Central African for ID

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Jeff,
As RobT has noted, and Ian has wonderfully detailed and furnished that outstanding reference, these interesting swords are from the Azande people in NE regions of Congo bordering S. Sudan.

As the elusive arms writer Torben Flindt (Bukharen arms) once told me, "ethnographic weapons have no geographic boundaries", and while these interesting swords are of course primarily from the regions noted, it seems they had a degree of use in the late 19th century in the Sudanese campaigns during the Mahdiyya.

I recall in the 2002 remake of "The Four Feathers" with the late Heath Ledger, there was a scene with him in a cavalry charge where while he is wielding a kaskara, tribesmen around him have these Azande 'mambela'. My first thoughts were 'Hollywood license', however looking further it seems some serious research had been done. There were many tribal forces involved in these campaigns in the Sudan, which accounted for the curious spectrum of arms found in use in these Sudanese contexts.

In discussions ever the years there has been a great deal of debate, as Ian has noted, whether certain African weapons were throwing knives , or swords. I think Ian's explanation best serves that dilemma.

The blade on this weapon seems to have some age, which I agree could put it into the latter 19th c. and in the periods of the Sudan campaigns, and later into the Anglo-Egyptian occupation period. It seems many, if not most of these weapon forms in the holdings of famed museums like Pitt-Rivers etc. were collected in the 20s and 30s. Many of these are seen in the references now published.

Clearly as seen in the illustration Ian shows, the handle is of the same form which seems to have become a popularized style, and as traditional arms, like many ethnographic forms, these are often generationally remounted.

Best regards,
Jim