Mandara (???) dagger
 

Hi,

I recently acquired this dagger that is giving me Northern Nigeria/Cameroon Mandara mountains vibes but I'm not entirely certain. If anyone can provide a more definitive ID that would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any insights.

- ADS

it looks like you have an Hausa dagger, it may be an early 20th century piece or later, very difficult to date such things.


they come from a number of countries where the Hausa culture has spread

see a similar piece

http://www.vikingsword.com/lew/w0048/w0048.html

Hi, thanks for your reply and resource, the Hausa are a good suggestion, it would not surprise me if this dagger is of Hausa origin. Yet, the dagger has a number of differences with typical Hausa daggers most notably in the scabbard and in the design of the hilt which gives me pause.

- ADS

Hello ADS,

You are correct IMHO, it's a Mandara dagger, see the attached picture taken from this link: https://african-weapons.com/gallery?...-cameroon-32cm

It's for sure not Hausa, sorry Milandro. ;)

Regards,
Detlef

Detlef and AdS,


Two very similar knives. Double-edged blade, central rib, and the presence of a waist. Same style of hilt. Looks like a strong ID. Thanks Detlef.

Hi,

I bought cca in 2009 in a small town Rhumsiki in the Mandara mountains in northern Cameroon very simmilar knife (not only central rib, but also the lower part of the sheath). http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=Mandara+knife

Hi Ian,
Thank you but the thank has to go to our member Wodimi, he is the owner of a great research site: https://african-weapons.com/gallery?...word-and-knife
I only have seen that the Hausa attribution was not correct and have searched a little bit on his site and found that the Mandara attribution seems to be correct.

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Martin,

Yes, it's a dagger from the Mandara mountains but from a different tribe, it's from the Kirdi tribes when I follow Wodimis attribution. See the example from his site.

Regards,
Detlef

To be fair to everyone in this thread, identifying knives from West Africa and the Mandara mountains is not an easy task. Outside of the 70s Wente-Lukas book, which I do not have, there really is not much published on the subject. Zirngibl focuses on prestige and rarer items. Other books may have an example or two, but often times we will see knives simply classified as Hausa, Fulani or simply Kirdi, which to my understanding is a somewhat derogatory term used by Muslims to describe all the pagans in the Mandara area.

The best source are probably the Quai Branly online collections, but finding the right match, if one even exists there, requires a lot of browsing. It is always very valuable when someone like Martin who collected in the field can post examples that are at least somewhat similar.

Thank you Detlef, Martin, and everyone who responded, I appreciate the picture references and additional information.

- ADS