Daggers: MŻo/A/4013/a-b

Origin: Tubu (Chad)

Local name: ezegis (tamashek language) or loi masa kalam (tudaga language)

Dating: mid-20th century

Dimensions:
A/ length 34.0 cm, width 3.6 cm, depth 1.5 cm
B/ length 22.0 cm, width 3.5 cm, depth 1.0 cm

Made of: iron, wood, leather

Techniques: blacksmithing, leathercraft

Obtained by: Adam Rybiński, antique shop (France), 2010

Description:

The Tubu (Toubou) inhabit the southeastern Sahara, mainly the Tibesti Mountains (north of Chad and neighboring areas in Libya, Niger and Sudan). They are divided into two closely related groups: Teda and Daza. Their number is estimated at about 500,000 people. The dominant religion is Sunni Islam, the basis of the economy is pastoralism and agriculture (in scattered oases). Due to the location of the area they inhabit, they are also involved in the trans-Saharan (caravan) trade. Their ethnonym comes from the name of the Tibesti Mountains, where most of them live. In the Tubu language, tibesti means "rocky mountains" and Tebu "rocky people" [MacMichael 1922]. They were sometimes called the "black nomads of the Sahara" [Baroin 1997: 9-10]. Tubu customs are based on Islamic law, which allows for compensation and revenge. An example is the issue of murder, which is settled directly between the families of the victim and the murderer [Scheele 2015].

The presented dagger with a scabbard is also used by the Tuaregs of Aïr (they call it ezegiz (thm) [Nicolaisen, Nicolaisen 1997: 310]). According to Emmanuelle Minuet, a specialist in Tuareg art, in the Binoche et Giquello auction catalog [2014], daggers of this type were called telek tubu. Teda (Tubu) themselves call this knife, hung by men on the forearm, loi masa kalam [Coeur 1950: 139].

Bibliography:

Baroin Catherine, 1997, Tubu: The Teda and the Dazagra(kara/anakaza/daza), The Rosen Publishing Group.

Coeur Charles le, 1950, Dictionnaire ethnographique Teda. Precede d’un lexique français – Teda, Paris

MacMichael Harold Alfred, 1922, A history of the Arabs in the Sudan and some account of the people who preceuded them and of the tribes inhabiting Darfur, Cambridge University Press.

Menuet Emmanuelle, 2014, Binoche et Giquello, Civilisations. Art Precolombien,  Archeologie, Art. Touareg, vente le Judei 20 fevrier 2014 -14h Drouot salle 9,Paris (auction catalogue)

Rybiński Adam, information provided during interviews (2020-2022).

Scheele Judith, 2015, The values of 'anarchy': moral autonomy among Tubu‐speakers in northern Chad, „Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute”, v. 21 (1), pp. 32–48.

Edited by Lucjan Buchalik

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The purchase is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport as part of the National Institute of Museums and Collections' own program "Expansion of museum collections".