Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt

Nineteen separate peoples. One king. The Kuba Kingdom came together in the 17th century, and its textiles became among the most celebrated in Africa.

This is a tcaka, a raffia dance skirt, made in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 20th century. Skirts like it were wrapped several times around the body for dances and important ceremonies. Nearly sixteen feet long, it has a natural raffia ground framed by a reddish-brown border, filled with maze-like curvilinear and angular motifs in the same tone. A plain section remains at one end. Lightly creased, lightly faded.

Sixteen feet of wall, and it will want every one of them.