Old African Congo Kuba Loincloth (b)

…beautiful collection piece

Old African Congo Kuba Loincloth (b), a beautiful collection piece… One of two listed separately…   Kuba cloth is a kind of textile fabric made in Kasai, a province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaïre). Traditionally, the weaving is done by men of the Shoowa from the Kuba ethnic group, while the embroidery is reserved to women. Ideally, the embroiderers should be pregnant. The technique is still practiced.

The Kuba Kingdom, also rendered as the Kingdom of the Bakuba or Bushongo, was a pre-colonial kingdom in Central Africa. The Kuba Kingdom flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries in the region bordered by the Sankuru, Lulua, and Kasai rivers in the south-east of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Kuba Kingdom was a conglomerate of several smaller Bushongo-speaking principalities as well as the Kete, Coofa, Mbeengi, and the Twa Pygmies. The original Kuba migrated during the 16th century from the north. Nineteen different ethnic groups are included in the kingdom, which still exists and is presided over by the King (nyim).

Originally the cloth was made using beaten wood bark but, since the introduction of raffia, only vestiges of this remain. Some belts (duun) are still made in bark; they symbolize power and may be worn only by certain nobles. Bark is still used for certain loincloths for women (Ishyeen). The center of these loincloths is formed of many triangles of bark, alternately black and white. These are cut out of the raw bark either natural, or dyed black and sewn together. The choice of this method rather than that of drawing is significant - for the Kuba, value is measured by a work's difficulty.

The fabric is made of very fine fiber from the inside of the leaves of young palm trees. The leaves are dried in the sun, then split along their length and connected to form a basic warp of raffia, from 2m to 4m in length. Fine leaf fibers are then interweaved in a woof to create the velvet effect. This is then wrapped around the waist to create a loincloth known as Mapel (for men) or Ntshak (for women).

The designs are very varied and are created spontaneously but normally follow the body scarification patterns of the Kuba.

The cloth is heavy and expensive and is not normally intended to be worn, but is used as a bed covering or on the royal throne. Individual items take from several months to a year to produce. Cloths were used as currency or given as gifts.

   Please see detail photos which form part of the description…  Note; Small repair, dose not distract but must be mentioned, please  review all photos carefully...   STU/B4

 

The measurements are 

Size: 61 cm High X 65 cm Wide

Please email me with any questions or for a delivery quote

 …or pick up from

Miranda in Sydney South

  

 

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 Shipping Quote

 

 Return Policy

It is very important to me that you are happy with your purchase; if for any reason you are not, please contact me immediately, before leaving feedback, so I may have a chance to rectify the problem. We cannot fix a problem we do not know about. We strive for straight A+ and all 5’s in our feedback and will bend over backwards to achieve this.  Any idem that is not as described or any idem that arrives damaged will be refunded.  We ship by Australian registered and insured post or by Ego Courier’s.  I have many regular and happy customers and hope that you will also become one of them.

 

NOTE

 

Many of the items for sale at Jim’s International Bazaar were collected by Jim on his around the world adventures as an author, photojournalist and photographer.  They include Turkish rugs, copper and brass, and artifacts from China, New Guinea, Africa and South America.  These things are from his privet collection, none were bought for the purpose of reselling but rather to decorate his home.   Many new items will be listed as they are unpacked from storage along with a wonderful collection of photographic prints including many wildlife photos and prints of tigers photographed in China.

 

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

 

James Anderson

 

is an internationally renowned photojournalist and adventurer, with two major photographic books (New Guinea & Cannibal), plus covers and major spreads in a whole host of internationally prestigious magazines from Life International to The Geographic and Argosy.

 

He's been shipwrecked in the Pacific, wrestled camels in Turkey, and scoured the New Guinea Highlands in search of missing American heir and adventurer Michael Rockefeller.  He has also lived and worked in the jungles of New Guinea for over two years while collecting material for his books and records.

 

A blue-water yachtsman, he sailed his own 60ft yacht, the "Moana Vahine", from Hong Kong to Southern Turkey, down the South China Sea, across the Indian Ocean, and up the full length of the Red Sea, via Singapore, Panang, Sri lanki, The Maldive Islands, and French Djibouti. An avid diver and spear fisherman, he mounted a series of diving expeditions in The Maldive Islands and The Red Sea.

 

In addition to several years in New Guinea, he has organized and/or participated in photographic expeditions in Kenya and Tanzania, in Brazil and Columbia, in Turkey and some of the more remote islands of the south pacific. "On board the forty-foot ketch, the "Marquesa", we were the first yacht to visit the remote island of Ua Pou, in the Marquesas in almost two years.