Been a busy few days, my apologies for not getting back to this thread sooner.
Martin,
Thank you so much for the photos of your colleague's sword as well as the fantastic image of the Mandarawa man with shield and throwing knife, it is like stepping back in time to look at that photo.
Regarding your colleague's sword, it seems to me that this probably never had a guard and is more in the Tebu style. Their seems to be two main forms, the rounded tip, thick blade and round pommel of your example and my smaller Chamba piece and this pointed, skull crusher pommel type that your colleague has - and just to confuse things a combination of both styles in Tim's sword.
Tim,
I had seen the bovine guards being labeled Kirdi before - actually I think in an older thread, perhaps IDed by Luc. But with so many groups tightly backed into this general area... This image I think illustrates it all rather well. From wikipedia, the ethnic groups of the extreme northern province.
I wonder if generally speaking the arm swords and lighter blades are the effect of Fulani influence? It certainly seems to be a slightly newer development and as Martin noted, these older heaver blades seem totally unsuitable for this method of carriage.
I too would very much like to travel to this region. I was also glad to read that tourism is being promoted in Rhumsiki including blacksmithing. I'd be interested to see any other photos of the area you might like to share Martin.
Best,
Iain