Stephen,
Nice kaskara. Great to see a kaskara put up for comment for a change. My guess is that its a native blade. My guess re date; mid-20th century, but I'm not sure why. maybe serious sharpening wear. Blades have been made by a group of craftsmen using the same simple technology for many years. Of course some had greater skill than others, but variation seems to be small, maybe in skill in fullering. I think most kaskara blades may have been made in Kassala since about the 60's due to the concentration of several sword smiths there and national distribution of swords and knives made there. Of course other blade making centers existed previously.
Engraving is nicely done, but shallow. The engraving would have been done by a separate craftsman that the blade maker. They would work on order of a customer, but the individual would have had a suite of design markings and may have had a career of several decades. I've seen the lion on a Kassala-made kaskara. Fuzzy memory says that the man who did it died about 1960.
Cross guard is welded in the manner of the individual maker. I can't date it. Virtually no standardization until the one-piece design came along in about the 60's.
We kaskara fans have a very limited number of attributed swords on which to made assessments. My limited knowledge is based on a single snapshot in Kassala 30 years ago. Active blade makers at the time each had their own "maker's mark" based on variations on the half moon face made by a crescent stamp and a punch. Other variations used by retired or deceased smiths were also remembered. I have no knowledge about what has happened to the cadre of smiths in the meantime. No doubt successors make blades for use by urban Sudanese grooms in marriage ceremonies, but I doubt they are used as weapons much these days. Local politics since mid-80s may have limited sword production/distribution.
Again, nice kaskara. Thanks for sharing.
Ed
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