"Mad Mahdi" Dagger

[Conogre]

Once again, Jim comes to the rescue with a collection of little known bits of information....where DO you find these jems?
Since you brought up the Hadendowa, you've opened the door to several questions and a couple of comments.
As I've stated before, my first sword was a kaskara brought back to me from Eritrea of a simple form and with a black "fuzzy" ball attached to the hilt, which, I believe, is also associated with the Mahdi?
Likewise, I recently aquired a dagger usually associated with Haddendoa, with an exagerated, almost X-shaped hilt and a tooled leather sheath, this specimen one with the J-shaped blade, which made me realize that I don't think that I've ever seen a Haddendoa dagger with a loop of any kind.
Is the common dress from this area primarily arabic style robes, such as those worn by the Bedouins and Tauregs?
If the question sounds simplistic, excuse me, but my mind just hit a nick in the record that almost knocked "African" right out of the picture! **knife**
From discussions with my son, I was advised that the majority of the area is now desert, which he found truly ironic as the native names for parts of the country are still used by tribesmen, which translates as "black jungle" and like ilk.
Spears from that area, he said, were almost impossible to find intact as the majority of the shafts have long since been cannibalized for cooking fires, with the only other source being dried camel and donkey dung, which probably makes it fortunate that the predominate religion is now musim.....I'm fairly sure smoked pork ribs would have a distinct flavor, eh?
How's that for a can of worms?
By the way, that IS a beautiful dagger Mark, and a distinct variation from the form more commonly seen...aren't those known as "Waldmen daggers"? **grin**
Mike