TEBU DAGGER in FISHTAIL SCABBARD

TVV · 2nd June 2016, 04:43 AM

While these are associated with the Tebu, they seem to have been popular around lake Chad among other groups. In Smaldone, there is a picture of "Hausa daggers" from the collections of the Smithsonian, including one with a fish tail scabbard. The attribution of course is somewhat questionable.

I recently obtained a copy of the 1985 catalogue of Central African weapons from the Ethnographic Art Museum in Frankfurt. While the book is literally just a catalogue of items with black and white photos, it is very useful in one regard: it provides notes on the date and place the items were collected. For the purpose of this topic, there is a dagger very similar to the ones in this thread, and particularly similar to the one shown by Chregu in post #8. It is described as Sultan's knife from Goulfey, with a local name provided as well:"mogheo te me". We also know that it was collected during the Duke of Mecklenburg's expedition in Cameroon in 1910-1911, which at least establishes these daggers as early 20th century, potentially even earlier.

So, what does Sultan's Knife mean? Goulfey is nowadays a small town in Cameroon's far north, just South of Lake Chad. The German version of Wikipedia provides some information about the Sultanate of Goulfey, which prior to the colonization of Cameroon was a city state, vassal to the Kotoko Kingdom, which in turn was part of Kanem Bornu. Maybe these daggers were status items, or maybe the Sultan of Goulfey happened to give one to the Germans as a present, who knows.

2nd June 2016, 04:43 AM	#18
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,660	While these are associated with the Tebu, they seem to have been popular around lake Chad among other groups. In Smaldone, there is a picture of "Hausa daggers" from the collections of the Smithsonian, including one with a fish tail scabbard. The attribution of course is somewhat questionable. I recently obtained a copy of the 1985 catalogue of Central African weapons from the Ethnographic Art Museum in Frankfurt. While the book is literally just a catalogue of items with black and white photos, it is very useful in one regard: it provides notes on the date and place the items were collected. For the purpose of this topic, there is a dagger very similar to the ones in this thread, and particularly similar to the one shown by Chregu in post #8. It is described as Sultan's knife from Goulfey, with a local name provided as well:"mogheo te me". We also know that it was collected during the Duke of Mecklenburg's expedition in Cameroon in 1910-1911, which at least establishes these daggers as early 20th century, potentially even earlier. So, what does Sultan's Knife mean? Goulfey is nowadays a small town in Cameroon's far north, just South of Lake Chad. The German version of Wikipedia provides some information about the Sultanate of Goulfey, which prior to the colonization of Cameroon was a city state, vassal to the Kotoko Kingdom, which in turn was part of Kanem Bornu. Maybe these daggers were status items, or maybe the Sultan of Goulfey happened to give one to the Germans as a present, who knows. Attached Images