Mahdist staff - Sudan - 45,5 cm
AMNH and BM are not sure what it is. Maybe it's was once in the Mahdist time a sign of rank or simply a dancing tool.
Stéphane Pradines wrote in an article "A late military use of the sphero-conical in the 19th Century Sudan"
"These objects are clearly too small to be used as weapons. These little maces were probably used as a command baton by the unit’s leaders."
The article show a similar Sudanese baton of command from the Greek independence war 1820–1821.