Well Rick, I guess nobody is gonna take a shot at this, so I'll take a stab
It looks like the whole thing is made out of a single piece of stock, and the blade shape resembles those from the Dongola region on the Nile in Sudan.
With the curious 'anthromorphic shape' of the hilt, these artisans were pretty innovative so hard to say what the inspiration was. It would really be tenuous to compare this to the ancient Hallstadt and other European 'anthromorphic hilts', but thats what it reminds me of.
In some ways these recall the shapes of the Tuareg arm daggers but these are far less complex geometrically.
Clearly there is some symbolism involved but needs more research, I cannot say I have seen like this in African stuff, but hope somebody out there has better ideas.