Is that a Hadendoa

[Jambu]

Nice Pictures! I have a few of these daggers myself, but I can't post the pics because I am traveling at the moment. I have also one example with the same double notches as the pic posted above.

Here is a link to a youtube video I found depicting 'ceremonial' use of a variation of these sorts of daggers. It is attributed to the Nara people of Eritrea who look alot like Beja to me. A fascinating video, with spears, shields, swords, and daggers and interaction between males and females. The dagger is shown between 3:00 and 4:00... Please post your observations and opinions on this video and these really cool daggers.

[Lew]

This style of knife is probably carried by a few different tribes in that region much like the jambiya in Yemen and parts of Saudi Arabia. Here are a few more versions of this dagger.

[Jim McDougall]

Excellent examples guys!!!
Actually it is hard to say what is technically correct in classifying these obviously very familiar 'X' handled daggers, which are apparantly worn as an accoutrement in the manner of khanjars or jambiyya in Oman or Yemen, as noted by Spring.
The ethnographic term Beja is of course broadly applied to a number of tribal groups, with the Hadendoa being one of them. As explained to me by the individual I spoke with some years ago, the Hadendoa, though mostly associated with Sudan, were well emplaced in Eritrea as well. He noted that he was also Beja, but I have forgotten what tribal denomination.

The Hadendoa became the most widely known tribal entity through the Mahdist revolts and British campaigns, particularly through the writings of Kipling and the now immortalized term 'fuzzy wuzzies', which referred primarily to them. It was thier association to these type daggers, among thier other weapons, which popularized the term Hadendoa in describing them.
Naturally, in most cases, popularized descriptions typically do not get down to 'hair splitting' detail (no pun intended) in tribal definition as far as the actual weapon classification, so Hadendoa is probably OK as collective description. As previously noted, these 'X' hilts seem used widely by Beja tribal groups in many regions, and it seems it would be difficult to make specific classification, though the variations in blade shape offer obvious temptation.

What I described with regard to the blade shape would be classified at this point as purely anecdotal, in which the Beja man from Eritrea told me that the 'hooked' shape blades were actually Afar (in the Danakil regions) and were not Hadendoa. It would be interesting to pursue that statement further, but I have not done so.

I have always considered these 'X' shapes as 'anthromorphic' from the Indian chilanum types of this form, which seem to have a distant connection to the ancient Celtic hilt forms described as such in Oakeshott and others. There were of course ancient trade connections between these cultures.

[Devadatta]

Unfortunatelly I have no beja-dagger in my collection, still I'm planning to purchase a few.

But I have a theory that this kind of shape came from arabs, since this region always had relations with Southern Arabia and in fact the blade of the curved one and the manner of wearing looks pretty similar to jambiya. And handle could become X-shaped already in Africa, because also being wide from both ends it reminds me of arabic jambiyas

[Devadatta]

And by the way I found such an interesting piece in Oriental arms "sold" list: a beja-dagger with yemeni-style scabbard

http://oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=2791

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Devadatta

Unfortunatelly I have no beja-dagger in my collection, still I'm planning to purchase a few.

But I have a theory that this kind of shape came from arabs, since this region always had relations with Southern Arabia and in fact the blade of the curved one and the manner of wearing looks pretty similar to jambiya. And handle could become X-shaped already in Africa, because also being wide from both ends it reminds me of arabic jambiyas

Well placed observation, the Arabs were a profound influence as thier trade from India's coasts and to Africas east coasts from Zanzibar into the Red Sea were the link between the influences I mentioned. The Celtic influence via the Indo-European movements into the subcontinent had emplaced there, with the Arab trade carrying it westward.