Kuba Tcaka or Child's Dance Skirt

Crossed lines draw diamonds across a rust-red field framed by black and cream blocks.

This tcaka or child’s dance skirt is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered & pieced raffia & cowrie. Because the cloth is built from separate squares, they can be separated and recombined into new compositions, then backed and hung on a wall much like a tapestry. Long textile with a reddish-brown center covered in diamond shapes made from thin crossing lines with small cream dots. Both sides have bold alternating black and cream rectangles, and the surface is faded in places. It is 15 inches wide and 112 long.

Neat as a net and framed like a picture.