Noblewoman's Skirt

Across Central Africa's Congo Basin, the processing of raffia palm fiber to weave textiles for clothing, display, and exchange is an ancient practice. The cloth is produced in panels on a single heddle loom, employing discrete lengths of raffia that correspond to the length of the fiber as it is peeled from the palm frond. This long and sumptuous skirt's dynamic abstract patterns, which are rendered in appliqué and embroidery, break free from the weaving's underlying grid. The use of a contrasting background color to accentuate the patterns suggests that the skirt comes from the eastern Ngeende or Ngongo regions of the Kuba kingdom.