Category: Body covering

NOW: Bakongo Nkutu (Prestige Cape) – Af1853,0713.1

Continuing with another African Nalbound Object of the Week, this stunning nkutu (prestige cape) comes from mid-19th century Congo. While the tradition of net-like garments being worn by high ranking individuals is believed to have its roots in at least the 16th century, we currently only have evidence of this style of nkutu/kinzembe/zamba kya mfumu from the 19th century.1 There are quite a few examples in museums around the world; including several others in The British Museum.2

Nkutu (Prestige Cape) Af1853,0713.1 © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Object: Bakongo Nkutu – Af1853,0713.1

Description: A beautiful prestige cape made from raffia palm fiber. This cape has openwork that forms several undulating chevrons. Close examination shows that the individual lengths of fiber were knotted to the previous as each new length was added to continue the nalbinding. There is a cut and bound slit in the middle for the head. The outer edge has raffia fringe knotted on. Length: 79 cm, Width: 125 cm3

Dated to: before 1853 CE4

Culture: Bakongo5

Find location: Congo6

Material: Raffia palm fiber7

Stitch(es) used: The museum catalog states it is an “Interlinked structure arranged in narrow bands with worked holes throughout.”8 The catalog also references a publication where it states the cape was made “using a form of interlinking (sprang).”9 Interlinking is a structural term, not a technique. Sprang can use interlinking (amongst other structures), but so can other techniques. In this case, the nalbinding stitch used does not just intralace once with the previous stitches in the same row as in many spiraled nalbinding stitches. Instead, this stitch intralaces and interlinks several times with each previous stitch before crossing itself to proceed to the next stitch.

The beautiful zoomable photographs in the The British Museum’s online catalog show that this cape was nalbound in the same stitch as that found in the Kongalese Prestige Cape that is in The Textile Museum that was February 13, 2024’s Nalbound Object of the Week: B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU as determined by Anne Marie Decker during her examination on 14 June 2023.

A section of the prestige cape zoomed in to show one single row with the individual loops highlighted by Anne Marie Decker in different colors in order to show the nalbinding stitch: B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU.
Base photo credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
A section of the prestige cape zoomed in to show how the patterned holes are created in one single row by not interlinking with previous stitches. The individual loops highlighted by Anne Marie Decker in different colors in order to show the nalbinding stitch: B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU.
Base photo credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
Two sections of the prestige cape zoomed in to show one single row with the individual loops highlighted by Anne Marie Decker in different colors in order to show the nalbinding stitch:
B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU.
Base photo credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Inventory number: Af1853,0713.1

Current location: The British Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1

Some sources in which more information can be found:

LaGamma, Alisa, ed. Kongo: Power and Majesty. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. ISBN 978-1-58839-575-7

Photographs (if permissions allow): There are several additional photos available in the British Museum’s online catalog entry for this cape.


An etching of a prestige cape being worn was published in Henry M. Stanely’s Africa inexplorada : el continente misterioso
on Pg.151 Source: Biblioteca de la Academia de Artillería / Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. The net-like garment found on the statue ostensibly of António Manuel ne Vunda, Kongalese ambassador to Rome in 1608 has been interpreted as an earlier version of these prestige capes. However, it does rather look more like the net-like garment worn by a priest of the ngufui sect in Sierra Leone as shown on page 154 of “Weaving in Africa: South of the Sahara”. ↩︎
  2. Additional prestige capes in the British Museum are: Af1954,+23.2039, Af1954,+23.2038, and Af1993,02.379. ↩︎
  3. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 Accessed 2/9/2026 ↩︎
  4. 1853 was when the cape was donated to the British Museum. Collection date unknown. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 Accessed 2/9/2026 ↩︎
  5. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 Accessed 2/9/2026 ↩︎
  6. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 Accessed 2/9/2026 ↩︎
  7. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 Accessed 2/9/2026 ↩︎
  8. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 Accessed 2/9/2026 ↩︎
  9. LaGamma, Alisa, ed. Kongo: Power and Majesty. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. ISBN 978-1-58839-575-7 p.108 fig.66
    (text by John K Thornton) ↩︎

Research brings new insights

One of the best things about researching any topic is that continued research will always bring further insights; be that greater clarity on a particular detail, proof of a particular theory, proof that a particular hypothesis was wrong, correcting a technique misidentification, new design details, new stitches, new dating, and more artifacts to examine. Hypotheses get developed and sometimes they are supported and possibly proven. Sometimes they are disproved and new hypotheses are born.

