Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Tidy basket-weave in tan, with brown fringe flaring at the sides.

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. Diagonal interlaced tan bands with black and brown notches cross the whole cloth in a regular small-scale plait. Loose fringe spills from both sides and the bottom edge. The panel is 21 inches wide by 23 long.

Plaiting without a single strand out of place.