Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Pale tan field of pointed arrowheads and thin black lines, gently fringed at the top.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Among the Kuba, raffia cloth long carried questions of rank, and panels like this were generally worn as skirts or given at ceremonies and funerals. Thin black outlines form tall, pointed lozenges and vee shapes across a pale, almost glowing tan ground, with no solid black at all. Loose fringe rims the top and sides and the surface has faint darkening at the edges. It measures 21 inches wide and 23 long.

Sketched with a light hand, and perfectly happy about it.