[Peter Hudson]

Reference A. Jim McDougall at #5 shows a variety of quotes belonging to Richard Burton.
Reference B. My picture at# 11 of A Zanzibar slave market with Omani Slave Traders sitting down wearing Kitara Curved Omani Long Hilted swords.

It was non other than the great man Richard Burton who ear marked the likely position that curved German Cavalry Blades were the source of the Omani Curved Kitara blade adopted by Omani Traders operating in Bunyoro-Kitara (The kingdom of The Sword} in the Great African Lakes

But there are a number of peculiarities that further cloud the issue viz;


1.The government of Bunyoro Kitara have had their entire web page country file re-written and most words which could have been linked to Slavery have been excluded and any links throughout their history have been doctored to exclude such details...whilst much of the blame for everything has been placed at the door of one sort of invader or other African neighbours or British Colonial influence..and in the last 7 years wording like The Kingdom of The Sword has altogether evaporated completely!!

2. Myth and Legend still pervades the landscape of history there and many believe that most of the population vanished beneath the waves of one of the Great Lakes suddenly and without trace a few hundred years ago...

3. With no written form much is said to have happened and since it has been all passed down verbally it isn't exactly accurate..If anything this plays into the mystical concept followed by the Omani hunters and traders coming and going with Ivory, Rhino Horn, Skins, and Slaves thus since Omani people also had a verbal historical device called The Funoon which was essentially a series of traditional songs, dances and performances so the two interacted probably quite well...

Bunyoro - Kitara had many commodities for example; vast banana plantations of differing varieties, huge herds of very long horned cattle ... a huge iron ore smelting operation, agricultural tool making expertise and excellent Salt production areas. Below shows some of the other items made there and seen sketched on he drawing of a medical facility are spears and a long handled sword perhaps a Kitara of the type we are looking at or an African tribal style ...interestingly the scene depicts a Ceasarian operation that amazingly they were expert at conducting and it was recorded by this sketch in a medical Journal of about 1879...

The Omani Long Hilted Kitara were remodelled German Cavalry weapons with an extended Tang thus their hilt had to be rebuilt and copied in the same style as the straight dancing hilt. Unlike the curved sayf the dancer or sayf was made in Oman as one piece tang and blade as one....The Curved Omani Kitara needed an extended tang. The blades of dancing swords were very flexible but the Kitara curved was much thicker and stiff with a heavy back edge. This Kitara was the badge of office of the Omani Slave Trader thus acted like a right of passage and was worn at the waist usually with the Terrs Rhino Skin Shield slung across the back as at Ref B. with silver furniture and a heavy pommel and decorated with usually black leather in the Omani style.