An interesting circumstance, the shorter blade or smaller features for swords presumed for youngsters, or so it would appear.
As with most matters, instances must be measured on certain merits and of course there were indeed smaller swords produced in many ethnographic cultures where young men learned martial skills as children. In certain cases in places such as India and Persia it is known such reduced size swords did exist, but those most readily come to mind.
In actuality however, it is best to consider not only the size of the blade, but other features in these situations. In this case the hilt appears to be 'full' size and it is interesting to note the blade carries certain talismanic image which is typically considered relevant to blades intended for combat or for the traditional use of an adult tribal figure.
As has been noted, the reduced size of certain weapons often may be attributed to use in more enclosed circumstances, such as in China where many dao and indeed jian, were much smaller for effective use in crowded city and town streets. This is of course in the sense of the naval cutlass, used on crowded decks where the melee was even more condensed than in land battles
With these kaskara, they were worn over the shoulder in a baldric type strap, though hung with the standard military type ring configuration on the scabbard in considerable instance. The kaskara in post Mahdiya times became a traditional accoutrement in much of Darfur and Sudan, and as such may well have been reduced in blade length .
I believe the presence of the snake and whatever other markings might be on the blade suggest it either is a Kassalawi blade shortened or in more unusual case actually produced in such size. There have been a good number of these smaller kaskara posted over the years, and perhaps a review of those may reveal perspective.
**a second look at this suggests this blade has been dramatically shortened
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