The mysterious Mandinka saber

[Changdao]

Originally Posted by Pertinax

Thanks to Changdao for this very important information.

But I would like to discuss specifically the "Mandinka" sabers, which date to the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

I have the following questions:

1. The production of the specimens shown in the photo involved various crafts—blacksmiths, tanners, coppersmiths (this is not the work of a lone artisan), similar to the Blacksmith Market (A. Suq al Haddad) in Kassala described in Edwin Hanley's brilliant essay. Where could such production have taken place at that time?

2. I rightly mentioned the Berlin Conference of 1884 and the colonization of Africa by the early 20th century. Did the colonizers in the occupied territories allow local residents to make swords and sabers?

All this calls into question the dating of these specimens.

Finally, the presence of such richly decorated scabbards calls into question the use of these sabers in combat.

Sincerely,
Yuri

Those certainly are interesting questions.

Regarding 1, in traditional Mandinka society there is a tripartite hereditary division between horon or free farmers (from which the "noblemen" and headmen come from), nyamakala or specialized professionals, and slaves (who could become freemen, or their descendants could). Amongst the specialized professionals we find leather workers (garankew, and they claim Soninke origins), wood carvers, bards, and metalworkers or numuw (that also do pottery in the female side of the clans). They are integrated into wider Mande society, but one would find greater agglomerations of them, capable of more complex and specialized work, in large villages and urban areas. Some areas in particular have greater concentrations of metalworkers than others, but every single town had (and still had in the 20th century) at least a blacksmith family. Their workspaces are invariably in these towns, and most have three to five families of metalworkers living there. Smelting furnaces were, however, located outside of town and operated jointly by the local smith communities.

Here I am working from The Mande blacksmiths : knowledge, power, and art in West Africa

Regarding the scabbards, I don't see why being ornate would make them unfit for combat. Lavish decoration on weaponry has been a feature of warfare everywhere since prehistory, and when individuals could afford some bling on their gear they almost invariably did so. Besides, in 19th century engravings where they appear one can sometimes spot these leather decorations.