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Kuba Cloth

 

 

Kuba Cloth Cushions

 

 

 

 

 

 


Painting of a Ngongo man, one of the Kuba sub-groups, wearing a raffia cloth skirt. By Norman Hardy. From E.Torday & T.A.Joyce, Notes Ethnographiques, 1910-11.

The embroidered and appliqued decorated raffia cloths of the Kuba peoples of the Kasai river region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) are the best known survivors of an ancient African tradition of fine quality raffia cloth weaving that was once widespread across the whole of Central Africa. Similar embroidered cloths from the Kongo kingdom on the coast to the west were greatly admired in post-Renaissance Europe.

 

Kuba Cloth runners and wall hangings

 


 

 

 

 

 


They entered the curio cabinets and treasuries of nobles and kings as the finest products of African artistry alongside the better known ivory salt cellers and other carvings from Benin and coastal Sierra Leone. A C16th Portuguese painting of the Annunciation depicts the Virgin and the angel kneeling on one of these embroidered raffia cloth with a typical Kongo design. More recently their mastery of abstract patterning was a source of inspiration to artists such as Klee, and Matisse, who displayed part of his large collection on the wall of his studio.



A woman embroidering cut-pile cloth. Painting by Norman Hardy, from E.Torday & T.A.Joyce, Notes Ethnographiques, 1910-11.