Thanks for the comments guys.
In terms of assigning these to an ethnic group Hausa would be my first response. However stylistically that seems to extend quite a ways including Northern Cameroon where I am more familiar with the leather work seen on the second example.
Generally speaking the more I get into these rather than classification becoming easier its getting harder! Unfortunately there is a lot of overlap in the motifs used by different ethnic groups and the dominance of the Hausa across the region, later the Fulani, I think makes the styles somewhat homogenous. I might start going with the label "Hausaland" I think since its more of a geographical and cultural thing that way.
Colin - Both are native blades I think. The triple fullered blade is a bit on the soft side, certainly not like marked European blades of this style I've seen. The second one seems to fit into a category of takouba with wide flat blades that are, as far as I can tell native forged, this one looks the same with some of the usual pitting and surface that I have seen on others - could be wrong but doesn't seem like the sheet steel I've seen on newer takouba.
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