In claiming evidence of Africanisms in African-American quilts, Wahlman and others point to the patterns of what is commonly referred to as  "Kuba cloth" or "Kasai velvet," raffia cloth embroidered with a combination of textured stitches and a velour-like pile made by the the Bakuba people. Men weave the base fabric; women embroider the designs freehand, using the base fabric's threads as a guide in the same way Europeans worked counted cross-stitch and drawn-thread motifs on clothing and household linens.  

When examining Bakuba cloth, it is important to remember that they were not among the Africans taken as slaves to North America, and were the last people in the region to adopt this textile. In 1910 a European visitor noted they still considered it an "innovation," and used barkcloth for ceremonial wear.   

Moreover, the "Kuba cloths" commonly used as examples were made after 1950 and primarily by the Bashoba, the first Bakuba with whom Europeans made contact in around 1890.  And while Europeans presumed Bashoba aesthetics were the Bakuba norm, in reality Bashoba asymmetry and habitual blending of motifs is anomalous:  other Bakuba describe Bashoba textiles as "all mixed up".   As the 20th century progressed and Bakuba began embroidering cloth for sale to tourists, quantity rather than quality became the goal.  Pre-contact examples are embroidered, monochromatic, and contain numerous repeats of a single motif. Twentieth-century cloths are worked in the faster cut-pile stitch in several colors, and consist of a few repeats of a variety of large motifs. In effect such cloths are "closeups"; they look asymmetrical because they feature only part of an overall design.  In comparison to early examples, they look like cartoons.

Material, historic and linguistic analysis by Jan Vansina and Angelika Stritzl indicate that "Kuba cloth" probably originated with the Kongo people near the mouth of the Congo River sometime before the beginning of the 16th century, not long before Europeans first arrived in the region. Its appearance and embroidery techniques may have been influenced by embroidered vestments used there by early Christian missionaries, and by the luxury velvets brought by European traders. 

Compare Wahlman's modern Bashoba tourist cloth (above) to a 17thc.  Kongo example (below). Click to enlarge.

Kongo cloth acquired between 1653-1658 by German collector Christop Weickmann for his "curiosity" collection. Click to enlarge.

Portuguese traders found a ready market for Kongo embroideries throughout the region, and by the early 18th century were shipping thousands of such cloths each year as far south as Luanda.  Through such trade, the technique spread east to the Mbuun people and then to the Pende.  Sometime in the mid-17th or 18th century, the Bakuba learned how to make it either from the Pende or, more probably, directly from the Mbuun.  By 1800 these three peoples were the only ones in the region still making this embroidered cloth, and by 1910 only the Bakuba persisted.  Everyone else had abandoned it more than a century earlier in favor of imported European textiles.  Only the Bakuba (who, ironically, had adopted it) considered this cloth a form of cultural self-definition, but even among their ultratraditionalist Bushoong rulers, the cloth's appearance has changed dramatically. By the 1980s, embroiderers interviewed had trouble recognizing designs in c.1900 cloths.

Just as quilts made by today's Amish for the tourist trade are not useful  indicators of 18th century Anglo-American quilting traditions, post-WWII Bashoba souvenirs are not helpful in learning what 18th century Kongo cloth looked like.  Instead, we must examine Kongo cloths and  brought back to Europe in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and supplement them with the earliest, most conservative known Kuba cloth - that made before 1920 by by the Bakuba's ruling Bushoong.  The difference between these old cloths and their modern counterparts is immediately apparent.

   17th-19th century Bushoong cloths collected before 1912, now in the British Museum. Each motif is just a few inches tall. Click to enlarge.

Symmetry and order

Diaspora-era Kongo and early Bushoong cloths evidence a passion for balance, organization and order. They are monochromatic or use color sparingly; contrast is achieved through texture, mostly embroidery rather than plush. Even though the embroidery is worked freehand without any sketching and can be a collaborative effort, complex basketweave and tessellating designs cover these cloths with astonishing uniformity.  A few were added to the "curiosity cabinets" of wealthy Europeans. A 1912 article on Bushoong embroidery, written when these cloths were first known to Westerners, describes their designs as "maintain[ing] a simplicity which is at the same time vigorous and restrained" despite their elaborate designs, which evidence "a remarkable sense of line and an equally remarkable sense of proportion." As with the Kongo cloths from which they were derived, extensive research of pre-1920 Bushoong cloths by Dorothy Washburn revealed that: 

Bushoong embroidery on raffia, near actual size

97% of cloths are symmetrical in two dimensions (vertically and horizontally). 54% used pgg symmetry; 12% used p2 symmetry.  (In post-1950 cloths, only 16.5% are pgg; the percentage of pmg,  and p1, just 5% and 8% before 1920, jumps to 26% each.) The patterns' visual effect is diagonal (like the "on point" setting of quilt blocks), rather than of being arranged in "strips" parallel to the cloth edge. These cloths show none of the "Africanisms" assigned to African-American quilts. However, they demonstrate an affinity for symmetry, balance, repeated motifs, overall patterning and subtle play of positive/negative space which certainly would have been satisfied by the American quilting style of repeating or alternating geometric pieced blocks, particularly when "set on point" (arranged diagonally), a style popular before during the antebellum years when, as quilt historian Barbara Brackman points out, French and Indian diagonal-print textiles were in fashion.