Do we have any actual evidence of Omani traders reaching as far as the Western Sahel? Barth does not mention any Arabian traders as far as I recall, with the caravans all being led by Tuaregs or people from the Maghreb or Hausaland. Omani trading and slave raiding activity seems to have been limited to the Eastern African coast and to Central Africa. Considering how late the incursions into the Congo occurred, I am not sure how much time there was for the form to spread all the way to what is nowadays Mali (and completely skip the Eastern Sahel in the Process).
My personal hypothesis is that the Mandingo hilt form developed totally independently and locally. One can see similarities with some dagger hilts from Western Africa (the daggers themselves have not been studied properly, but this is probably another topic). I am attaching some for comparison: the blade is inserted into a cylindrical hilt without a guard, with a circular pommel. Some of the spherical pommels are not too dissimilar to brass pommels on Mandingo swords. The Mandingo sword hilt could be a simplified version of these dagger hilts.
The similarity with Omani hilts is only limited to the shape of the hilt, however, elements such as pommels and bands on the hilts of Mandingo swords and their absence on the Omani hilt suggest to me that we may be reaching in trying to link the two.
Regards,
Teodor
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