Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

A long ribbon of pale ground crowded with fine inked labyrinths, patient as a maze drawn in a waiting room.

This tcaka or dance skirt is Kuba, from Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is woven & embroidered raffia. Typical woven panels measure about 26 by 28 inches and are sewn together into the great length of a wrap-around skirt, which can at times reach beyond twenty feet. Tall narrow strip in sandy tan, divided into stacked rectangles filled with tiny dark interlocking line patterns. The surface looks dry and soft, with a slightly wavy edge and a few darker patches along the lower portion. It is 30 inches wide and 200 long.

Somebody had a steady hand and a great deal of evening.