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36-455: The Bakassi Boys were usually armed with machetes and guns , and wear an array of black magic artifacts and Juju around their body. They operate in the Igbo areas of Nigeria and have been accused of extrajudicial killings of suspected petty thieves, armed robbers, ritual killers, murderers, corrupt persons, and generally anyone they considered evil. The manner in which they determined if one

72-733: A Chief Petty Officer escorting the White Ensign and by Senior or Leading Ratings in an escort at a court martial . The cutlass remained an official weapon in the United States Navy , until it was stricken from the Navy's active inventory in 1949. The cutlass was seldom used for weapons training after the early 1930s. The last new model of cutlass adopted by the US Navy was known as the US M1917 cutlass during World War I , which

108-461: A primary grind , and are more effective on woody vegetation. The tsakat is a similar tool used in Armenia for clearing land of vegetation. Other similar tools include: Cutlass A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword , with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket -shaped guard . It

144-592: A Latin root, along with the Italian coltellaccio or cortelazo ; meaning "large knife". In Italy, the cortelazo was a similar short, broad-bladed sabre popular during the 16th century. The root coltello , for "knife", derived ultimately from the Latin cultellus meaning "smaller knife"; which is the common Latin root for both the Italian and French words. In the English-speaking Caribbean ,

180-698: A common use is for such household tasks as cutting large foodstuffs into pieces—much as a cleaver is used—or to perform crude cutting tasks, such as making simple wooden handles for other tools. It is common to see people using machetes for other jobs, such as splitting open coconuts , yard work, removing small branches and plants, chopping animals' food, and clearing bushes. Machetes are often considered tools and used by adults. However, many hunter–gatherer societies and cultures surviving through subsistence agriculture begin teaching babies to use sharp tools, including machetes, before their first birthdays. People in uprisings sometimes use these weapons. For example,

216-466: A dance called the dança dos facões (machetes' dance) in which the dancers, who are usually men, bang their machetes against various surfaces while dancing, simulating a battle. Maculelê , an Afro-Brazilian dance and martial art, can also be performed with facões . This practice began in the city of Santo Amaro, Bahia , in the northeastern part of the country. In the Philippines , the bolo

252-656: A name for the blow of a machete; the Spanish machetazo is sometimes used in English. In the British Virgin Islands , Grenada , Jamaica , Saint Kitts and Nevis , Barbados , Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago , the word planass means to hit someone with the flat of the blade of a machete or cutlass. To strike with the sharpened edge is to "chop". Throughout the English-speaking islands of

288-433: Is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe , or in combat like a long-bladed knife . The blade is typically 30 to 66 centimetres (12 to 26 in) long and usually under 3 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 8  in) thick. In the Spanish language , the word is possibly a diminutive form of the word macho , which was used to refer to sledgehammers. Alternatively, its origin may be machaera ,

324-499: Is a variant used in East and Southern Africa . This name may be of Swahili etymology; not to be confused with the panga fish . The panga blade broadens on the backside and has a length of 41 to 46 cm (16 to 18 in). The upper inclined portion of the blade may be sharpened. Other similar tools include the parang and the golok (from Malaysia and Indonesia ); however, these tend to have shorter, thicker blades with

360-712: Is manufactured by Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil ( IMBEL ). The machete was used as a weapon during the Mau Mau rebellion , in the Rwandan Genocide, and in South Africa , particularly in the 1980s and early 1990s when the former province of Natal was wracked by conflict between the African National Congress and the Zulu -nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party . Good machetes rely on

396-589: Is used in training in eskrima , the indigenous martial art of the Philippines. In the Jalisco region of Mexico , Los Machetes is a popular folk dance. This dance tells the story of cutting down sugar cane during the harvest. Los Machetes was created by Mexican farm workers who spent a great amount of time perfecting the use of the tool, the machete, for harvesting. Traditionally, real machetes are used while performing this dance. The panga or tapanga

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432-614: The Boricua Popular Army are unofficially called macheteros because of the machete-wielding laborers of sugar cane fields of past Puerto Rico . Many of the killings in the 1994 Rwandan genocide were performed with machetes, and they were the primary weapon used by the Interahamwe militias there. Machetes were also a distinctive tool and weapon of the Haitian Tonton Macoute . In 1762,

