That arrow-shaped pommel is associated with certain tribes, and goes hand-in-hand with the leather hand grip. Same sheath though, huh? I have an unusual sword with such a pommel and a disc-shaped cutting tip, which was collected (as rusty farm shed-junk, BTW) in Nigeria. The term "tebu" is associated with the pointy-pommel daggers, but I don't know if it's a name for the dagger or for a tribe. It seems I've seen......Fulanis?.........with them.
Yannis, are those feathered edges on yours? (a secondary bevel similar to "hollow grinding" but usually forged, as common on Berbese kodme) Is it symetrical in cross section, or is the feathering or other features offset?
This seems to be a broad widespread style with many varieties.
Now a mental excercise: picture if you will those double-sickle Konda/Mongo swords, Kuba ilwoon, and Kenyan (the Massaie don't make their own weapons traditionally, iron-wprling being against their religion/tradition and it seems pretty dang identical to swords of nearby tribes, such as Watutsi) seme on a continuum, along with the many similar swords.
Something I've wanted to mention for some time, and now seems to have "come up" is that iron and ironworking (probably due to weapon associations, but perhaps to use as money as well) and the blacksmith/iron god are all commonly associated with royalty in Africa, and I'm noting that nations with prohibitions against working or touching iron may tend to be nations traditionally free from kings and structured governments (thinking here of Tuaregs and Massai; other examples? counter-examples? Input?)
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