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The machete is normally used to cut through thick vegetation such as sugar cane or jungle undergrowth (the lack of a primary grind makes the machete much less effective on woody vegetation), but it can also be used as an offensive weapon. Machetes were the primary weapon used by the Interahamwe militias in the Rwandan Genocide. The modern machete is very similar to some forms of the mediaeval falchion (a type of swordA sword (from Old English sweord akin to Old High German swerd is a bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade and a handle. The blade is normally of metal and often ground to at least one sharp edge and usually has a pointed tip), differing mainly in the lack of a guard and a simpler hilt.
A panga (a Swahili word) is a variant used in southern AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including the islands, it covers 20. 3% of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants it accounts for ar, with a broader blade and a squared off tip. In the PhilippinesThe Republic of the Philippines is an island nation consisting of an archipelago of 7,107 islands, lying in the tropical western Pacific Ocean about 100 kilometers southeast of mainland Asia. Spain (1521-1898) and the United States (1898-1946), colonized, a boloA bolo is a kind of machete. is a very similar tool, but with the blade swelling just before the tip to make the knife even more tip-heavy for chopping.
Other similar tools include the parang and the golok (from MalaysiaThe Federation of Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. It consists of two geographical regions divided by the South China Sea: Peninsular Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula is bordered to the north by Thailand and to the south by Singapore; East Malaysia and IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia the world's largest archipelago, is located between the Southeast Asian peninsula and Australia, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Indonesia borders Malaysia on the island of Borneo ( Kalimantan in Bahasa Indonesia), Papua N), however these tend to have shorter, thicker blades with a primary grind, and are more effective on woody vegetation.