Narrow Maasai swords

Pitt1999 · 27th February 2025, 10:21 PM

I posted these examples before when showcasing the Maasai bowie knife but I wanted to give my other 20th century Maasai blades their own post. My examples don't seem to fit the usual characteristics of Maasai seme from the 20th century. I do not possess an example of the more ubiquitous wide blade seme but I imagine the people viewing this post have an idea of what those look like.

These are shorter and much more slender than the more typical wide spatulate blades. The longest out of these examples has a blade of slightly over 13 inches while the smallest has a blade of 9¾ inches.

While handling them it is obvious that these are not balanced for the normal bushwhacking tasks that the spatulate blade examples are used for. They lack the heft that you would need to cut through any substantial vegetation.

Purely going off of photographs of Maasai warriors, I haven't seen any wearing these small dagger-like seme. Who amongst the Maasai would have worn these? Were they carried by warriors of a lower rank, women or children? My initial thought was that these were used for more delicate tasks that the wide heavy blades would have been too cumbersome and unwieldy to accomplish.

All comments are welcome and appreciated.

27th February 2025, 10:21 PM	#1
Pitt1999 Member Join Date: Sep 2021 Posts: 108	Narrow Maasai swords I posted these examples before when showcasing the Maasai bowie knife but I wanted to give my other 20th century Maasai blades their own post. My examples don't seem to fit the usual characteristics of Maasai seme from the 20th century. I do not possess an example of the more ubiquitous wide blade seme but I imagine the people viewing this post have an idea of what those look like. These are shorter and much more slender than the more typical wide spatulate blades. The longest out of these examples has a blade of slightly over 13 inches while the smallest has a blade of 9¾ inches. While handling them it is obvious that these are not balanced for the normal bushwhacking tasks that the spatulate blade examples are used for. They lack the heft that you would need to cut through any substantial vegetation. Purely going off of photographs of Maasai warriors, I haven't seen any wearing these small dagger-like seme. Who amongst the Maasai would have worn these? Were they carried by warriors of a lower rank, women or children? My initial thought was that these were used for more delicate tasks that the wide heavy blades would have been too cumbersome and unwieldy to accomplish. All comments are welcome and appreciated. Attached Images