whaling harpoon! Depending on the size it might also have been used to catch smaller sea mammals.

http://www.worldofstock.com/stock-photos/briarcliff-new-york-usa-tip-of-old/PHI4054

I would guess it's 19th Century. I don't recognise the carving, but an item like this might well have been custom-decorated by the person that wielded it on a whaling ship and he might have been from any culture (including African).
Any back-story with this item? How/where did you acquire it?
[addition: just noticed you said it's 5 feet long which is consistent with a whaler. It would have been used from a small boat launched from a larger ship and anything longer would have been unwieldy]
Apropos of nothing, I've just come back from South Africa and was lucky enough to see some Southern Right Whales very close to shore off the Cape of Africa. Mother and calf. Right Whales (there's also a Northern Right) were named because early whalers considered them the "right" whale to hunt. They're so blubber rich that they float to the surface after being killed. Sad.