Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Women embroidered. Men wove the cloth beneath. Together they made what the Kuba treated as prestige, exchanged at important occasions and displayed on ceremonial days.

This Shoowa panel, raffia, Democratic Republic of Congo, 20th century, divides into three columns: bold black zigzags on either side and a central lattice of stacked diamonds, all against natural cream raffia. The stitching gives the lines a soft, slightly irregular edge. A plain bound border frames the whole, about twenty by twenty-two and a half inches.

A wall will do. It needs no more than a nail and a little light.