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This flag is made from Congolese Kuba cloth sometimes referred to as Velours de Kasai, Kasai is a province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, once known as Zaire. The hand-made fabric was originally beaten from wood bark and woven into a kind of rough velvet. Today the cloth is mostly made of raffia. Kuba cloth is not an ancient tradition originating around the end of the 19th Century. The weaving was done by men from the Kuba ethnic group and often took months to complete. Women who were ideally pregnant completed the embroidery. The patterns of these cloths artistically followed the traditional scarification patterns of the Kuba. Worn as loincloths the fineness and complexity of the work bestowed status on the Kuba wearing the cloth. A very fine fibre from the inside of young palm leaves is dried and split then woven into the cloth creating the velvet finish. Cloths were often used as currency or given as gifts. Today they make appealing decorative accents for the wall or table. © 2008