Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Rows of tiny dark diamonds line up like beads on a tan ground.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Shoowa cloths come from the Kuba kingdom in the Kasai region, where men traditionally wove the raffia ground and women embroidered it. Horizontal bands of elongated hexagons hold small black diamonds, and the two halves mirror each other around a vertical seam. Ground is a muted tan with a pink hem. The diamonds shrink and grow row by row, giving it a ledger-like order. It measures 17 inches wide and 19 long.

Order, but with a few diamonds clearly feeling rebellious.