Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Wandering maze lines and scattered diamond specks, light as pencil on parchment.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Kuba cloth begins with the fibers of the raffia palm, and the embroidery that covers it is slow, patient work. Thin black meander lines form arrow shapes across a pale cream ground, with small black diamonds and dots dotted in loosely. The scale is fine and open. A faint horizontal seam crosses the middle, and the edges are hemmed. The panel is 23 inches wide by 24 long.

The lines lose their way a few times and find it again.