Artwork Page for Woman's Skirt

Details / Information for Woman's Skirt

Woman's Skirt

late 1800s–about 1906–12

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mbuun-style weavers and embroiderers

Medium
Raffia palm fiber (Raphia ruffia or R. vinifera) and dye
Measurements
Overall: 73.7 x 102.9 cm (29 x 40 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Alma Kroeger Fund 2013.5
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

The diamond motifs on this skirt have symbolic and cosmological links to lizards (mbil), an animal associated with matrilineal (female descent) clans.

Description

Mbuun men wove and embroidered wrap skirts like this for women to wear on special occasions. Gently color-shifted patterns (lubawa) along the central panels were achieved by “floating” wefts (selectively covering over vertical, or warp, threads with horizontal, or weft, threads). In contrast, various black-brown embroidered diamonds cover the borders. These are called lobubasa, motifs also seen on cicatrices (ornamental scars) that once beautified women’s bodies. Short tufts running horizontally and vertically across the textile were created by inserting extra fibers, then cutting and fluffing them with a knife. These add texture and hide the seams between woven panels.
Yellow-brown, palm fiber wrap skirt with black patterns and laid out flat as a rectangle. It is intersected at the center by a strip alternating between rectangles of the yellow-brown cloth and rectangles of a radiating diamond pattern. To the left and right of this strip are two squares of plain yellow-brown cloth with bands of radiating diamond and triangle patterns above and below.

Woman's Skirt

late 1800s–about 1906–12

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mbuun-style weavers and embroiderers

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