Hi Mauro and Colin,
I think I know the mutual friend with a Tomba sword in his collection! I think this is a case where we have a lot of inter related people groups with broadly similar sword styles. I don't have the knowledge to distinguish between them unfortunately.
As a dominant regional group the Mandingo would have I believe a large degree of influence over their neighbors and this probably extended to stylistic cues and weaponry.
Brass, or white metal fills in blades are fairly common in the area, as Mauro pointed out especially in the Congo. But I've seen similar things on swords more from the Sahel (Martin posted a very odd sword a while ago with several copper or brass dots like these).
Colin, really great pictures of the Sherbro! I particularly like the contrast between the chief and the men. The patterning of the cloth the chief is wearing is strikingly similar to what was coming out of major Hausa cloth production centers like Kano. Since I've seen a few trade blades in similar hilts might be interesting to see what we can find about trading between Hausa city states and this area.
Cheers,
Iain
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