Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Zigzag stripes that stall in the lower left, then pick up again in diamonds.

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 textiles were woven and embroidered to be worn, gifted and buried with the dead, long before collectors hung them on walls. Across a cream ground, black zigzag lines run in horizontal bands, with a pair of seams marking a lower left section where the rhythm shifts to diamonds. A pale hem edges the cloth, and a slight pucker shows at the bottom. It measures 18.5 inches wide and 21.5 long.

A zigzag that lost its place and cheerfully improvised.