This is my 1890s Ngombe executioner's sword. The Ngombe ("river people") are a Congolese ethnographic group who manufactured these swords for ceremonial executions. The victim would be tied by their feet to the ground with their neck tied to a bent flexible tree, suspending them between the earth and bent tree.
The executioner would then hack off their head with the curved edge of the sword, catapulting the severed head over the tree tops. The Ngombe believed that the head remained alive for moments after being severed and the experience of sailing over the treetops would ease the transition into the afterlife.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the Belgians banned the manufacture of these swords, but the Ngombe continued making them anyway and used them in ceremonial dances and as a status symbol.
My specimen is 17 inches from blade tip to handle and 8 inches from handle to the end of the pommel. For more information about the Belgian Congo (and by extension, the historical context within which this sword was used and banned), check out King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.
Now without further ado, here is my Ngombe executioner's sword:
I can assure you there is no active rust on the blade and the redness is a result of lighting and my camera.
Post your exotic (African, Pacific Islands, Middle Eastern, etc) blades if you have them.