This striking quasi-anthropomorphic bell was made by the Nupe tribe of Central Nigeria, which are technically part of the Sokoto Caliphate, an Islamic state founded by the Fulani. Their art is therefore mainly non-figurative, as required under Islamic law. However, like other places in the Islamic world, this stricture has been carefully negotiated so that pieces such as this can occasionally appear. Pieces predating the conquest (around 1830) are also more likely to be figurative and less abstract than subsequent designs.

The bell is of conventionally unorthodox design, with elements that are reminiscent of the Yoruba and Benin polities, with which the Nupe had considerable dealings (see below). It is comparatively narrow and does not flare greatly towards the base. The apex is crowned with a broad suspension loop, flowing onto the upper aspect of the face that is punctuated by four triangular eminences that are perhaps designed to represent a coiffure. The remainder of the face comprises round, rimmed eyes, a flared nose and exceptionally full and protuberant lips. The anthropomorphic aspect of the face has been diminished by the application of bold bands of relief decoration in straight and diagonal lines, which also act as scarifications beneath the eyes. The edges of the mouth are more unsubtly marked with the trefoil “whiskers” that characterise Yoruba and, particularly, Benin works.
The origins of the Nupe seems to lie in Tsoede, although the Nupe themselves believe that they were originally Egyptian. They settled in their current range in the 15th century, and were influenced by the neighbouring Oyo and Igbo peoples. They were converted in the late 1700s by one Mallam Dendo, an itinerant Muslim preacher, and their lands were forcefully taken into the Sokoto Caliphate some thirty years later. Despite this, it retained considerable cultural autonomy. It subsequently became part of the British Empire, but upon cessation they reverted to a predominantly Muslim (c.90%) agricultural economy with some traditional characteristics that are currently in danger of disappearing altogether.
The Nupe’s creative talents were both redirected and suppressed by Islamic convention. Little remains of their original artistic oeuvres, although the stylistic affinity between their works and those of the Benin groups – as well as their geographical proximity – implies that they may have shared some religious and social structures as well. However, there are no archaeological suggestions that the society was quite as courtly as that in Benin; certainly there are much fewer figurative works, and those that there are tend to be on a much smaller scale. Nonetheless, casting of metal pieces was an expensive and time- intensive process, and it was not done lightly in any of Africa’s pre-colonial populations. Styles were restrained and while designs are technically figurative – even the ample scarifications currently worn by the Nupe are rendered – they are sufficiently expressionistic to come under the co-called “principle of improbability”, a rule of aesthetic creation that seems to have been the watchword of Muslim artists for over a millennium. Their oeuvre mainly consists of wooden stools decorated with (abstract) patterns, which are used as bride-wealth, as well as pottery which is often decorated with brass plates.
The schematic format of this piece indicates that it postdates the Islamic revolution, probably in the mid 19th century. This is a rare and unusual piece of African- Muslim art.