468-712: The British captured Havana in a lengthy siege during the Seven Years' War . Volunteer militiamen led by Pepe Antonio, a Guanabacoa councilman, were issued with machetes during the unsuccessful defense of the city. The machete was also the most iconic weapon during the independence wars in Cuba, although it saw limited battlefield use. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes , owner of the sugar refinery La Demajagua near Manzanillo , freed his slaves on 10 October 1868. He proceeded to lead them, armed with machetes, in revolt against

504-549: The Caribbean , the term 'cutlass' refers to a laborers' cutting tool. The Brazilian Army 's Instruction Center on Jungle Warfare developed a machete-style knife with a blade 25 cm (10 in) in length and a very pronounced clip point . This machete is issued with a 13 cm (5 in) Bowie knife and a sharpening stone in the scabbard; collectively called a "jungle kit" ( Conjunto de Selva in Portuguese ); it

540-557: The crime rate of Abia State . They originally enjoyed the support of the governor , Orji Uzor Kalu who appreciated the effectiveness of the group in combating the crimes in Aba and environs. However, as the crime rate was decreasing in Aba, other eastern Igbo cities' crime rates remained the same or were on the increase in some cases. The group then was then reportedly invited to those other cities , including Onitsha and Owerri , to help in

576-521: The falchion (facon, falcon, fauchard) from the Falx , Seax . In England, about 1685 the rather long straight-bladed sword formerly in use began to be superseded by the "hanger". This weapon had a short and more or less curved single-edged blade with a brass hilt of a rather flat double-shell and knuckle-bow. The grip was generally of wood, bound with wire, but some specimens show a brass grip with spiral grooves. These are probably early models. The length of

612-546: The English-speaking Caribbean, Robert Mole & Sons of Birmingham, England, was long considered the manufacturer of agricultural cutlasses of the best quality. Some Robert Mole blades survive as souvenirs of travellers to Trinidad, Jamaica, and, less commonly, St. Lucia. Colombia is the largest exporter of machetes worldwide. The flag of Angola features a machete, along with a cog-wheel . The southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has

648-740: The Spanish government. The first cavalry charge using machetes as the primary weapon was carried out on 4 November 1868 by Máximo Gómez , a sergeant born in the Dominican Republic , who later became the general in chief of the Cuban Army . The machete is a common side arm and tool for many ethnic groups in West Africa . Machetes in this role are referenced in Chinua Achebe 's Things Fall Apart . Some countries have

684-444: The areas where they operate because certain problems in the region have greatly decreased since the inception of the vigilante group in 1998. According to publications by various Nigerian media houses, they had an alleged magical immunity to gunshots. This metaphysical power was referred to as Odeshi amongst the Igbo people of Nigeria. Odeshi is an Igbo word that loosely translates to "it does not leak" or "it would not leak", which

720-403: The blade is usually about 24 inches (61 cm). Although also used on land, the cutlass is best known as the sailor's preferred weapon as it was robust enough to hack or cut through heavy ropes, thick canvas, and dense vegetation, and short enough to be used in relatively close quarters combat, such as during boarding actions, in the rigging , or below decks. Another advantage to the cutlass

756-421: The buccaneer François l'Ollonais using a cutlass as early as 1667. Pirates used these weapons for intimidation as much as for combat, often needing no more than to grip their hilts to induce a crew to surrender, or beating captives with the flat of the blade to force their compliance or responsiveness to interrogation. Owing to its versatility, the cutlass was as often an agricultural implement and tool as it

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792-516: The combatting of violent crimes. In time, law enforcement agencies became regarded as ineffective in the region, and the Bakassi endeared themselves to many Igbo traders and merchants . However, political opponents of some governors accused the group of extrajudicial killings and accused governors of using the Bakassi Boys as weapons of intimidation . As a result of heightened opposition,

828-399: The group has attempted to rebrand itself as Anambra State Vigilante Services. A film titled Issakaba , an anagram for Bakassi , was produced in the year 2000 by Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen , and it depicted the origin of the vigilante group and their encounter with Eddy Nawgu . Machete A machete ( / m ə ˈ ʃ ɛ t i / ; Spanish pronunciation: [maˈtʃete] )

864-595: The majority of the HMS Cossack Association ( Cossack was the ship that boarded Altmark ) and the authors of British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship . The authors point to another claim, a boarding by HMS Armada in 1952, but disbelieve this one too. In their view, the last use of cutlasses by the Royal Navy was by a shore party in China in 1900. Cutlasses continue to be worn in the Royal Navy by

