The Mbuti live in the Ituri rainforest of the northeastern Congo, and are among the last hunter-gatherer nomadic cultures in the world. To make a ceremonial loincloth, called pongo, men collect the inner layer of tree bark and pound it until it is thin and pliable. Women make pigments and paint the cloth, creating drawings that often evoke the forest landscape. The loincloths are worn during rites of passage, including weddings, funerals, initiations into adulthood, and ritual dances. In the twentieth century, the abstract and improvisational character of the drawings and their complex asymmetrical patterns made such loincloths a favorite of European and American collectors, who saw parallels with modern movements in Western art.

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