Velours du Kasaï (Kasaï velvet) is a kind of textile fabric made in
Kasai, a province in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
(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 practised.
Originally, the cloth was made using beaten wood bark; however, since the introduction of
raffia
Raffia palms (''Raphia'') are a genus of about twenty species of palms native to tropical regions of Africa, and especially Madagascar, with one species (''R. taedigera'') also occurring in Central and South America. ''R. taedigera'' is the sour ...
, 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 fibre from the inside of the leaves of young
palm trees
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
**List of Arecaceae genera
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music
* Palm (ba ...
. 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 fibres 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.
[Jean-Patrick Duchesne, ''Léopoldville-Liège, Liège-Kinshasa: les collections africaines'', 2007, p.128]
Gallery
File:Velours du kasai 2.jpg
File:Velours kasai 11.jpg
File:Velours du Kasaï au Musée afrcain de Namur.jpg
References
External links
The Kuba Kingdom (in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velours du Kasai
Kuba art
Textile arts
Woven fabrics
Democratic Republic of the Congo culture
Embroidery