NupeMasks, figures & African art

1. overview

The Nupe, whose autonymic self-designation is Nupencizi and who are historically referred to as Nupawa in the exonymic nomenclature of the neighbouring Hausa, represent one of the most culturally and art-historically significant ethnic groups of the so-called Middle Belt in Nigeria. Geographically and demographically, their primary settlement area is centred on the fertile river valleys and floodplains at the confluence of the Niger and Kaduna rivers. The administrative core of this area lies in present-day Niger State, with the historical capital of Bida as its urban epicentre, but extends deep into the states of Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) with significant diasporic and indigenous populations. Considering a highly dynamic national demography, where the total population of Nigeria is projected to be about 237.5 million by 2025, the Nupe population is estimated to be close to 3.5 to 4.5 million individuals, making it a dominant force in central Nigeria. Linguistically, Nupe - with around 1.8 million first language speakers (L1) and a growing number of second language speakers - is classified as a core language of the Nupoid language family, which in turn forms a distinct branch of the Volta-Niger subgroup within the massive Niger-Congo language phylum.

The social structure and the interwoven political economy of the Nupe present themselves as highly stratified and strictly hierarchically organised, which stands in sharp contrast to the traditionally more decentralised, acephalous social models of some eastern neighbours such as the Igbo. Historically, the Nupe formed an independent and militarily expansive kingdom between the 15th and 16th centuries under the leadership of their mythical cultural hero Tsoede, which emerged through conquest and the consolidation of neighbouring groups. This indigenous hegemony ended abruptly with the Fulani jihad of 1806, when Islamic cavalry units from the north subjugated the kingdom. As a result, the Nupe kingdom was incorporated into the extensive Sokoto Caliphate as an emirate. From then on, an Islamic emir ruled under the indigenous title of Etsu Nupe, creating a complex dual structure of Islamic aristocracy and indigenous subalterns. This political transformation caused a deep socio-economic divide between the urban and rural areas. While the urban centres such as Bida are characterised by a mercantile elite and highly specialised, guild-like organised trades, the periphery is dominated by an agrarian subsistence economy. The kinship systems are strictly patrilineal, with control over land and ritual offices being inherited through male lineages, although women enjoy significant economic autonomy in the market economy.

In relation to their neighbouring peoples - primarily the Yoruba in the south, the Hausa and Fulani in the north and the Igala in the southeast - the Nupe historically acted as indispensable mediators in the transregional trade networks along the Niger. They absorbed influences and exported their highly valued craft products in equal measure, which led to reciprocal stylistic and ritual adoptions that are deeply evident in the archaeological record.

In the history of academic discourse, there is a profound, paradigmatic controversy regarding the classification and socio-political nature of the Nupe state. In his classic monograph A Black Byzantium (1942), the British-Austrian anthropologist Siegfried F. Nadel coined the image of the Nupe as a hybrid, Afro-Oriental high culture characterised by a stable, quasi-feudal equilibrium. He argued in structural-functionalist terms that the economic and political complexity of the kingdom generated a smooth social interdependence. Today, this interpretation is obsolete and the subject of harsh criticism. The anthropologist Ronald Cohen (1971) deconstructed Nadel's equilibrium model as ahistorical and non-dialectical. Cohen argued that Nadel's structural-functionalist method inevitably produced a "harmony model" that was completely inadequate to capture the massive internal social conflicts and contradictions of the Nupe state. In particular, according to Cohen, Nadel ignored the historical reality that the state was based on military conquest, systematic slavery and brutal internal exploitation by the ruling elite. Dirk Kohnert (2007) expanded on this criticism from a historical materialist perspective and emphasised that Nadel's colonial view romanticised the violent structures of rule. A careful socio-spatial mapping of these structural inequalities, as occasionally contextualised in the curatorial archives and collection documentation of the Fowler Museum (UCLA) on the neighbouring regions, thus reveals Nupe society not as a static Byzantium, but as a highly dynamic space permeated by internal class tensions.

