Congo sword ID help

[Mefidk]

OK Colin, will do, thanks for the interest. It may take a little time since I need to take photos of a few, but I can start with a new thread on one or two. Most are Congo, but I have a few from elsewhere in Africa. But as I said only just starting out with this area so I only have 20 at the moment. None are stellar examples, rather I wanted first to get a feel for the range and quality before investing in high-end items.
Almost all the Congo axes are sold as Songye axes, but I have doubts about this - there would have to be a lot of important Songye with their ceremonial axes, and the range of form is quite large. I've seen some differentiation suggested east/west and there are the Nsapo types, but I suspect there is much more to this than I see in the texts mentioned above. I hope some answers might be found in the axe book

[Cathey]

Hi Guys

I did post this seperately but thought I might post it here as well. This short sword is almost identifcal to the one at the beginning of this post.

It is 18 ¼” (46.4 cm) long over all with a 13 ½” (34.4 cm) blade which is 2 ¾” (7 cm) wide at the swollen end. I had thought it might be a Songye, but I couldn’t find anything quite like it in Stones Glossary and African weapons are not my strong point.

The blade is very distinctive and based on this alone having looked at all of the examples on http://www.memoire-africaine.com/armes2.html and http://www.africanarms.com/gallery?9...-sword-49-3-cm, I still have the following list of what it might be:
Songye-Eki-Nsapo / Congo 1900-1920
Sword NGALA-Bangala
BENA-LULUA LUBA DRC
Glaive Tchokwé-Lunda 1900 Angola / Zaire
Songye short sword
Songye prestige sword

I am hoping someone might be able to narrow it down for me.

Regards Cathey