Reading Kuba cloth — the names and meanings of the patterns
With Cécile Muamba · Kasai-Central
A digital course for people who want to understand Kuba cloth before commissioning it, or who have encountered it in a museum or collection and want to know what they are looking at. I will teach you the twenty patterns I consider foundational — their names in Tshiluba, their history in the Kuba Kingdom, and the rules about their use. This is not a weaving course. It is a literacy course.
- Lessons
- 6 lessons
- Total length
- 3 hours
- Format
- Self-paced video
The ability to identify twenty Kuba patterns by name, understand their cultural restrictions, and recognise authentic cut-pile work from printed copies. A framework for discussing a commission that respects the tradition.
Museum professionals, collectors, textile researchers, and buyers considering a commission. No practical experience required.
6 lessons · 3h total
- 1The Kuba Kingdom — who made this cloth and why it mattered25 min
- 2Raffia and cut-pile — the technique in ten minutes18 min
- 3Patterns 1–7: the foundational grid patterns38 min
- 4Patterns 8–14: the named figurative patterns35 min
- 5Patterns 15–20: the court patterns and their restrictions30 min
- 6Reading a piece — how to look at a Kuba cloth correctly22 min
Cécile Muamba
Kuba cloth — raffia cut-pile weaving · Kasai-Central, Democratic Republic of Congo
An Amussu regional coordinator has visited this artisan in person, seen the workspace, and confirmed they make what they sell. This is the strongest verification we issue.
I weave Kuba cloth — the raffia cut-pile fabric from the Kasai region. The patterns are geometric and precise. Each one has a name and a history. My grandmother taught me twelve patterns. I can now teach twenty-seven. The cloth takes a long time. A piece the size of a place mat can take two weeks. A full hanging takes three months. I joined Amussu because someone in Kinshasa told me people in Europe paid forty euros for machine-made fabric that looked like mine. I want to be paid for mine directly.
In the archive
Cécile has documented this tradition in detail in the Amussu Archive. Discover it for free; the full documentation comes with your subscription.