2. cultural context

The religious paradigm of the Nupe defies simple categorisation and today operates in a state of highly complex syncretism. While the formal conversion to Sunni Islam has been completed almost across the board since the Fulani jihad, especially in the urban centres, a deep subtext of indigenous cosmological ideas persists, which largely dictates ritual behaviour in rural areas. In direct structural comparison to the neighbouring Yoruba, who cultivate an extremely differentiated, anthropomorphic and polytheistic pantheon (the Orisha), the pre-Islamic religion of the Nupe is far more abstract and diffusely organised.

The cosmological order culminates in the figure of the supreme creator god, Soko. In contrast to the acting gods of the Yoruba, Soko is considered completely transcendent, unapproachable and cannot be directly influenced by prayer. Due to this inaccessibility of the creator, the ritual system is necessarily based on instances of mediation. The primary mediators are the ancestors, above all the legendary cultural hero and founder of the state Tsoede, as well as various localised natural and spiritual beings. The kings (Etsu) of the Nupe were traditionally regarded as direct physical incarnations of Tsoede, which is why they functioned as living mediators who maintained the sacred balance between the universal power Sokos and the profane legal order.

Operational ritual authority is vested in specific, strictly hereditary priestly classes and closed secret societies, whose offices are divided up regionally. A central figure is the Ndazo ("the rare man"), who as high priest (or Gunnuko) presides over the fundamental agrarian Gunnu cult, which is responsible for fertility and harvest. In other areas, such as Jebba, the Ejuko acts as the spiritual guardian of the sacred bloodline of Tsoede. Initiation and transition rituals are central to the rhythmisation of social life, of which the Gani festival enjoys the highest prominence. Historically celebrated as a fertility and New Year festival at the time of the vernal equinox (with associated myths of ritual "snake slaying" and initiations for adolescent princes), the festival was largely synchronised with the Islamic Mawlud (the Prophet's birthday) in a remarkable act of cultural appropriation, but without completely forfeiting its indigenous sacrificial practices, such as the ritual offering of animals.

Women play a highly ambivalent, potentially threatening and ritually indispensable role within this system, which brings us closer to one of the most discussed topics in African sociology. At the centre is the title of the Lelu (or Sagi). Originally, this term referred to the secular leader of the market women, a position of enormous economic power. Over time, this title underwent an occult reinterpretation: the Lelu was conceptualised as the supreme overseer of witches. It is believed that she possesses secret, dangerous knowledge which, if controlled by the community, protects against the destructive work of other witches, but has devastating consequences if the ritual is handled incorrectly. The Lelu thus acts as an antithesis to the purely male anti-witch cults and dances head-on against the ancestral spirits in masked performances.

The interpretation of this omnipresent belief in witches and the institutionalised anti-witch cults (Ndako Gboya) constitutes the sharpest theoretical-historical research controversy in the ethnography of the Nupe. In his work, Siegfried Nadel postulated a psychoanalytical-functional thesis: he saw the witchcraft accusations as a cultural outlet for deep psychological tensions between the sexes. According to Nadel, Nupe men perceived the growing economic independence of travelling market women as a threat to their traditional authority; the anti-witch cult thus served as a psychological compensation mechanism. Dirk Kohnert (2007) diametrically opposes this essentialist view and instead locates the belief in witches in a precise historical-materialist context. Kohnert makes a well-founded argument that the ruling elite deliberately instrumentalised anti-witchcraft cults as a tool of political repression. According to Kohnert, witchcraft accusations served as an explanation for social or economic blockades and legitimised the physical elimination of political opponents, whereby the cult functioned not psychologically, but as a coldly calculated instrument of maintaining power and class oppression. Today, in comparative exhibitions of West African mask paradigms, such as those curated at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, such masked instances of control and their complex socio-political dynamics are no longer presented and analysed merely as art, but as instruments of indigenous jurisdiction.

