African sickle swords

[Changdao]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Your fascination with these weapons is well placed, and while African edged weapons are often collected and viewed for their unusual, often even bizarre blade shapes and overall styling from an artistic sense. Christopher Spring in his "African Arms & Armor" noted the often tenuous western need to speculate on how they were used, most notably the familiar 'throwing knives (known as 'shongo' in Azande parlance).

Thanks for taking the time to post! As far as I know, both my own and wildwolberine's are of a form more typically associated with the Ngombe and Ngbandi, further southwest following the Ubangui river. Zande sickle swords, as far as I've seen, are usually of a slightly different profile, and fullered, just like the one in the old picture you posted.

It's interesting that we see these blades in the Sudan, and it is indeed an evidence of the dynamism of the area during the XIX century. The Zande fought against the Khedivate, the Mahdists and the Belgians for a long time, so it isn't surprising that their weapons appear further North along the Sudan, either as loot or in use by Zande (and other peoples) in service of those powers (mercenaries, pressed into service, or both).

I didn't notice them in The Four Feathers! Truth being told, I watched that movie many years before I knew anything about African weaponry.

Regarding function, I think there are many years of weird discourse around them, and many weird judgements from the colonial period. Probably because of the lack of dedicated study integrated into a coherent Military History for Africa, especially Central Africa, it seems like up to date analysis of many sources from a military history lens isn't there yet.

For example, the one in the OP is functionally a dagger-axe, in a way similar to a zaghnal minus the hammer bit and with extra hooking capabilities. In all sickle swords, from mine to the more choppy ones, the hooking makes sense, both for manipulating the enemy shield and just for reaching targets behind the shield. I haven't encountered any primary sources talking about it in relation to Central Africa, but they do exist regarding Ethiopia.

[Jim McDougall]

This really is a fascinating topic, and it is hard to follow sometimes as the names of the tribes seem to vary through transliteration, and the terms for the weapons themselves are equally hard to follow.

It seems in these various tribes of Congo regions the throwing knives, while following the same multi blade theme, are varied notably with terms being different in the same way.

I have but one example of a sword of the Congo which has some relation to the 'sickle swords', note the half moon fixture at top of blade near hilt, which I understand is to attach a leather strap. The rounded shape of the blade seems to correspond to one of the blades on the 'kpinga' throwing knife.
References have called this a 'war sickle' of Boa (Baboa) Nsakara and Yakoma tribes among others but it seems to be a form of the 'mambele' as yours.

The attached image is from "The Four Feathers", starring Heath Ledger (2002), a truly phenomenal film.
Note the raised Zande sword in the background.

[Edster]

My favorite Four Feathers is the 1939 version. Very good depictions of the Hadendawa and their weapons.

Maybe available on this YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukpcHG5h528

Ed

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Edster

My favorite Four Feathers is the 1939 version. Very good depictions of the Hadendawa and their weapons.

Maybe available on this YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukpcHG5h528

Ed

Right Ed, know what you mean! The 'old' movies are the best, and in researching these old films, especially back to the early years in Hollywood, it is well known the studios used actual weapons. Bannerman had nothing on these guys, in fact, he probably supplied much of the stock the studios used as props.
I recall some years back when a guy I knew went to an auction where the studios were cleaning house in their warehouses.
The stuff that was acquired by so many collectors was astounding.
Rudy (Valentino ) himself had become quite a collector of old swords acquired during making of films.
Oh.....the old days!

[G. Mansfield]

Here is an Azande prestige sickle sword. The hilt is carved elephant ivory with the typical black linear lines usually seen on Azande work, often on ivory arm daggers. The blade is forged with little decoration. Early 20th century , likely 1920 or 1930 whereabouts. Apologies for the dim lighting conditions, but the kitchen fluorescents are the brightest area on this gloomy fall day.

-Geoffrey

[Sajen]

So far I know only the Ngombe bero from Changdao and the Ngombe mambeli from Wildwolberine related, the enomo, Benge, Boa and Bandia people from Jim is another sickle sword. But I am not an expert at all.

[kronckew]

My Mambele sickle sword:

[Peter B.]

Here are three maps showing the different types of sickle swords and execution swords.
The maps are from the Tribal Arms monographs Vol.1 No.1-3 by Elsen (1,3) and Gosseau (2).

These three volumes describe in detail the weapons depicted and their respective origins.