Kuba cloth panel — interlace pattern, 40 × 30 cm
By Cécile Muamba · Kasai-Central, Democratic Republic of Congo
Verified in person— what this means
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.
Every piece on Amussu is a one-off. If you want this, you take it now.
Either way, you are buying from Céciledirectly. The fee model and the relationship are the same — the only thing that changes is whether the piece already exists.
A single panel in the classic Kuba interlace pattern. Natural raffia with a dark dyed border. This is the pattern Béatrice is learning. I made this one as a demonstration piece and it came out well enough to offer.
Three weeks. Raffia is harvested locally, dried, and split before weaving. The cut-pile surface is achieved by cutting loops after the cloth is woven — it is slow work.
The person who made this.
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.