Fearn, AFAIK that is a rank marker/rich (native) guy's art piece/religious item; I've seen that exact style (or that exact individual? Looking like a fat human, and some are the side view....interestingly, it is "upside down" in that regard, when compared to "legged" swords, etc.....) and others similar. The shape is similar to those Kuba ikulas without points, and also to an ancient Celtic (like the ikulas, much less wide) double-edged no-point sword I've seen. Given its likely heavy cultural/religious meaning in its original context......it seems due a certain respectful attitude.
Ariel, sorry to hear you don't know how to use a mambele; sorry to tell you that that has nothing to do with its effectiveness in knowing hands. It is a graceful and deadly sword, and particularly effective against sheilds. I don't find the short ones ineffective, either, BTW.
The quality of the metal as such is a playground for ethnocentrism/cross-cultural confusion. I don't know that it is relevant to this discussion, and I suggest we leave it aside; it's the metal they had; it's the metal they used.....
Freddy, I get into this with people from time to time; some of them "get" it, and some don't: Mambeli and mabele (still heard/read no justification for the concept that it's pronounced M'mambele, etc....). Mambeli and mambele seem very much like the same word. AFAIK it means "sickle", and is generally used for agricultural tools as well as weapons, with the distinction being contextual. Two very different types of sickle-sword, of course.......Ikula/iklwa is a fun thing to wonder about, too; more tenuous than mambeli/mambele, but still pretty likely, I would think.....theater and theatre are not different words.
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