Loop daggers of the Tiv people
 

I recently acquired a loop dagger from Oriental arms:
http://www.oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=5959

I have been trying to understand the cultural context. My reading suggests that the Tiv are relatively peaceful and pastoral people, so I do not understand why they are associated with this type of weapon. Also, all of these daggers I have seen on offer from Artzi or elsewhere seem as if they are made of relatively high quality steel. It is unclear to me that these are likely to have been produced locally in Africa.

It is my understanding that the first western contacts with the Tiv occurred in the early 20th century and these pieces do not appear to be much older than that.

Any insights?

Tiv loop daggers were used by archers as part of their way to draw their bows (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=16932&page=2).

It's kind of a unique draw, but the reason given for it is that sometimes they were shooting at leopards or other animals that would attack them after being shot, so having the knife in hand was considered a good thing.

F

Marcus please post pictures here of your new piece.

At present I don't have any pictures that are better than those you can see at the link to Oriental Arm's post on this piece in the first part of this thread.

In any case, the intent of my post was to ask for more information about the association of these pieces with the Tiv people. Are there any known photos of native people using these daggers, especially in the implied context as accessories to bow hunting?