Yuri,

Those 19. C travelers'/explorers' reports are unfortunately all we have on the life styles and weapons of the Arabized and Black inhabitants of the Sahel. But we are also very fortunate to have them. Spears and shields were the main weapons with swords a "sidearms" mostly for the elite and their cavalry who also used spears and threw short lances. I think it was the Southern Beja who converted from spears to swords while the Northern Beja retained them. There are also stories of tribal "knights" having sword fights to determine the outcome of tribal engagements.

I was surprised by the large extent of poisoned arrows especially used by the Black tribes in Darfur and more to the West. The stuffed cloth horse armor were the important defense.

So much social and ethnic variation from West of Lake Chad to the Red Sea and technological/cultural change from 1709 to 1899.

Best regards,
Ed

Here are two pics of Ababda nomads with kaskara looking swords from 1848 and 1851. The Ababda were a dominant tribe in NE Sudan between the Nile and the Red Sea.

The top pic is from 1848 by Freeman and bottom one is from 1851. Both pics re from the Wikapedia article on the Ababda people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ababda_people

All the swords look alike and could well be of a variation of the kaskara form. The scabbards look flared and pointed as well. These suggests that the kaskara style was fixed at least by 1848.

Ed