[Changdao]

This is a facinating topic I am very fond of.

First, some terminological considerations. These are often called Mandinka sabers in relation to the Mandinka, who were one of the main users. The Mandinka are an ethnolinguistic group, the main among the speakers of Mande languages, which speak Mandinka. With 11 million Mandinka in the modern day and a rich history of states tracing back to the 11th century, they qualify far above a tribe. But these sabers are very widespread in the region, so much so that calling them Mandinka sabers is a misnomer (or perhaps not, as we will see later). Bambaras (who also speak a Mande language, and diverged from the main Mandinka group in the Middle Ages), Susus (who also speak a Mande language and are other of the main historical branches of the wider Mande family), Wolofs (the main inhabitants of Senegal down to the Gambia river), Fulanis (in all their diversity west of Timbuktu, like Tukulors), all use these type of sabers.

However, the sabers belong to a wider weaponry family that also includes straight swords, daggers and spears. Focusing on "white" weapons, there are clear stylistic similarities between many in the region, but also great differences. All of this points to a very deep common origin. With this in mind, we must realize that one of the pivotal points of Medieval West African History is the migration of the Mande-speaking peoples, who started pushing towards the coast from their historical core in what is now Segou and contiguous regions to the south and west. The main of these were the Susu, who broke off the Ghana empire in the late 12th century and created a short-lived empire, and the Mandinka, who, led by Sunjata Keita, overthrew the Susu and created the empire of Mali. This process led to a westwards migration that resulted in the coastal Mandinka of Kaabu, the various Mande-speaking groups of Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, and to the creation of a mechant Mandinka class that dispersed itself all across West Africa (adquiring eventually a new ethnic dimension as Wangara and Dyula). It's in this milieu that the sabers probably appeared, and it is plausible that they did within the empire of Mali (so calling them Mandinka would not be so far-fetched).

By the point we start getting external reports, in the 1450's, these sabers were already well established. An early witness is Ibn Battuta in the mid 1300's, who speaks of a saber wielded by Duga, an important figure in the court of the Malian emperor. The Portuguese attest that sabers were already very popular, with them being forged in the Gambia by Mandinka smiths and traded all over Senegal. It seems that owing to the high demand the European traders saw a lucrative market, and started exporting blades and finished weapons according to local tastes. So it seems safe to say that West African sabers predate European interactions, being already popular in the 15th century if not earlier. As should be remembered, the Gambia continued to be a local centre of bladed weapon manufacture, with Almada stating that "this land has more weapons than in any other of Guiné, because, as it has iron which they forge, they make many arms in the form of spears , dardos, stabbing daggers and frechas" and Dornelas corroborating that statement, and also adding the manufacture of shields, sometimes even by request of European clients:

"Here at Kassan excellent round shields are made, and if we order them they are made in our style. They are covered with leather and painted. And the tangomaos have sheaths made for the swords and daggers , and have them decorated, since there are good craftsmen here."

Likewise, Dornelas states that further south the Susu were great manufacturers of weapons and iron implements for the Sierra Leonian market, and other sources support this:

"Among the Susus iron is smelted in large quantity from which they make swords , spears , knives and iron tools to work the fields, and they bring them to sell in Serra Leoa"

The style of these weapons as described for example by Almada, corresponds to the modern ones in how they were hilted and the size of the blades, but otherwise we do not know the finer details. Likewise, the serpent-like scabbards are not mentioned, and indeed we also find in 19th century examples without that feature. When that appeared, we don't know.

As soon as direct contact was made with the Europeans, West Africa demanded saber blades, showing that there was already a mature market for their consumption in place. The Portuguese were importing cutlass/hanger blades and terçados into West Africa during the XVth-XVIth century, and between 1590 and 1618 there even was a group of Lisbon-based smiths producing bladed weapons for the Senegambian market.

In the 1460's there were efforts by the Portuguese crown to pursue lançados who were illegally selling weapons to West Africans, with Diogo Gomes being dispatched in 1460. Mendo Afonso, who had traded swords in Guinea, went to live in the coast among Africna Muslims until he got a pardon in 1463. The illegality was because a Papal bull had forbidden the sale of weapons to infidels, but there is a mountain of evidence that traders along the Mediterranean ignored it and traded anyway. Elsewhere I recapitulated the trade of Italian weaponry to Gao and Djenné, and the Portuguese on their side did the same. But not only the Portuguese were involved, as English, Dutch, Italian and French traders also chimed in, with Sephardic Jewish merchants playing an important role in connecting this extended network with Morocco and Senegambia.

In 1590, Manuel de Andrada Castelo Branco, writing in Spanish for Philip II (now king of Portugal after Sebastiao's death at Alcazarquibir) states:

"In Bezeguiche[Gorée ] capital of the Kingdom of Jaloffo , there is a large, capacious and beautiful Bay, where 100 deep drafted vessels may anchor … and here, in this port and "escale" arrive Lutheransfrom La Rochelle , Bordeaux , and Havre de Grace, and from Brittany, along with other pirates… and their navigation, unimpeded, brings to France much gold , amber , ivory , hides , various valuable civetall in great quantity, leaving behind an abundance of instruments of war for the Wolofs , who are in the process of accepting the sect of Mahomet , including lances , creses[Malayan daggers ], espadas , alfanges[cutlasses ], shields , and other objects that are prohibited by the Bull of Cena."

Here "alfanges" refers to short sabers, like those called by the English "hanger", or messer or dussack in the German world, which are basically variations on a theme. According to an Inquisition report in Lisbon in 1590, there was a growing clandestine manufacture of bladed weapons, with eight artisans charged with making swords going to the "Rivers of Guinea". The most demanded weapon was, according to that report, the alfange. And not only European weapons were sold, as the Portuguese pulled trade from their colonial empire and there are accounts of gilded swords from India reaching the African coast.

Reports from English and French travelers in the 1600's and 1700's show that sabers were everywhere in the West African coast, already in the form that is familiar to us.

So the picture that develops is that in an environment of high demand for short sabers, originally provided for by Mandinka smiths and other groups with artisans specialise in their craft, the European traders found a potential market. In a world of rising globalization, the Atlantic coast of West Africa suddenly became globally connected, and a variety of sources stepped up to answer the demand of saber-like weapons. This continued through the centuries, as we know that the trade of European saber blades kept rising in an environment of increasing demand with the reconfiguration of West African political networks in the aftermath of Mali and Songhay's fall and the growth of the Atlantic slave trade. Imported blades for elites who could pay for them coexisted with local sources of weapons (some high quality no doubt, but also more affordable blades), particularly Mandinka smiths, who kept active trade networks that had existed for centuries. Evidently, whatever shape those sabers had originally evolved to correlate with imported styles from Europe and the Mediterranean, becoming somewhat inserted into the "saber ecumene" of the 16th century Mediterranean (falchions, hangers, nimchas, storta, dussacks, messers, etc), but also mantaining the native hilting style and displaying a great regional disparity, maybe or maybe not tracing back to the Medieval period.

I'll make another post about the possible development of the hilting style and its particularities when I have some more free time.