[Jim McDougall]

Yuri, thank you for coming in, and these are most valid questions. What comes to mind right away is in reading on the Mahdist uprisings years ago, it is noted that in the very beginnings of the jihad, the native forces of the Mahdi were poorly armed, and very few had swords. In the initial conflicts, many only had sticks instead of swords, and they would either pick up the swords of the fallen who had them, or of course capture weapons from 'enemy' forces. It was not for some time that the Mahdi ordered swords to be made, though the emphasis was of course on rifles, ammunition and powder.

Though most native tribes relied primarily on spears and various knife forms, it is true that despite numbers of swords in circulation in degree, the larger numbers of tribesmen did not have them in Sudan. It seems that to the west, in the Sahara and Sahel and into West Africa swords were more common to tribesmen, with Tuareg warriors in particular, commonly had broadswords, though mpst commonly preferred the spear.

Dragging out my well worn copy of Burton ("Book of the Sword" 1884), on p.162:
"...Denham and Clapperton inform us that the Knights of Malta exported great numbers of the straight double edged blades which they affected to Benghazi, in North Africa, where they were exchanged for bullocks. From the Tripolitan they were borne across the Sahara to Bornu, to Hausaland and to Kano , where they were remounted for the use of the population. Modern travellers note that the trade still continues at Kano, where some FIFTY THOUSAND blades were annually imported across the Meditteranean.
Hence they are passed on to the Pule(Fulah) and Fulbe tribes. the Hausas, the Bornuese, and others traveling in the north western interior".

From "Travels in Northern and Central Africa in 1822-24" Denham, Clapperton and Oudney, London, 1826.

These accounts from this early in the 19th century would indicate that in this period, the import of blades into Africa was more a case of probably the tons of surplus that had been piled up in the stores of the Knights of Malta, which indeed probably had swords from the times of the crusades. The nature of these stockpiles may have more to do with Masonic lore than any sort of commercial venture, and with the obvious changes in weaponry, these were regarded as 'old junk'. That they were simply traded for necessities in these early advances in colonization suggests of course the negating of cost issues.

What is indicative of possible hyperbole is the suggestion of 50,000 swords per year? While large numbers of blades might be seen en masse, without regular accounting processes over extended period it would be impossible to pronounce such statistics. These kinds of narratives wrought with adventure are of course susceptible to such exaggeration.

The suggestion here is that these probably mostly old surplus blades entered trade routes more situated in Saharan, West African regions, and the farthest east was likely Bornu, but with Hausa the regional diffusion may have gone farther with thier nomadic character.

However Henry Barth, in his "Travels in Central Africa 1849-55" (London 1875) notes the blades "...mostly made at Solingen", suggesting that by mid 19th century, there were production blades arriving in North Africa.
(op. cit. Burton, p.162).
He also notes that English and Styrian razors are also imported. Never sure what is meant by razors, whether weapon or shaving.

It seems that there is mention of blades, some described as with Austrian double eagle on blades noted by Rudolf Slatin, prisoner of the Mahdi in 1883, suggesting at least some number of European blades in circulation at that time (in Khartoum). When the Mahdi died in 1885, and the Caliph took power, there was a huge advent in arms production which seems mostly centered at Omdurman. It seems many of the kaskara produced with the heavy thuluth acid etched calligraphy were Hausa produced rather than European/Solingen. There was also heavy production of other kaskara in several other locations in Sudan as well, and these had notable presence of Solingen blades. Clearly in these circumstances it was not a question of affordability, as these weapons were supplied to the Ansar, the forces for the Caliph.

I am inclined to think that blades in this period into Sudanese areas were likely through Suakin, and into Shendy though the Egyptian conduit was of course also prevalent as Sudan was under Egyptian Ottoman control. It is doubtful that the kinds of numbers of blades purported in the earlier accounts into the Sahara were at hand. We do know that the Hausa were outstanding blacksmiths and were producing blades imitating European (Rodd, 1928) and these were mostly the blades with three central fullers (with two moons) which became so prevalent on kaskara.

In illustrations, one of the Omdurman made thuluth etched blades, the familiar Hausa 'dukari' (moons) seen. These examples typically had brass crossguards as opposed to iron on most other kaskaras. (Briggs, 1965)
A crocodile covered kaskara with distinctly European blade, probably Solingen, note cosmological motif. The crossguard resembles examples shown in Reed (1985) suggested from Darfur. While it is often suggested that crocodile covered weapons were made as souvenirs, there are many taken from the field at Omdurman, and ensuing conflicts of the time.

Note: on Solingen, population statistics are often misleading as there are always outlying areas, districts etc. and of course, the numbers of shops, as well as outsourced component vendors, etc. are hard to number. The production numbers of blades for a single maker (his shop and workers) can be impressive. During the Thirty Years war, the guilds had to place restrictions on the numbers of blades produced by each maker to more evenly appropriate work. This was offset by the numbers of smiths who relocated into other locations.

* on p.162 Burton notes, "few of the Baghirmi can afford 'kaskara' (swords)".
This is the first known use of the term kaskara as far as I have found, and the term is completely unknown for the sword in Sudan as I discovered in years of researching. They refer to them as sa'if; though some tribes seem to use the term 'cross'. The term apparently entered the collectors lexicon with later writers.