Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

A tall strip that starts with polka-dotted diamonds and gradually turns to lace.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Shoowa cloths come from the Kuba kingdom in the Kasai region, where men traditionally wove the raffia ground and women embroidered it. Stacked bands run down a long upright panel, from black studded diamonds and checkerboards at the top to a fine pale lattice of small lozenges below. Two sections are joined at the middle. The lower half is much lighter. It is 19.5 inches across and 45 long.

Each band down the strip is a little calmer than the last.