Hi Teodor,
These should have more or less be used by non Islamic groups. The takouba seems to have started to seen more use in Mandara after the Fulani launched several incursions in the early 1800s and the region became somewhat more Islamic with a couple small emirates in place.
In emirates like Adamawa you probably would have found irregulars with a variety of weapon forms.
There were very few standing troops usually and village/town rulers were responsible for providing levies. Up until the Fulani Jihads, it is probably fair to say most of these areas were nominally Muslim but even the ruling class were not particularly strict. While household troops, like the heavily armoured cavalry, were usually also the bodyguards of the emir, the majority of troops were on foot and would supply some of their own equipment.
Still, so far it has seemed to me, in my admittedly cursory attempts to research these areas, that the takouba fairly quickly supplanted native sword forms.
Cheers,
Iain
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