Ethiopian Shotel or Gurade to share

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

This same type scabbard occurs on the curiously hilted sabers which were deemed Berber and from Morocco. Actually these were from Cuban regions and used as machetes, and were with conscripts who were sent to to Morocco by Spanish in insurgencies there in 1920s.\

Jim, my research on these is that they are from the Dominican Republic and that is about it.

Is there any evidence that these ever ended up in the Maghreb in large numbers? By the Rif rebellion, the Dominican Republic had been independent (or under Haiti occupation) for about a century so I am not sure why Dominicans would participate in Spanish colonial conflicts in Africa, and even if they did, why they would be armed with their own local weapons and not with standard issue Spanish patterns. If you have any info on Dominican irregulars in the Spanish Army during the early 20th century I am curious to see it along with the sources.

Teo