Kaskara

The kaskara is a traditional straight sword characteristic of Sudan, Chad and Eritrea. Its blade was usually about a yard long, double edged and ended in a spatulate tip. Most surviving examples date from the nineteenth century, but the type is believed to have originated around the early fourteenth century and may be a local survival of the straight double-edged medieval Arab sword. It was worn horizontally across the back or between the upper arm and the ribs. British Museum curator Christopher Spring described such swords as an essential possession of most men in the central and eastern Sudan, from Chad through Darfur to the Red Sea province. The infobox links its use to the Mahdist State during the Mahdist War.