Zande Dagger For Comment

[Lew]

Picked this up today. Looks like a nice quality late 19th or early 20th century Zande dagger. I really like the fuller work in the blade. :)

[Mauro]

Nice dagger Lew and in good conditions. I love these dots that you find in so many tribal dagger and also in other items. I ask myself what could be the meaning of the number 8 because the dots are 4 in each side of the handle. Usually they are against the bad eye.

[Lew]

Nice dagger Lew and in good conditions. I love these dots that you find in so many tribal dagger and also in other items. I ask myself what could be the meaning of the number 8 because the dots are 4 in each side of the handle. Usually they are against the bad eye.

Thanks Mauro

The dot motif is seen on quite a bit of African weapons and even some Asian pieces. Don't know if they are some type protection against the evil eye but you maybe right.

[Mauro]

you can find a similar knife attributed to the Nzakara-Bandia tribes at pg.170 of the book Fatal Beauty: Traditional weapons from Central Africa. National Museum of Taiwan ISBN 978-986-01-8462-4 edit by Jeff Ge and Mark Felix and cuated by Jan Elsen. The form of the blade is slightly different but I saw similar blades in knives made in Khartum except the holes.

[Iain]

I believe a similar style of knife is also used by the MANGBETU in the Uele region (more results of my browse through the AMNH archives today - just do a search under Uele in their catalogs).

[Mauro]

Sometimes AMNH reports the place where one item has been collected but I noted that some attribution are surely wrong. I would trust more Elsen in this case although I would not exclude that also Mangbetu used similar knives

[Iain]

I Mauro, I would agree for sure. Sometimes their database has some collection notes but it is often wrong. I'm not expert enough in Congo items to give a real opinion. :)