Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

Tan on top, smoky grey on the bottom, with a seam sneaking down one side.

This tcaka or dance skirt is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered raffia. 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 tan upper panels carrying faint linear patterns, shifting to a smoky grey-brown lower half with dense fine marks. A narrow seam runs down the left side and the edges are slightly crinkled. It is 30 inches wide and 177 long.

A gradual fade from light to shadow, no fuss.