Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

Square scrolls in cream and burgundy tumble down a narrow strip in tidy blocks.

This tcaka or dance skirt is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is applique raffia. The cloth is made from raffia palm leaves, which are gathered, dried, softened, dyed and stripped into fibers before being woven into panels and then embroidered. Narrow textile with a burgundy frame and cream squares, each filled with bold interlocking spirals in dark red. The squares stack in a column, and the edges are fairly straight with a lightly worn surface. It is 28 inches wide and 217 long.

A column of tidy squares that never lose their curl.