900-542: The materials used and the shape. In the past, the most famous manufacturer of machetes in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean was Collins Company of Collinsville , Connecticut . The company was founded as Collins & Company in 1826 by Samuel W. Collins to make axes . Its first machetes were sold in 1845 and became so famous that a machete was called un collin . In

936-651: The name given by the Greeks and Romans to the falcata . It is the origin of the English language equivalent term matchet , though this is rarely used. In much of the English-speaking Caribbean, such as Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago, the term cutlass is used for these agricultural tools. In various tropical and subtropical countries, the machete is frequently used to cut through rainforest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes (e.g. cutting sugar cane ). Besides this, in Latin America

972-582: The strength of the user. The lead cutter was so named because in demonstrations it was used to cut a lead bar in half. Wilkinson included a mould for the lead bar with each purchase of their swords. In 1830, after a constable of the London Metropolitan Police was shot and stabbed while on duty, the Home Secretary ordered that police officers in the force "should be issued with a cutlass for his defence"; training in their use

1008-580: The word "cutlass" is also used as a word for machete . The cutlass is a 17th-century descendant of the edged short sword, exemplified by the medieval falchion . Woodsmen and soldiers in the 17th and 18th centuries used a similar short and broad backsword called a hanger , or in German a messer , meaning "knife". Often occurring with the full tang (i.e. slab tang) more typical of daggers than swords in Europe, these blades may ultimately derive through

1044-409: Was a common naval weapon during the early Age of Sail . The word "cutlass" developed from the 17th-century English use of coutelas , a 16th-century French word for a machete -like mid-length single-edged blade (the modern French for "knife", in general, is couteau ; in 17th- and 18th-century English the word was often spelled "cuttoe"). The French word coutelas may be a convergent development from

1080-573: Was as a weapon (cf. machete , to which the same comment applies) that was used commonly in rain forest and sugarcane areas, such as the Caribbean and Central America . In their most simplified form they are held to have become the machete of the Caribbean. The lead cutter sword was a weapon modelled on the cutlass, designed for use in shows and demonstrations of swordsmanship in the late Victorian era . Wilkinson Sword made these swords in four sizes, no. 1 to no. 4, of increasing weight to suit

1116-626: Was based on the Dutch M1898 klewang . Although cutlasses were still being made during World War II , they were called the US M1941 cutlass, this was only a slightly modified variant of the US M1917 cutlass. A US Marine Combat Engineer NCO is reported to have killed an enemy combatant with a US M1941 cutlass at the Battle of Inchon during the Korean War . A cutlass is still carried by

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1152-603: Was during the Tottenham Outrage , an armed robbery in 1909. In 1936, the British Royal Navy announced that from then on cutlasses would be carried only for ceremonial duties and not used in landing parties. The last recorded use of cutlasses by the Royal Navy is often said to be on 16 February 1940 during the boarding action known as the Altmark Incident . However, this is disbelieved by

1188-430: Was evil or not was allegedly by the use of dark magic, in which they placed a silver-colored machete on the chest of any suspicious person, and if the machete's color changed from silver to blood red it meant the person had committed a heinous crime at some point in their life, and such a person would be killed immediately. In the south-eastern part of Nigeria, especially Anambra State , they still enjoy popular support in

1224-507: Was its simplicity of use as it required less training than that required to master a rapier or small sword . Cutlasses are famous for being used by pirates , although there is no reason to believe that Caribbean buccaneers invented them, as has occasionally been claimed. However, the subsequent use of cutlasses by pirates is well documented in contemporary sources, notably by the pirate crews of William Fly , William Kidd , and Stede Bonnet . French historian Alexandre Exquemelin reports

1260-420: Was provided at Wellington Barracks . Initially carried while on night duty, they were soon relegated to being kept in the local inspector 's office for use in an emergency. Provincial police forces sometimes deployed cutlasses during public disorder, using the hilts and flat edges of the blades to strike rioters, but there is no record of anyone being killed with one. The last recorded issue of police cutlasses

1296-544: Was used to mean that they were impervious to gunshot. The Bakassi Boys have now rebranded and are now known as Anambra Vigilante Services and have reduced their activities significantly. These groups took their name from the Bakassi peninsula , an oil -rich peninsula in the Annang - Efik - Ibibio region of the coastal south-eastern Nigeria. The Bakassi Boys emerged as a vigilante group simultaneously with sharp increases in

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