Boa / Azande Mambeli
Boa / Azande Mambeli Sword
Uélé District, Congo Free State - Orientale Province, Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Late 19th - Early 20th century (ca. 1880 - 1920)
Iron, wood
Blade: 52,7cm
Hilt & Blade: 62,9cm
Hilt, Blade, Sheath: -cm
Collection Date: 2022
Collection Number: 280
A short sword known as a mambeli from the tribes of the Boa, Azande, and other numerous surrounding subsect neighbors of the Congo. These short swords served as symbols of status among the men and were distributed extensively throughout the region in diverse varieties.
This example has a double-edged iron blade in spearpoint form with a slightly raised rib on one outside edge. Decorated with linear engraved grooves on one half of the blade, which are offset on the reverse side. Cylindrical wood handle. Some chips to the hilt and nicks to the blade. An honest grade Congolese sword.
“Beauté Fatale. Armes d’ Afrique Centrale”. 1992. Page 179: #283
W. O. Oldman, “Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographic Specimens”, December 1904: List No. 21; Item #22 (4366)
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1903-0717-7
http://www.africanarms.com/gallery?boa-sword-66-5-x-7-2-cm-464-gr