Mafa Dagger

[Changdao]

I think there are merits to both arguments, because the fact is that Africa is an extremely diverse continent and what is true in one region may not hold in another.

West Africa was populated by an enormous variety of ethnic groups, but with very close commercial and political links. Ethnicity was often a religious or economic designator; for example, Mandinkas, Bambaras, Wangaras, Dyulas, Markas, and so on, stem from the same medieval people but to which exonyms based on those factors have been applied. For example, "Bambara" originally meant Mandinka populations that remained pagan, Wangara and Dyula designated trader Mandinkas in Hausaland and the Atlantic coast respectively, Marka was used in the Early Modern period for Muslims within the Segou Bambara state...

Besides, these groups lived mixed with each other. In a region for example you would have a Mandinka village with Fulanis tending the cattle and Soninke traders and artisans living among them, and they might be visited by trading Wolof marabouts, Papel and Beafada mariners trading from the south, and Euroepans and tangomaos. Any attempt at separating them cleanly is doomed to fail, because they tend to regionally mix culturally. So you see "microregional" styles, but shared by a variety of peoples living there, as opposed to another "microregional" style used by those same peoples but elsewhere. This was a fluid and transitional landscape, without clear breaking zones between a particular local style and the next, but the extremes are obviously different.

In this regard, the point made by our friend Pertinax is relevant. Here it is much more sensible to speak of regional styles rather than make arbitrary attributions. I have written elsewhere about this particular issue regarding the so-called "Mandinka" sabers. Takoubas are another example, being a term so broad temporally and geographically, and morphologically, that it is sort of like saying "arming sword".

However, this isn't necesarily the case everywhere. Indeed, in Central Africa there are more specific cultural ties between weapon shapes and a particular people/s. There are exceptions, but it is more clear cut, owing to the particular ecological and sociological traits of the region.

Regarding the dagger in the OP, the area where it comes from is rather interesting. I link a book chapter giving some context.

https://books.openedition.org/irdeditions/25098

[Pertinax]

Thank you, colleagues, for joining the discussion.

Changdao, thank you for the book; it's very valuable information.

Since the beginning of the second millennium CE, Islam has been the dominant religion among the peoples of the Sahel. In the 19th century, as a result of jihads, large Islamic states—caliphates/sultanates—emerged in the region. These included Darfur, Wadai, Kanem-Borno, Baguirmi, Adamawa, Sokoto, Gobir, Mossi, and others.

All of these states conducted military campaigns against their neighbors and raided pagans (ethnic groups that resisted Islamization). One result of these expansions was the capture of slaves; in the Sokoto Caliphate alone, according to various estimates, between 1 and 2.5 million non-Muslim slaves were captured during the Fulani jihad. Some slaves were intended for sale—it was one of the most important commodities, along with ivory, salt, and natron—while others remained with the captors to perform various tasks.

Among the slaves, there were undoubtedly blacksmiths, who began working for their new masters. They brought their knowledge and experience to new territories and acquired new knowledge and skills. This led to the emergence of interregional styles.

Certainly, some ethnic groups retained their unique forms, but this applies mainly to ritual and ceremonial objects.

Pre-Islamic traditions survived only in isolated pockets, usually in remote areas. This is true of the Kirdi, a multiethnic group inhabiting northwestern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. Estimates of the number of groups that can be described as Kirdi range from 26 to over 40.

Bata, Fali, Fata, Gemjek, Guidar, Giziga, Hurza, Kapsiki, Mada, Mafa, Massa, Matakam, Mofu, Mora, Musgum, Muyan, Uldeme, Podoko, Tupuri, Wame, and Zulgo are all considered Kirdi due to their resistance to Islam, a situation in which they managed to survive the struggle against the Fulani thanks to their isolated habitat.

When attributing the dagger, I linked it to the Mafa because this people is well-studied and their culture features a unique process of smelting and ironworking.

https://www.101lasttribes.com/tribes/mafa.html

As I already noted, the influence of various tribes is clearly visible in this specimen. While the Berber, Tubu/Daza, and Hausa influences are unquestionable, the Mandingo influence is very interesting. The distance from the Northern Mandarins to the Mandingo habitat is over 2 thousand kilometers.