Ceremonial wraparound skirt for women

The cloth is worn as a wraparound skirt by important Bushoong women during rituals and ceremonies. Often the cloth is wrapped with a band or belt around the top, over which the cloth is folded back a bit. Sometimes an overskirt (ntshakakot) is worn over the cloth. The cloth is decorated with appliqué and embroidery and dyed with tukula powder (tool of twool called by the Bushoong), a kind of redwood. Red is an important colour among the Kuba it enhances and emphasises but is also the colour of danger and of mourning (Adams, 1978: 35 and Cornet, 1980: 30 and 32). The wearing of a red wraparound skirt is obligatory during mourning (Meurant 1989: 108). \In addition to its function as a textile paint, tukula powder, mixed with palm oil a red paste-like pigment is also used as a body paint (decoration) and for counteracting dry skin (care) (Binkley and Darish, 2009: 27). Especially at feasts and ceremonies people rub themselves with a good layer of tukula, which is why many undyed Kuba cloths still show a red tinge on the inside.The ceremonial wrapping skirt among the Kuba is called a ntshak and consists of smaller rectangular pieces sewn together. The wraparound skirt for everyday use has an average length of two or three meters. The ceremonial ntshak is worn during public events such as the installation or burial of a dignitary, at the end of the mourning period or to commemorate a historical event, during agricultural festivals (sowing time, harvest) and during the depiction of the creation story (the Itul). A ntshak like this one is depicted in Oei (1989: 35) and is described there as 'worn during the latter part of the Itul celebration'. However, Meurant (1989: 135) and Cornet (1980: 30) state that the ntshak with red motifs appear in the first part. \The cloth is decorated with an irregular pattern of embroidery and appliqués. The geometric patterns on the cloths correspond to the patterns used on almost all the objects with which the Kuba surround themselves, from the household objects, furniture, musical instruments, weapons, status and ritual objects to the woven walls of the houses. They also recur in the scar tattoos that, particularly in the past, adorned the bodies of the women of higher rank. Each part of the design has its own specific pattern name and meaning. This meaning can be totally different for women and men. Although both use the same designs in their work, they name the signs differently (Torday, 1925). It is therefore difficult to identify the patterns on the ntshak. Some figures can be recognized, however; the comma-like motifs are called 'the dog's tail' (Picton and Mack, 1979: 175), 'the arrowhead' (Oei, 1989: 31 and 33) and 'woot', on this cloth in the form of a square formed from perpendicular rectangles (Meurant, 1986: 184). The mythical ancestor Woot is a central figure in Kuba mythology and is therefore frequently used as a pattern in several variants. Woot gave a name to everything that lived and, together with his nine sons, formed the beginning of civilisation (Oei, 1989: 29). The end of the cloth that is first wound around the body, thus not visible, is usually left unadorned, as is the case with this cloth.‖ The patterns used are not tied to any social class. The innovation of patterns, the creativity and the required working time to achieve a certain quality, did contribute to the status of the wearer. Cloths that took a lot of work, so showed great craftsmanship, were therefore favored by the higher ranks. \The Kuba have a preference for changing and irregularly placed patterns, within a pattern, new variations are invented all the time.‖ The ceremonial ntshak stays in the family from generation to generation, one can only inherit it, make it oneself or receive it as a gift but one cannot buy it anywhere. When holes appear in the cloth due to wearing, they are repaired by sewing applications over them, which in turn become part of the overall pattern on the cloth. In this way also the holes are covered, that were made during the milling of the rough raffia cloth. This cloth also exhibits multiple holes covered with applications.‖ The Bushoong form the largest of all Kuba groups and live in about one hundred villages in central Kuba country, located between the Sankuru, Kasai and Lulua rivers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Binkley and Darish, 2009: 8-9). The capital is Nsheng, also the seat of the Kuba king (nyim). The first nyim was the cultural hero Shyaam aMbul aNgoong who must have lived in the early seventeenth century. According to tradition, one of his responsibilities was to introduce the raffia palm and its uses. During his travels he probably copied this from the Kete, a neighbouring people who cultivated the raffia palm and used it for palm wine, building material and clothing (Binkley and Darish, 2009: 10).__________________________ The colour red also plays an important role during funerals of high-ranking people. For example, the coffin of a king is draped with deep red cloths (Adams, 1978: 33). The body of the deceased was also rubbed with red pigment (tulkula) before burial; the thicker the layer, the more important the person.From pounded tukula pulp and palm oil, the women made tablet-like objects (mboong itool) that were given to mourning relatives and friends during the funeral as a reminder (Hilton Simpson, 1911: 211). After drying, these tablets were decorated with geometric motifs or carved into the shape of a typical miniature Kuba object (basket, cup, knife, drum), animal, human head, etc. The tukula that was preserved in this aesthetic form could easily be reused, one only had to break off a piece and mix it again with palm oil to have a new supply of body paint or the like (Binkley and Darish, 2009: 19-20, 30). See inventory numbers 2829-20 and -21 for such tablets.‖ The inner fibers of the leaves of the raffia palm are dried, then boys split them by hand or comb them into fine strands with a raffia comb. The pre-processed threads go to the weavers in bundles. Weaving is exclusively the domain of the men. Most Kuba men can weave, but only a few specialists can make the more refined fabrics. The cloths have a fixed size, determined by the length of the raffia fibres; threads are not knotted together to make a larger cloth. Most garments therefore consist of several pieces of cloth sewn together. The sewing together and hemming is done by men. At the edges of this cloth, raffia pompoms are attached.\ After the rough fabric comes off the weaving frame, it is put in a bath by the women and pounded to make it soft. This can damage the cloth, so to protect it as much as possible it is first wrapped in old cloth before being immersed in water, pounded in a mortar with wooden beaters, dried in the sun and then beaten again with wooden or ivory beaters. The more elaborate the processing the finer the fabric, early researchers sometimes even comparing it to silk (Adams 1978: 34) \The dyeing of the cloths and the raffia yarn is also done by the women. According to Torday, cloths were dyed after the embroidery or appliqué was applied. (In: Thomas, 1983: 48) but according to Adams the reverse was more common (1978: 34 and 106). The red dye was made from tukula powder mixed with palm oil. This mixture was heated or boiled after which the cloth was dipped in it and stirred vigorously. The cloth was then wrung out and laid on a drying bed, after which it was rubbed again with tukula powder to obtain an even deeper color.Tukula is often mistaken for camwood, but it certainly is not. Camwood originates from a raffia palm which grows in West Africa but is not found in Central Africa. Tukula, called tool by the Bushoong, comes from redwood which grows in the vicinity of the Sankuru River. Depending on the tree species the depth of the red colour varies (Stritzl, 1971). The Bushoong import the redwood from their northern neighbours. The women make the tukula by grinding the raw pieces of wood on a rubbing stone to which they add white sand, water and leaves (ikweengi) (Adams, 1978: 106). This paste will keep for years and is kept in special wooden boxes (see inventory numbers 2829-15 and -16). The raffia thread for this is first combed into fine strands by the women and children and dyed if necessary. The women roll the threads between their fingers during embroidery to make them even smoother (Torday, 1925: 207) or work them with snails (Adams, 1978: 34).