Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

Warm tan cloth in horizontal strips, with a fine speckled pattern like tiny writing.

This tcaka or dance skirt is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered strip-woven 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 textile in warm tan and light brown, formed from horizontal strips with a vertical center seam. The surface carries fine, dense speckled patterns, and the edges are creased and softly uneven. It is 34 inches wide and 151 long.

Warm, speckled and perfectly happy to be in stripes.