3. aesthetic features

The aesthetic matrix and material culture of the Nupe is profoundly influenced by the tectonic shift triggered by the process of Islamisation in the 19th century. The introduction of the Islamic doctrine of aniconism led to a radical reduction of figurative sculpture in public and courtly spaces, which is why today's canon of proportions in Nupe art is primarily defined by virtuoso, highly complex geometric abstraction. The figurative carvings that once dominated the pre-Islamic era survived almost exclusively in secret cults hidden from public view or in peripheral villages.

The canonical object typology of the Nupe, which is received on the international art market and in museum contexts, primarily comprises three highly specialised categories: glass bead production, elaborate wood carving (especially doors and chairs) and the historically controversial masterpieces of bronze casting.

A singular masterpiece of woodcarving that perfectly embodies the profane canon of proportions of the Nupe is the multi-legged ruler's stool. These stools, made by specialised master workshops (the Egbas or Gbagba), have significant morphological features that distinguish them from any seating furniture from neighbouring ethnic groups. The workshops, whose origins date back to 1815 in the communities of Shimini and Takoassa under the patronage of King Etsu Saba, maintain an extraordinary level of technical expertise. The most iconic subtype of this piece of furniture is the Esa Sagi (also called Masharuwa), a ritual chair that was reserved for female authorities with a high judicial function and often has up to twelve tapering legs. The technical brilliance lies in the construction: the entire stool, which can measure up to two feet in height and diameter, is carved seamlessly from a single, solid piece of wood. The alignment is chosen so that the grain of the wood runs horizontally across the seat and even across the solid legs, giving the object a distinctive physical and visual texture. The iconography of the concave seating surfaces is dominated by deep, precise linear and triangular notched sections, reflecting the Islamic influence. Occasionally, this geometric rigour is interrupted by flat, abstract reliefs of animals - snakes, lizards or ostriches - which are interpreted as subtle reminiscences of indigenous nature spirits and autochthonous cosmologies.

The second pillar of material culture is the art of glassmaking in the famous Masagá workshops of Bida. These guilds have been producing beads and bracelets for centuries by melting down old glass. As the workshops operate continuously to this day, the optical dating of Bida glass is impossible without modern archaeometric methods. Edith Platte and other researchers have pointed out that only techniques such as non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) or laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma (LA-ICP-MS) can detect precise chemical signatures (such as specific plant ashes) to distinguish pre-colonial pieces from post-colonial replicas.

The sources on the origin and iconography of the most monumental metal works - the famous Tada and Jebba bronzes found on the banks of the Niger - are extremely ambiguous and form the centre of one of the most virulent art-historical controversies in West Africa. These complex lost-wax casts are striking for their physical presence, as evidenced by historical accounts by colonial official Robert Longmore, who documented, among other things, a striking, nearly nude female figure (about two feet tall) seated with her left leg crossed and missing arms and one foot, and a highly complex, 3 foot 6 inch tall male figure with an elaborate ringlet-shaped mop of hair, a disc-shaped headdress and a richly detailed embossed tunic. Renowned art historians such as Frank Willett and Douglas Fraser have analysed the complex scarification and proportions of these works and clearly identify them stylistically as imports from the Yoruba centres of Ife or Owo. In contrast, indigenous historians such as Idris Sha'aba Jimada, referring to the firm oral tradition of the Nupe, formulate a fundamental rejection of this foreign attribution. They vehemently declare the bronzes to be genuine, autochthonous works of the Nupe, which were cast or commissioned directly by the cultural hero Tsoede.

There is a fundamental difference in the treatment of an activated ritual object and a profane work of art. A geometrically decorated ruler's chair always retains its secular, profane status. Activated cult objects, on the other hand, especially the ancestral bronzes and secret wooden masks, show profound physical modifications through stratified patina layers resulting from decades of sacrificial offerings (blood, palm wine, millet porridge). This ritual crust is the most important authenticity criterion for the collectors' market. If relevant to the market, forgery criteria focus on the nature of this patina. Forgers often apply artificial stains or expose the wood to aggressive acid baths to simulate old age. Serious forensics look for authentic termite damage that has been organically rounded and smoothed by subsequent ritual use, as well as deep heartwood cracks that can only be caused by natural, decades-long wood drying in situ. Reference pieces of this complex material culture, in particular historical casts and woodwork, can be found as central research anchors in the West Africa department of the British Museum.

