https://en.sputniknews.africa/20230912/inhuman-entertainment-what-is-human-zoos-spread-in-western-countries-in-colonial-times-1062064803.html
'Human Zoos': Inhuman Entertainment Displayed Across Colonial-Era Western Europe
'Human Zoos': Inhuman Entertainment Displayed Across Colonial-Era Western Europe
Sputnik Africa
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed colonial-era human zoos set up in Western nations that existed until the 1950s. Entire families and... 12.09.2023, Sputnik Africa
2023-09-12T19:36+0200
2023-09-12T19:36+0200
2023-09-13T14:18+0200
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People in cages were taken from Africa to European countries, President Putin pointed out, as he shed light on what the former colonialists had done with the inhabitants of this continent. Human beings exhibited in zoos was what Western societies of the 19th-20th centuries offered their populations in order to play up racial differences and inequalities. The largest zoos of this kind were established in Berlin, Basel, Antwerp, London and Paris. Local spectators came to gawk at subjects dressed in rags, sometimes exhibited alongside wild animals.The first widely-known instance of shows organized using people from distant countries is Saartjie Baartman, sometimes named Sarah Baartman, a young South African girl brought to the United Kingdom in 1810. Her non-European looks and her enlarged buttocks aroused great interest among the British public.After the UK, the girl was transported to France, where the Reauxa exotic animal shower exhibitor acquired the rights to 'display' her to the public. For more than a year she was "on exhibition" in Paris, and when interest waned, she was driven out onto the street, where she began to earn money through prostitution. She died of an unknown illness in 1815. After her death, her remains were interred in French museums. However, only in 2002, were they transferred to South Africa and properly buried.Colonial 'Exhibitions' of Native VillagesThe exhibition of "villagers" using natives of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania enclosed in fences and special cages at various international events was widely practiced throughout Europe until the 1950s.The first colonial exhibition was held in Amsterdam in 1883. The organizers of what was known as the International Colonial and Export Exhibition used a special enclosure to recreate a village of Surinamese Indians, who were supposed to demonstrate their daily life to the public. Since then, the phenomenon of human zoos had spread across Europe and had taken root in a myriad of spaces, like fairs, theaters, circuses, acclimatization gardens, cabarets, universal or colonial exhibitions, and itinerant villages. An "African village" housing about 400 people became one of the central "exhibitions" of the 1889 Paris Exposition. During the one in 1900, the organizers installed the diorama "Life in Madagascar" with inhabitants of the island.Symbol of Inhuman RacismIn the United States, the situation was similar. The American hunter and showman William Cody, nicknamed Buffalo Bill, taking advantage of the interest in Indian themes that appeared as a result of the wars with the Native American ethnic group, the Sioux, had begun organizing circus shows with the participation of white adventurers and Indians. In 1906, the New York Zoological Society set up an exhibition placing a Congolese pygmy named, Ota Benga, in a cage with chimpanzees and orangutans. The Belgian colonialists killed Benga's entire family, and the latter was brought to America to participate in shows as a real captive, including at the Bronx Zoo.He was released in 1906 thanks to protests by numerous outraged Americans. Free but unhappy, as the sole survivor of his clan and seeing that it was impossible for him to return to his homeland after the outbreak of the First World War, Ota Benga ended his life. He is considered to be a symbol of the inhuman racism that characterizes the 20th century in the United States and more broadly in the Western world.Humanism Triumphs?Human zoos disappeared in the mid-20th century. The last one involved the 'display' of a Congolese village at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. The photo of a little African girl walking around in an enclosure and being hand-fed by a European lady has garnered worldwide infamy.Even though today's humanism would not allow people to be kept in zoo-like enclosures, events reminiscent of that nevertheless have surfaced occasionally after 1960.
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'Human Zoos': Inhuman Entertainment Displayed Across Colonial-Era Western Europe
19:36 12.09.2023 (Updated: 14:18 13.09.2023) On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed colonial-era human zoos set up in Western nations that existed until the 1950s. Entire families and children were on public display, at times in cages. This type of "entertainment" ended only in the mid-20th century. Sputnik Africa looks back at glaring cases of this "civilizational racism."
People in cages were taken from Africa to European countries, President Putin pointed out, as he shed light on what the former colonialists had done with the inhabitants of this continent.
"It is impossible to look at it without crying," he added.
Human beings exhibited in zoos was what Western societies of the 19th-20th centuries offered their populations in order to play up racial differences and inequalities. The largest zoos of this kind were established in Berlin, Basel, Antwerp, London and Paris. Local spectators came to gawk at subjects dressed in rags, sometimes exhibited alongside wild animals.
The first widely-known instance of shows organized using people from distant countries is Saartjie Baartman, sometimes named Sarah Baartman, a young South African girl brought to the United Kingdom in 1810. Her non-European looks and her enlarged buttocks aroused great interest among the British public.
After the UK, the girl was transported to France, where the
Reauxa exotic animal shower exhibitor acquired the rights to 'display' her to the public. For more than a year she was "on exhibition" in Paris, and when interest waned, she was driven out onto the street, where she began to earn money through prostitution. She died of an unknown illness in 1815. After her death, her remains were interred in French museums. However, only in 2002,
were they transferred to South Africa and properly buried.
Colonial 'Exhibitions' of Native Villages
The exhibition of "villagers" using natives of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania enclosed in fences and special cages at various international events was widely practiced throughout Europe until the 1950s.
The first colonial exhibition was held in Amsterdam in 1883. The organizers of what was known as the International Colonial and Export Exhibition used a special enclosure to recreate a village of Surinamese Indians, who were supposed to demonstrate their daily life to the public.
Since then,
the phenomenon of human zoos had spread across Europe and had taken root in a myriad of spaces, like fairs, theaters, circuses, acclimatization gardens, cabarets, universal or colonial exhibitions, and itinerant villages.
An "African village" housing about 400 people became one of the central "exhibitions" of the 1889 Paris Exposition. During the one in 1900, the organizers installed the diorama "Life in Madagascar" with inhabitants of the island.
In the United States, the situation was similar. The American hunter and showman William Cody, nicknamed Buffalo Bill, taking advantage of the interest in Indian themes that appeared as a result of the wars with the Native American ethnic group, the Sioux, had begun organizing circus shows with the participation of white adventurers and Indians.
In 1906, the New York Zoological Society set up an exhibition placing a Congolese pygmy named, Ota Benga, in a cage with chimpanzees and orangutans. The Belgian colonialists killed Benga's entire family, and the latter was brought to America to participate in shows as a real captive, including at the Bronx Zoo.
He was released in 1906 thanks to protests by numerous outraged Americans. Free but unhappy, as the sole survivor of his clan and seeing that it was impossible for him to return to his homeland after the outbreak of the First World War, Ota Benga ended his life. He is considered to be a symbol of the
inhuman racism that characterizes the 20th century in the United States and more broadly in the Western world.
Human zoos disappeared in the mid-20th century. The last one involved the 'display' of a Congolese village at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. The photo of a little African girl walking around in an enclosure and being hand-fed by a European lady has garnered worldwide infamy.
Even though today's humanism would not allow people to be kept in zoo-like enclosures, events reminiscent of that nevertheless have surfaced occasionally after 1960.
