Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Long hooked meanders and scattered black blocks, stitched in uneven patches.

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. Pale tan ground with lines of long, hooked meanders and short black dashes, divided into several sewn rectangles with clear seams. A band of small triangles runs along the bottom. The black accents are sparse, which gives it an open feel. It measures 19.5 inches wide and 24.5 long.

Short on black, long on wandering line.