Two West African swords/cutlasses for I.D.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

These two West African swords (need cleaning) are recent acquisitions. I havn't seen this pattern before, they seem to have a combination of styles.

Can anyone help to shed more light on them. The forested/coastal region of West Africa is very interesting but somewhat under studied...

Thanks in advance.

2 African swords, these are the 'blade form' of the usually ceremonial swords called 'hwi' from Dahomey (now Benin) in west Africa coast .
The hilts are more known as a Sierra Leone form which usually had larger broadsword blades (some of kaskara form). Basically these are slave coast swords of mid 19th c. to latter.