South Sudan
Dinka

Iron metal
ca. Early 20th Century

Idiophone – Struck Directly – Bell with Clapper

This Dinka cow bell consist of a body formed from a rectangular sheet of iron, folded over double, with the long sides heated and hammered together. The top and sides have been flattened, but the central part of the body forced open, creating an almost cylindrical hollow interior. A small clapper that extends to just inside the lip of the bell has been attached inside. This is made from a thicker iron rod, round in shape, that tapers towards the top. 

Cattle bells were an early trade item in the Sudan. The Dinka people are an ethnic group inhabiting the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin, Jonglei and parts of southern Kordufan and Upper Nile regions. They are mainly agricultural people, relying on cattle herding at riverside camps in the dry season and growing millet and other varieties of grains in fixed settlements during the rainy season.