Two new acquisitions from Somalia

[Martin Lubojacky]

-- I meant the first two knives from the beginning of the thread

[Sajen]

Martin and Yvain,

I am far from an expert for this area, I only remembered to have seen these type of knives here before and searched for the thread I've given in up.
Equal how you would call them, they are most intersting and made until now like Martin stated. I like them.

Regards,
Detlef

[Yvain]

Thanks guys! 🙂



Interestingly, I found this : https://m.quaibranly.fr/fr/explorer-...urreau/page/1/ in the Quai Branly collections. According to the database, it was collected before 1936, which makes me wonder if my aluminium grip billao might be older than I thought...

[G. Mansfield]

Another similar Somali knife dating to at least 1935 from the British Museum..

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collec...1935-1108-48-a

These seem to have been popular around pre-war and certainly are still made today.
Attached is a photo from Italian Somaliland during World War II and another of one in my collection.

-Geoff

[Martin Lubojacky]

Geoff, Thank you for sending an important (at least for me) photo! The British Museum knife allocation is also interesting (Ogaden is part of Ethiopia and Darod lives along the border (if my memory still serves orrectly)
Martin