Pair of Double Blades
Bagirmi, Southern Chad/Central African Republic (Ubangi-Shari Region)
Forged iron, wood
Early 20th century

There is rare a blade designed by the Shona of Zimbabe that resembles these blades in that a single wooden handle sprouts two daggers pointed in the same direction. The provenance and the handle design of these double daggers places their origin much farther north, to the Ubangi-Shari Region of Chad.

Field collected by Armand Marcel Fontaine between 1920 and 1950, when he served as a colonial administrator.

Marc Leo Felix published a set of single-bladed daggers (decidedly different), that had extremely similar handles. He attributed them to cultures farther east: the Ngbaka / Mbanja / Ngiri from Central African Republic / D.R. Congo (White Gold, Black Hands: Ivory Sculpture in Congo Vol. 8, 2014, fig. 3). 

9.5 in :: 24 cm

InventoryID #13-1013

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