Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Four patches, four moods: dots, zigzags, diamonds and checks.

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. Four quadrants of different patterns meet at clear seams. Upper left has black dotted diamonds, upper right shows long diagonal zigzags, lower left holds nested diamonds, and lower right shows a tiny checkerboard. The ground is pale cream with a pink hem. It is 21.5 inches across and 22 long.

A sampler with nothing to prove and plenty to show.