4. ritual practice

The ritual performance of the Nupe reveals a radical and strict separation between the public, strongly Islamic-influenced sphere and the closed operations of the indigenous secret societies. The absolute centre of indigenous jurisdiction, social control and the physical and spiritual purification of the community is the performance of the Ndako Gboya cult (also known as the anti-witch cult).

In stark visual and material contrast to the heavily carved, figurative wooden masks of the neighbouring Yoruba (such as the Gelede or Egungun masks), the physical manifestation of the Ndako Gboya is not made of wood but of textile architectures. The mask takes the form of a gigantic tube of white cotton cloth, up to twelve feet (almost four metres) high, which is supported on the inside only by a central, highly flexible bamboo pole (Nadel 1954). This fragile but imposing construction allows the wearer inside to make jerky, unpredictable and seemingly physically impossible movements of growth and shrinkage, which visually emphasises the supernatural presence of the mask.

The activation of this ritual complex is subject to absolute secrecy and is orchestrated by an exclusively male secret society. The cult never appears spontaneously, but operates at the formal invitation of village communities suffering from epidemics, sudden deaths or inexplicable crop failures - events that are invariably attributed to witchcraft. The lifecycle of the mask begins as a profane cotton fabric. Only after a seven-day initiation phase, during which secret incantations are spoken and blood sacrifices are made (primarily chickens dedicated to the creator Soko or the ancestors), is the fabric ontologically transformed and ritually charged.

During the performance, an atmosphere of extreme tension and danger dominates. The gigantic mask moves wildly through the village; the dancer inside completely conceals his human identity and speaks with an artificially generated, shrill voice that is understood by the community as a direct manifestation of the ancestors. The physical and spiritual presence of the Ndako Gboya is considered so toxic and dangerous for non-initiates that accompanying priests with sticks patrol continuously around the mask to keep the crowd physically at a distance. The culmination of the ritual is the identification of the supposed witch. Traditionally, the suspect was led into the bush and made to scratch the earth with her bare fingernails; if blood appeared under the nails, guilt was considered proven, which historically led to execution or severe fines. In peripheral migratory groups of the Nupe, such as the Bassa-Nge who settled further south, regional variants of this cult have developed. Here, the Ebunu masks assume similar judicial functions, often escorted by initiated boys (the Ebunu children) whose bodies are painted with ritual red and white dots.

Sacrifice intensifies dramatically during the annual Gani festival or during acute crises. At these times, not only chickens but specifically red and black goats or rams are sacrificed. The blood of these animals is used to nourish the permanent altars and masks and to stabilise the cosmological order.

The process of deactivating and disposing of ritually active objects is a highly critical and dangerous process. Once activated by blood and incantation, an object is never profaned again in the Nupe faith. If the physical structure of the textile Ndako Gboya materials deteriorates or the carved ancestral staffs break, they must not be burnt or carelessly thrown away. They are taken by the priests deep into inaccessible parts of the forest or deposited in dedicated, top-secret shrines (the Kutimba). There they are left to decay naturally due to termites and the weather, as their residual spiritual charge (nyankpa) is still considered absolutely deadly for non-initiates. Progressive museum institutions such as the Musée du quai Branly in Paris are increasingly attempting to document these complex lifecycle processes in their exhibition narratives in order to make the ontological transformation of African ritual objects from active, dangerous actors to passive museum artefacts comprehensible to a Western audience.

