Hello Marius
You make a number of very good points, and I am sure they are all credible. I am grateful that they are favourable to my Owambo knife!
Concerning the knife being a reproduction or not, and in answering your question, I will need to think hard, on how exactly I came about it. We were a group of students completing a working visit, and upon embarking on our return journey by bus, we were approached by a few vendors (I suppose that's what you could call them), who offered us some knives like these, as well as other diverse objects like rattan sieves for the sifting of mahango seeds, carved wooden spoons and carved masks. And there was also a stick with a knife inside, much like a sword cane, which I also purchased. My partners in the group also made a number of purchases. I got the feeling these vendors were used to seeing groups in the region, and, having identified them as eager buyers and a source of income, they eagerly provided their goods for sale. This was in 1968. I truly believe these "traditional" goods are sold there even today. What the Owambo knives sold in this fashion look like today, I do not know.
Perhaps you are correct that they were traditionally made in those days, and therefore not reproductions. Yet what sticks in my mind is that the purpose they were made for even in 1968, more so today, was not the same as what the purpose had been ages ago, before the arrival of frequent European visiting groups. I suppose the craftsmen's mode of operations was to create a deliberate surplus of goods, more than the locals required for themselves.
Now, once they establish a regular trade with visitors and perceive a regular inflow of profit, the "tourist market" gets airborne. And we have seen what happens then: (and here your five well-stated points of deterioration can be inserted). Somewhere in this game, on this timeline, "genuine" and "traditional" becomes "reproduction" and eventually, sadly, becomes "replica".
Marius, thank you for your reassurance that none of this applies to my knife, and that you think it is a good addition to any collection of ethnic weapons.
Johan