Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

Warm tan panels stitched together, each section ruled with its own fine pattern.

This tcaka or dance skirt is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered raffia. Typical woven panels measure about 26 by 28 inches and are sewn together into the great length of a wrap-around skirt, which can at times reach beyond twenty feet. Long wide textile in warm tan and ochre with several patched sections, some filled with fine linear grids and others left plain. Faint stains show in places, and the lower end has a lighter band. It is 34 inches wide and 149 long.

A quilt of patterns that keeps its sections straight.