West African dagger

[Changdao]

I just got this nice example of a West African dagger.

It's around 38 cm in length, which is typical, with a thick and rigid blade, apparently rather well made. The leatherwork is decent too, with some decoration even on the non-visible side. It's probably of Mandinka manufacture, but these were used by many groups all along Senegambia and Upper Guinea, as well as western Mali.

I don't know it's age but I doubt it is very old. In any case, this particular morphology goes back in time. I think these are a nice alternative to the more ornate and higher status daggers and shortswords with metal, wood and/or bone hilts that share the same design language.

[Tim Simmons]

Nice clean piece with some age. I had some of these, wish I had kept them now.