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    A Great African Kingdom Tells Its History In Fabulous Royal Clothes

    An exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art finds political power in dizzying patterns from the Kuba Kingdom — located in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
    by Tim McDonnell Oct 20, 2018 4 minutes
    Kuba women decorating woven cloth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, photographed in 1970. In the past, women were the main creators of the legendary Kuba textiles.

    What can an old piece of cloth tell us about the rise and fall of a kingdom? Quite a lot, if you know how to read it.

    That's the premise behind a new exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art titled "Kuba: Fabric of an Empire." It features an array of captivating patterned textiles from the Kuba Kingdom, which between the 17th and early 20th centuries was one of Africa's largest and most powerful societies, controlling trade in ivory and rubber in what is today the southeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    The Kuba were renowned for their artistry, and today any museum of African art in the U.S. or Europe is likely to display

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