Add to that, things that are true of our modern esthetics in the craft may prove to be constant throughout the historical record, or they may prove to be recent inventions. Care should always be taken to ensure that we are not making assumptions, even based on our prior knowledge, and allowing our biases to hide the new data. Insights may come from the most unexpected sources and even experts can be proven wrong. I have had thousands of theories that have been made or dashed with arrival of new data. It’s exciting!

I’ve discussed several examples of this process on this blog previously,1 but today, I’d like to add a few additional examples.

Direction of work:

Nalbinding is predominately worked left to right, regardless of whether the work is dependent from the working row or hung above. Both of which leave telltale, but different, signs in the resultant fabric. Obviously, there are exceptions: lefthanded people often work in the opposite direction, and of course, there is the option of an esthetic choice to work in the non-dominant direction for a variety of reasons; including opposing spirals or flat work for example.

So the question becomes, how often do we see nalbinding worked in the non-dominant direction, when, where, and can we tell why? This is not an easy question to answer as so little research published has included this important detail about the artifacts.

Several of the artifacts that initially appeared to be worked in the non-dominant direction have turned out to be more likely found with the technical back to the outside. For example the Egyptian sock now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.2 This could be accomplished by working in the non-dominant direction, but is more likely simply a case of the creator or wearer deciding that they preferred the texture of the technical back to the outside. In the case of the sock in Edinburgh, it seems a common trait of socks made in that particular stitch. In the case of the pair of socks from Sudan,3 only one is “inside out.” This could be a case of the wearer not noticing, the person dressing the dead not noticing, or some cultural reason of which I am not aware.

In both cases, and in fact in all of the 115 or so known Egyptian socks, the socks are worked from the toe up to the ankle. The hats from the tip down. Up until very recently, all of the pre-17th century handcoverings I’ve examined have been worked from the tip of the fingers to the wrist. And yet, last year I had the opportunity to examine a beautiful glove from medieval Kalmar that surprised me in several ways. One was the particular stitch used as I had never seen its like before. And the other, was that it was clearly worked from the wrist towards the fingers. More research as to the direction of work of thumbs (and fingers on gloves), especially in relation to the associated handcovering, is desperately needed.

Wrist Bumps:

17th century mitten with a tar stain from Copenhagen . National Museum of Denmark
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Closeup of the wrist bump on the 17th century mitten from Copenhagen.
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker

I once had a idea that wrists that showed a prominent bump in the spiral might have been started at the wrist. Examinations of artifacts has consistently proven me wrong so far on that hypothesis. It was my modern esthetics that had given the the incorrect impression that the maker would always smooth out the final spiral.

Now, we do have examples where the final spiral ending is rather smooth. The Oslo mitten gives the appearance of a smooth ending. However, looking at the rows above it, one can see that it has been pulled and distorted such that the result is the edge currently looks like it was smoothly finished, but in fact it was a rather short transition that now significantly distorts the row to which it connects.

Oslo Mitten C28155 on display at the Historical Museum in Oslo
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Detail of the Oslo Mitten C28155 showing the short transition of the final row.
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker

Lace:

Another example. In 2004, I was approached by someone with a lace shawl they had that they wanted to know if it could be nalbound or not. The pictures they sent showed that an individual row had a structure we know can be produced by a particular nalbinding stitch, but the connections between rows were unclear, so we were missing important secondary construction details that can be vital to understand which particular technique produced the particular structure fabric.

I allowed as how it was possible that it might be nalbound, but that if it was that brought up many additional questions that would have to be answered. Such as, how would the connections be made in such an openwork structure without falling apart? In 2005, another was brought to my attention. My friend, Virginia Miller, became quite interested in the lace shawls and set about trying to find their source.

Around this time, many other examples of this particular type of shawl were apparently being examined at a variety of locations. Others were recognizing the structure of the chain as being a possible nalbound structure, but the specifics of the secondary constructions details that would reveal their true construction technique would not be recognized until the details of a related structural cross-over were discussed.4 These details show that there are a significant number of miss-identified examples in museums around the world.

Crocheted chain lace shawl from Turkey gifted to me by Virginia Miller in 2012.
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Detail of the chain lace shawl from Turkey showing the crocheted connection.
Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker

Virginia, having tracked down the origin of at least some of the shawls, kindly managed to procure one for me. Being able to examine one in detail up close has led to an understanding that allows me to understand details that while I had seen them before, had not revealed their relevance. Now, given sufficiently clear photos, it is easy to determine that these shawls are a form of crocheted chain lace. Rather similar in structure to the earliest forms of crochet that been identified.5

Another example of this structure’s construction technique being misidentified is a lovely pair of baby booties in the V&A Collection. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136095/pair-of-bootees-unknown/ The Simple Looping in cream on the ball at the top of the tassel at the ankles is a form of nalbinding (and also a form of needlelace), but the green lace are these open worked crocheted chains. Once again, it’s the connections between the chains that reveal the technique used.

