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Start Over Object name Mat Culture or time period Bantu
Hearst Museum object titled Mat, accession number 5-4475, described as Mat; woven with fibre ngowe; 68 cm w.
Hearst Museum object titled Mat, accession number 5-2659, described as Twined mat; wrap and weft from wild sisal; painted designs in brown and purple. Used as sweating mats or in deck-type chairs; approx 41 inches x 20 inches.
Hearst Museum object titled Mat, accession number 5-4474, described as Reed mat; 1 meter, 91 cm. w.
Hearst Museum object titled Mat, accession number 5-1650, described as Raphis cloth; 29"x29", 73.7cm x 73.7cm At present, very little raphia cloth is woven by the Suku; among the NW Suku where this was bought, there are only a few workers left. The cloth has been entirely replaced by cotton cloth obtained in stores, and by European clothes among the younger generation. European occupation, the Suku were well-known raphia cloth makers. The region is poor in raphia palm. Raw raphia was bought from the Bambala to the north and the BaKwese and BaPende to the east. The raw raphia was woven and then sold eastward and southward, to the Bayaka and especially to the BaTsoso of Angola (who lived to the West of the upper Kwango River), who were the main intermediaries in trade with the Portugese on the coast. The Suku sometimes organized regular trade caravans, consisting of several people; they took to the BaTsoso raphia cloth and palm-oil (traded from the BaMbala), and sometimes, in small numbers, slaves. The BaTsoso in return gave salt (salt deposits are found in their region), and cloth and iron obtained from the Portuguese, and nzimbu (small shells, but not cowries, used as currency in the Kwango region). These shells of the Suku passed on later to the BaMbala and the BaSonde and BaPende and BaKwese when they traded with them. Being thus intermediaries between the BaTsoso and the other, the Suku were known as always being rich, in the old days, in shell money.

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