Cameroon
Bamileke

Iron and braided raffia – rattan
Early-Mid 20th century
Height: 11 inches x Width: 11 inches x Depth: 4 inches (overall measurements)
Idiophone – Struck Directly  – Double Bell, Metal

The sounds of iron are sometimes equated with voices from ancestral realms. Instruments are kept in the treasuries of chiefs; held in the hands of ritual experts such as diviners; and used at occasions marking social transitions such as initiation, marriage, and funerals. This double bell is made from the skills and technic of iron smelting and forging.  A technology that first developed on the African continent roughly 2,500 years ago.  The ability to create with iron is often considered a divine gift. 

Ritual accessories such as metal alloy gongs, take on a wide variety of shapes.  This double gong, in its simplicity, was most likely a sacred instrument and the emblem of one of the many male societies of the Bamileke people of the grassland, the ‘Kwifoyn,” whose headquarters adjoined the royal palace.  The tapping of wooden sticks on hollow metal heralded the beginning of ceremonies; communication with the supernatural, ancestors, and deities.  These bells were also objects of prestige, they accompanied the respect due to the chiefs.  This is an old piece with wear and thick crusty patina.