Raffia

Possibly Teke artist

Raffia cloth  (nkuta)

Date: Early 20th century

Medium: Raffia

Dimensions: H x W: 33.2 x 28.3 cm (13 1/16 x 11 1/8 in.)

Credit Line: Gift of S. M. Harris

Geography: Lower Congo-Kasai River region, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Object Number: 99-13-47

Search Terms:

Funerary

Trade

Object is not currently on exhibit

Woven goods, such as cloth strips and fiber mats, were used in parts of Africa as currency. Parties of the transaction used variations in width and the quality of the weave as a means to negotiate value. Cloth was also frequently used in connection with other currencies, such as brass rods, thus lending additional leverage to the negotiation. Cloth or mats of more or less uniform size were used for gifts, peace offerings, payment from a son to his father upon attaining adulthood and payment upon the birth of a child or the burial of a parent. Cloth currency was also used as a tribute for a spouse who remained faithful or, by contrast, as a penalty for adultery. In central Africa raffia woven mats, stored flat or rolled into bundles, were a popular form of cloth currency in the late 19th and early 20th century. Among the Teke peoples, funerals of the wealthy and nobility required raffia cloths not merely to cover the body but in abundance to ensure a proper status in the "village of the dead."