Thanks very much Gav!
It looks like Martin, ISPN and David's ideas toward this being a sword from Congo, Mandara (Cameroon) regions and a Sahelian sword with takouba like characteristics are pretty much on target. I really enjoyed the research and discussion, and as always, feel like I learned more on the swords of these regions......thank you Martin for sharing this here!
Also, as always, I hope the readers will benefit from the discussion here, and thanks to those who participated.