Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

Speckled brown cloth, finely marked from end to end, with a neat center seam.

This tcaka or dance skirt is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered & applique raffia & cotton. The cloth is made from raffia palm leaves, which are gathered, dried, softened, dyed and stripped into fibers before being woven into panels and then embroidered. Long textile in warm brown and tan, covered in tiny dense marks and dashes. A vertical seam runs down the center, and the lower end is straight with a small lighter patch on the left. It is 32 inches wide and 194.5 long.

Peppered with small marks and not at all fussy.