Toubou / Masalit Arm Dagger

Toubou / Masalit or surrounding neighbors

Tibesti - Ennedi - Ouaddaï Regions, French Equatorial Africa (Northern Chad) - Darfur, Anglo- Egyptian Sudan (West Darfur, Sudan)

Mid 20th century (ca. 1930 - 1960)

Steel, reptile skin (monitor), leather, stone

Blade: 7 1/4" (18,4cm)

Hilt & Blade: 11 3/4" (29,8cm)

Hilt, Blade, Sheath: 12" (30,5cm)

The arm dagger of the Toubou People of Northern Chad, associated primarily with the Tibesti, Ennedi, and Ouaddaï regions. These daggers are used by both Teda and Daza of the Toubou, worn on the arm with the blade facing upwards like many of the other styles of arm daggers in the Sahelian belt. They are also used by the Masalit people and can be found into the Darfur region of Sudan made in the city of Geneina.

The straight steel blade is double- edged and tapers to an acute point. There are two central fullers with stippled zig- zag incised decoration, separated by a central ridge for 3/4 of the blade's length. Hilt of woven leather and reptile skin (monitor) with the pommel of a sharpened stone, sometimes referred to as a "skullcrusher". The sheath of leather and reptile skin (monitor) with a leather braided arm loop. As common, the sheath has now shrunk, and the blade resists full insertion. Some minor pitting on the blade.

From the Mansfield Collection.

I am releasing this item from my personal ethnographic arms collection. Feel free to ask questions. Enquire for international shipping quote (actual cost).