Hi Ibrahiim,
The Sahel is simply the strip of land lying below the Sahara and is the transitional zone before the forest climates closer to the equator. When discussing swords, this is typically divided into the regions using takouba and those using kaskara, with of course Ethiopia at the far end.
The question was not as vast as you might think! While the Sahel is a large area, there are many commonalities in decorative elements, divided up between the major ethnic groups in these areas.
As you can see from previous responses to this thread this particular example has been more or less confirmed to be from Ethiopian regions.
Some of the patterns commonly observed in the Western Sahel have their roots with Berber influence and of course as you note Islamic influence certainly played a part. However non-Islamic groups had similar traditions of decorative motifs.
All the best,
Iain
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