French Foreign Legion: Arms Contexts

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you Ed, and actually this topic area covers wide scope colonially, and historically over a long period extending past our chronological parameters, so this is indeed a fascinating example of how wide these traditions and edged weapons spread.

I had never heard of this knife until now, and seems to have been created c. 1929 by a family in France drawing on traditions from Melanesia. This is a great example of how colonialism, in this case of France, diffused cultural elements so widely. The colonial activity of France in Algeria carried into the 60s, and apparently these knives were popularly used by Algerian rebels notoriously.
While much later than the periods we are focused on, the traditions of the knives as used in native tribal manner simply conveyed to more modern examples of older types of knives.

The folding knife element of course brings to mind the navaja, which though typically regarded as Spanish, had prevalent examples that were French as well.

[Jim McDougall]

One of the key edged weapon examples I think of sometimes mounted with bayonet blades would be the Moroccan s'boula. While native makers were entirely capable of making blades, with bayonet blades around, why not use them?

The sboula with red cord has a blade from what appears a Mannlicher-Berthier 1892 bayonet; the bayonet form.
Then a Chassepot 1874 bayonet sometimes found in the s'boula worn by Berber tribesmen in Morocco.
While the Foreign Legion was situated primarily in Algerian regions, the borders were of course diaphanous, and eventually the Legion did establish an outpost in Oudja, near that border but in Morocco.

[Jim McDougall]

The s'boula of Morocco, which is a sort of dirk, seems to have a variety of forms, with this H shaped hilt being one of the most frequently seen. Others, as previously shown have hilts of kouumya form and likely others. It does seem the blade is typically straight, and as often the case, old bayonet blades.

These weapons appear to have diffused notably out of Morocco via the networks of trade routes, especially those trans Saharan routes with those making the Pilgrimage to Mecca. These people often carried weapons and commerce to trade along the way to finance their travels. As the route reached the far east, there was interaction with traders from Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) and these s'boula seem to have been in enough number that they were often regarded by some writers to have been Ethiopian weapons.

This was carried further by the fact that several examples were known with Geez script etched on blades. The Falasha's, armorers to the Amharic rulers apparently added this to some of these s'boula.

To complicate proper identification further, Burton (1884) perpetuated an identification of these as 'Zanzibar' swords (alongside an Omani 'kattara') which was clearly taken from Demmin (1877). These s'boula had clearly made it into the African interior where Omani traders took them back to the Sultanate in Zanzibar. Charles Buttin (1933) noted this situation (pages shown).

Though digressing from the tribal arms and Foreign Legion context, this simply illustrates how widespread weapons forms were in North Africa via the dynamic conduits of the trade networks.