Names of African Swords

[Pertinax]

Originally Posted by Changdao

It is a frequent phenomenon. Many of the names that stick really are just "sword" in the native language. Sometimes they can be useful, and other times they absolutely flatten the nuances that there are, especially if what is taken as the name is actually that of the people (or part of) using them.

"Mandinka" sabres are absolutely one example. These were used by the Mandinka, the Wolof, the Fulani (many branches of them: Toucouleurs, in Futa Djallon, in coastal Senegambia, etc), but it is rather common to see them attributed only to Mandinka when it is actually unknown. I actually believe that they originated within the Mandinka, just that it happened way back in the XV-XVIth century and it gave way to a rather large weapon family

In House, "Mandinka" was apparently called bisalami, almulku.

The author provides interesting data in the note to chapter 3:

19 Leather- and metal-crafts were important native industries. Although many sword blades (s. ruwan takobi) were made locally by the cire-perdue, or "lost wax," method, imported tempered blades were superior and preferred to the more brittle domestic variety. Barth estimated that Kano imported annually about 50,000 sword blades, mostly from Solingen. These were mounted and sheathed by native craftsmen and sold throughout the Sudan: Travels and Discoveries,
I, 519-20.