Hypotheses come and go, but that is in many ways the fun part of research. We are always learning new things. Theories become proven. Hypotheses are dashed and formed again. All of which leads to a better understanding of the entire corpus of both nalbound textiles and related looped textiles, their origins, transmission, development, traditional uses, and influences on the modern craft.

Speaking of exciting new opportunities and artifacts to examine, I have recently learned of new excavated socks to add to the corpus of nalbinding that have never been examined before.
Unfortunately, my travel budget to go see them is rather dry. If you’ve enjoyed my research and would like to be a part of my support team, I sincerely appreciate any assistance you are willing to send my way. You can use the one time donation link in the menu or become a monthly Patron.
Patrons on Patreon receive priority requests, early access previews, and occasional extra details.

  1. https://nalbound.com/2021/11/09/tracking-down-a-nalbound-sweater-spoiler-not-entirely/ and https://nalbound.com/2021/09/03/but-it-looks-like/ and https://nalbound.com/2021/02/21/coole_socke/ ↩︎
  2. https://nalbound.com/2020/05/10/egyptian-sock-in-edinburgh/ ↩︎
  3. https://nalbound.com/2020/01/02/medieval-nubian-nalbinding-in-sudan/ ↩︎
  4. Collaboration with Cary Karp to better understand the structure of the slip-stitch crochet artifacts from Egypt in Basel led to our article in ATR, https://nalbound.com/2023/01/31/newest-issue-of-atr-contains-our-article/, and influenced my presentation to NESAT: https://nalbound.com/2021/09/03/but-it-looks-like/ ↩︎
  5. https://loopholes.blog/2019/12/diamond-mesh/ Accessed 30 March 2024 ↩︎

NOW: Kinzembe, Nkutu, or Zamba kya mfumu – Kongalese Prestige Cape 1962.1.14

This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week comes from Central Africa. There are quite a few of these beautifully fine Prestige Capes from the former Kingdom of Kongo now in museums around the world. I was honored to be able to examine this particular one closely. Until you are in the presence of one, it is hard to comprehend just how delicate and fine this complex compound nalbinding is; and then you add in the openwork patterning. Definitely breathtaking.

Photo Credit: Textile Museum Acquisition – Public Domain

Object: Kinzembe,1 Nkutu,2 or Zamba kya mfumu3 – Kongalese Prestige Cape

Description: A stunningly fine raffia cape worked in a trebly intralaced compound nalbinding stitch with an openwork zigzag pattern. The neck opening has a layer of Simple Looping around the edge. The outer edges have raffia fringe knotted onto them. The front and back rows have strings knotted on every few stitches from which the handle-like tassels are suspended. This cape has one both front and back. Some also have them off the sides.

There is an illustration of an etching, based on a photograph, that was made ca. 1880 of a Chief in Full Dress Attire wearing a nkutu on page 73 of Kongo: Power and Majesty.

Dated to: 19th century CE4

Find location: Democratic Republic of Congo, what was southern Zaire.5

Material: raffia6

Stitch(es) used: B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU as determined by Anne Marie Decker during her examination of the object on 14 June 2023. The row heights are very fine for this compound of a nalbinding stitch; around 5/8ths of an inch. There is a single row of Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O, around the neck opening.

The Textile Museum specifies that the structure is “looping,” but not the specific stitch used.7 This type of cape has also been misidentified as sprang8 in other examples, but they are not.

So far, the only other place where we see other stitches in the same trebly intralaced family of stitches is in the Omani stitch sock as described by Peter Collingwood (the only example of that particular stitch out of Oman that has been found so far).

Inventory number: Accession Number: 1962.1.14

Current location: The Textile Museum

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/

Some sources in which more information can be found:

LaGamma, Alisa, ed. Kongo: Power and Majesty. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. ISBN 978-1-58839-575-7

Photographs:

Photos of this and several other examples of Kinzembe, Nkutu, or Zamba kya mfumu can be seen at Some of the fashion accessories used in the Kongo Kingdom – Raffia textiles

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  2. The Brooklyn Museum uses the term nkutu for the Prestige Cape in their collection: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/13009 as does the British Museum with the one in their collection: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1 ↩︎
  3. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  4. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  5. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  6. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/. This is not the only type of fiber in which we find this type of cape worked. ↩︎
  7. https://collections-gwu.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/11243/ ↩︎
  8. For example, the British Museum’s Af1853,0713.1 lists its technique as sprang: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1, but also provides clear and close photographs that show it is worked in exactly the same interlinking nalbinding stitch as this one in The Textile Museum. ↩︎