North African dagger?

[Tim Simmons]

I also think, that although this dagger originates from north of the equator it is not North African. In my opinion it is from the southern part of the Sahara, the Sahel and quite old. The French were one of the first to promote the use of aluminium. The similarity with this Hausa hilt, the knobs in particular are too close to ignore, a wide spread phenomenon throughout this region.