Toubou / Masalit Arm Dagger
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: 18,4cm
Hilt & Blade: 29,8cm
Hilt, Blade, Sheath: 30,5cm
Collection Date: 2016
Deaccessioned: 2024
Collection Number: 40
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 pitting on blade.