Territory
Indigo vats, raffia looms and a Kinshasa design scene rebuilding its own vocabulary.
Ateliers
Indigo dyer — Kinshasa
Mbuyi keeps four fermentation vats alive in a courtyard off Avenue Kasa-Vubu. He reads the dye by the copper film on its surface, not by a thermometer, and dips cotton up to twelve times for the deepest blues JAANTE sources in Kinshasa.
Raffia weaver — Kasaï
Nsimba weaves Kuba-derived raffia panels on an upright loom, splitting each palm fibre by hand before it reaches the warp. A single metre takes her nine days.
Cultural stories
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