unusual african dagger covered in cowrie shells

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Kubur

its what i think embellished in Senegal for touristic reasons

Not disagreeing, but just asking, why specifically Senegal? Obviously in the West African sphere, and commerce of course is not confined to one area just are tourism is not, why the flyssa blade?
After the cowries were rendered 'non currency' by French administrators in the early 20th c. the shells retained their 'wealth oriented' attraction as a decorative feature in material culture items such as jewelry and as seen here, weapon decoration.
Interestingly they also retained their amuletic properties as I have seen in some sources.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

There is a good paper on pre colonial Yaruba land in south west Nigeria ...an account of the use of Cowrie shells far broader than only as currency.
please see http://ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_N...er_2012/27.pdf