Pair of Central African knives
 

Hoping someone can help me pin down an origin for these two African knives. The larger piece with the wood handle is much thicker/more finely made. The other piece may be a currency blade or parade item? I know I’ve seen other examples but the region/tribal affiliation escapes me and wouldn’t know what keywords to use to search the database.

Hello. As far as I know, the left piece is a typical Banda throwing knife. The early ones were fully functional, and very aerodinamic objets made for war. During the XXth century less functional versions (e.g. without edges) were made and their purpose shifted to a more ritualistic one.

The right piece looks to me like it is from the Yakoma or the Ngbandi, but I'm less sure about this one.

Hi, the smaller one is a crownless throwing knife of the Banda people, Banda throwing knives seem to all be referred to as "Ondo" although there is a considerable amount of diversity among them. The longer piece is a type of sickle sword which, as Changdao suggested, may be Ngbandi in origin in which case it would be called "Bero" though other neighboring people groups could have produced/used this variety as well.

-ADS

Yes, the one on the right is a "bero" or "mambeli", attributed to the Ngombe, Doko, Poto, Budja and Ngbandi from the Congo.
Compare "panga na visu", page 132, piece 289.