Easily portable, cloth is often traded beyond its makers' boundaries, both within Africa and to outside markets and collectors. Throughout Africa, textiles cover the human body or furnish a home. They can be symbols of rank, of membership in an organization, or of marital status. They are part of daily life, necessary on both the ordinary and the ritual occasion.
The relatively wide width of this single panel of cloth identifies it as the work of a female weaver. The exceptional width and the floating effect of the brightly colored weft (or cross) threads above the dark blue warp (long) threads is typical of the Igbo town of Akwete. Akwete cloth has been highly influential on other Nigerian weaving traditions.
Description:
Single panel cotton textile with rayon supplementary weft float design.
Provenance:
Honorable Joseph Palmer II, Bethesda, Maryland, -- to 1978
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