Object Details
- Label Text
- 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."
- Description
- Square woven raffia mat with a yellow and black striped pattern and fringes at all four sides.
- Provenance
- Emil E.O. Gorlia, Belgian Congo, 1905-1927 to before 1977
- Sandford M. Harris, Oak Harbor, Washington, before 1977 to 1999
- Exhibition History
- Weaving Abstraction: Kuba Textiles and the Woven Art of Central Africa, The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., October 15, 2011-February 12, 2012
- The Artistry of African Currency, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., March 12-July 23, 2000
- Published References
- Moraga, Vanessa Drake. 2011. Weaving Abstraction: Kuba Textiles and the Woven Art of Central Africa. Washington, D.C.: Textile Museum, p. 41, no.11.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Undetermined artist
- Teke artist
- Date
- Early 20th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of S. M. Harris
- Medium
- Raffia
- Dimensions
- H x W: 33.2 x 28.3 cm (13 1/16 x 11 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Textile and Fiber Arts