5. historical context

The migration, formation and art history of the Nupe is not a linear evolution, but rather characterised by radical historical breaks, imperial expansions and external subjugations. The initial historical myths locate the consolidation of the kingdom in the late 15th or early 16th century by the cultural hero Tsoede, who took over the title of Etsu from the neighbouring Igala culture. Under his rule, the region on the middle reaches of the Niger experienced an economic and cultural heyday, which presumably induced the production of high-quality figurative bronze casting art - the Tada and Jebba bronzes that are still debated today.

The most fundamental historical caesura and the greatest incision in the material culture of the Nupe occurred in 1806, when cavalry units from northern Hausaland invaded Nupe territory in the course of the massive Islamic wars of expansion (Fulani Jihad) under Uthman dan Fodio, subjugated the indigenous rulers and incorporated the area into the Sokoto Caliphate as an emirate. This formal subjugation and the accompanying forced Islamisation of the Nupe ruling class fundamentally changed art production: the strict Islamic scepticism of images (aniconism) pushed anthropomorphic and figurative representations irrevocably into the rural, pre-Islamic underground. From then on, the elitist urban patronage of the new Islamic emirs in Bida shifted exclusively to highly complex geometric abstraction, as manifested in the carved wooden doors, the many-legged ruler's chairs, the masagá glass bead production and elaborate metallurgical ornamentation on weapons and vessels.

The beginning of direct colonialisation at the end of the 19th century by the British Royal Niger Company and the final incorporation into the protectorate of Northern Nigeria resulted in systematic observation and soon after a massive extraction of cultural artefacts. The establishment of Western museology on Nigerian soil quickly led to a deep ontological conflict over the preservation of art. Colonial museum directors such as Kenneth C. Murray and British curators such as Hermann Braunholtz espoused the museum premise of physical conservation: they viewed indigenous practices in which artefacts were stored openly, exposed to the elements or permanently reworked with oil and paint as "neglect" and demanded the transfer of objects, such as the Benin and Nupe bronzes, to "safe" European institutions such as the British Museum. The ritual practice of the Nupe, on the other hand, demanded the constant reworking, refitting and ritual nourishment of the objects with organic materials, a process that Western curators mistakenly misunderstood as 'ruining' the original condition (Grout 2021). This historical divergence in conservation philosophies still characterises the reception of the works today.

The breakthrough of Nupe art on the Western art market primarily took place in the middle of the 20th century, fuelled by elite private collectors who read the geometric-abstract formal vocabulary of Nupe as a relative of Western modernism. One of the most influential pioneering collections was founded in 1959 by the American property entrepreneur Paul Tishman and his wife Ruth. They focussed on the sculptural traditions of West Africa and established Nigerian woodwork and bronzes as undisputed masterpieces of global art history through wide-ranging exhibitions. The enormous historical and pecuniary relevance of these objects became apparent when the Tishman collection was sold to the Walt Disney Company in 1984 and finally donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) in 2005. As a result of this institutional accolade, the auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's recorded massive price increases for historical African artefacts from the 1990s onwards, which inevitably led to a shadow economy of forgeries.

Verifying the authenticity of historical Nupe works poses considerable forensic challenges for collectors and institutions. In the case of woodwork such as the geometric ruler's chairs or carved doors, provenance experts demand genuine signs of ageing, which must be distinguished from artificial weathering. These include authentic termite damage, the edges of which have been smoothed to a greasy finish by decades of ritual or secular use, deep cracks in the heartwood, which can only be caused by natural, extremely slow wood drying in situ, as well as a dense, organically grown patina of use that has penetrated into the pores. Forgeries, on the other hand, often show uniformly applied stain, fresh, sharp cut edges in cracks or traces of corrosion artificially created with acid. In the case of Bida bronzes, the problem is exorbitantly exacerbated: as the local workshops continue to produce for the internal and external market without historical interruption using the traditional lost wax process, metallic objects that do not exhibit an organically stratified ritual sacrificial patina elude precise pre-colonial dating. Objects of this indisputable quality level and historical depth, whose authenticity has been forensically and provenance-historically verified, are today presented as irreplaceable anchor pieces in the African collections of world museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York.