The artistry and aesthetic sophistication of African textiles and dress has been admired and appreciated by foreign observers since the time of Greek and Roman contacts with the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The Portuguese navigators who first explored the West African coast in the late fifteenth century brought home finely embroidered raffia cloths from the Kongo as prized examples of African design.
Early in the twentieth century, abstractly ornamented raffia cloths from the Kuba Kingdom in the interior of Zaire were to inspire artists such as Henri Matisse and Paul Klee as part of a
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