Yes, throughout central Africa they had multi-bladed throwing knives like the [kpinga][1], these were used in war. Other cultures had similar knives.

Considering that they didn't wear a lot of armour these could do a lot of damage and were difficult to dislodge in a hurry if you got struck.

Very nasty weapons. Not the primary weapon of course which was a spear but dangerous from 30 feet and more, and if a whole bunch of them were flying at once it could create havoc.

Your basic well balanced throwing knife has quite a few drawbacks in comparison. Primarily that you need to judge the rotation and distance which only comes from practice with identical knives. This sort it doesn't matter where in it's rotation it hits a person. It's not a precision, finesse, stealth attack weapon, it's a nasty, scary, hit you anywhere and see if you bleed out weapon.

  [1]: https://interestingengineering.com/this-ancient-multi-bladed-throwing-knife-is-designed-to-inflict-the-maximum-damage-to-the-enemy