Kuba

Raffia palm, dyed with camwood and stitched into squares and arrows. Kuba textiles here are raffia dance skirts, panels and fragments from the Kuba kingdom of the Democratic Republic of Congo, all from the 20th century. The tcaka is a long wrapped skirt worn at dances and ceremonies; the raffia is traditionally woven by men, and the panels embroidered and appliqued by Kuba women. A Bushoong skirt comes from the kingdom’s ruling group.

Motifs here include arrows, hands and feet, set in the shifting geometry for which Kuba design is known, and a long skirt can run many yards when unrolled. Panels and fragments frame well on their own. Hang a long skirt along a stair wall or above a sofa, or frame a single panel in a study. European modernists admired these patterns early in the 20th century, though the Kuba had been working them out for generations.