Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt with Arrow Motif

Pale cloth with a loose script of boxes, arrows and hooks in thin dark lines.

This tcaka or dance skirt with arrow motif is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered & 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. Long textile in pale cream-tan with thin black line motifs: boxes, arrows, hooks, circles and crosses in loose rows. A vertical seam runs near the center and the sides wave softly. It is 30 inches wide and 173 long.

A light-handed doodle that just keeps going.