A Fine and Fascinating SE African YAO Dagger

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by ariel

Let me be devil’s advocate for a moment.
The sophistication and the quality of this dagger is highly unusual and, frankly, exceptional for any sub-Saharan weapon.
That is an argument against its origin.

As to association through ivory, there are plenty of elephants in SE Asia.

One would love to be able to distinguish African from Asian ivory, but I do not know how.

Ariel,

Naturally, these are good points, but I not necessarily saying the Yao manufactured these as much as I am that they ended up with them. I think they are the product of the "Islamization" of the Yao from Arab traders. There are some aspects of the knife which match up nicely with the swords from the Swahili coast, the Omani kattara, and the Zanzibar/Madagascar style saif, both popular on Africa's sub-Saharan east coast. I will return to the thread with some examples later.