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Old 17th February 2024, 06:01 PM   #18
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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Great work on retrieving that old warrior out of its shroud!
While obviously this is not an old weapon (still a venerable age) and it should be noted that with ethnographic weapons, their study is not necessarily of items of any particular antiquity, but of traditional forms still maintained.

Briggs (1965) is a most valuable reference (one I use endlessly it seems) but though mostly it is remarkably reliable, Im not sure if the 'southern' and 'central' classifications are hard and fast.

The takouba is widely used outside its Tuareg associations with other contiguous tribes, and with trans Saharan trade caravans and the typical nomadism of these tribes, there cannot truly be geographic classifications. The predominance of certain features does offer some rule of thumb however.

These swords were significant to tribesmen not only as weapons, but as marks of status and often. worn by chiefs and their officials or retinue.
Typically of course trade blades were used, but there does seem to have been the concept that wider blades signified power/status so many blades were fashioned in this way.

This blade seems likely of sheet steel, with crudely drawn fullers and the 'dukari' (moons) though terribly done. It is doubtful such a clearly one off product would be intended as a 'tourist' souvenir, but created as a 'sword' following tribal tradition to be worn in the sense following those traditions.

Even though not worth a lot collectibly, it is still an intriguing piece of ethnographica, probably from areas around Mali, Burkina Faso, though as noted, northern areas of Nigeria into Niger are also possible.
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