Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Three vertical strips in brown, with a black lattice zipper running down the center.

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. Tan-brown cloth in three vertical sections. Wide zigzags and lozenges flank a central strip with a black chain lattice. The brown tones are soft and warm and the pink-tan border is plain. Sections are sewn with visible seams. It measures 18 inches wide and 20.5 long.

A zipper of black diamonds holds the whole thing together.