Homage to Kuba: in honour of DRC's Independence Day

We love Kuba cloth. We use it in several of our bag designs and we even named a collection after it.

Today, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) celebrates its Independence Day. In honour of the area from where the cloth originates, we thought we’d dedicate a post to sharing the history of this beautiful material.

The Kuba Kingdom (also referred to as Kuba, Bakuba or Bushongo)(1625-1900) was a precolonial Central African state in the southeast of present day DRC. In effect, the Kingdom was a collection of smaller principalities comprising of people from different ethnic origins.

Kuba cloth was traditionally worn during ceremonies, primarily funerals. The cloth was produced in a multiple stage process, involving women, men and children of the same clan. This lengthy process involved gathering and preparing the raffia fibres which were then woven, dyed, then embellished with embroidery, appliqué, patchwork and adding fringe.

Check out our Kool Kuba collection.
Historical image from tromponmetabiotico.blogspot.com