Somalis were displayed in human zoos?

[UlteriorMotive]

I did not know this.

I was glancing at bbc news when I came across an interesting article. Apparently, when the French used to display the finds recovered from their empire...they included Somali 'savages' as a spectacle. I know the display of 'natives' used to occur in Britain hundreds of years ago...but it never occurred to me that Somalis were included..lol. As recently as the late 19th century. That means someone's great grandmother was possibly gawked at by smelly Parisians.

Here is a pic advertising the event:



Here is the article. It includes a video.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16295827

[AgentOfChaos]

*looks at OP's username*

You really do live up to your name.

[greenday]

Sounds awful, but i like the picture

[UlteriorMotive]

*looks at OP's username*

You really do live up to your name.

??

[Adali]

"creating a sense of others" how interesting, i read alot of european literature concerning Somalis, they refer to tribes in very distinct terms like they would call the Hawyio "not true Somalis" they would call Somalis near the Kenyan and Ethiopian border "The Arab-Somali" etc it's very suttle and really digs into egos. They will praise a group only when degrading the subsequent group, this is why i always took their insults as praise and reject their approval. "The Madd Mullah" "the disgruntled dictator Siyaad Barre" etc etc where as i consider The Sayid to be the creator of a Somali state and Siyad Barre as the father of modern Somalia, the man who revived the Somali state created by The Sayid.

[udun]

That is just a portrait of how Somalis look like, dress, and their culture, but I doubt a Somali couple woul have accepted to be shown in zoo. C'mon, get real.

[FAH1223]

[BlackVelvet]

Disturbing.

[Estarix]

It seemed to have existed and that picture depicts somalis pretty well, someone posted somalis in the zoo before.

viewtopic.php?t=285823&p=3345597

[Lamagoodle]

When I lived in Brussels there was this issue;

The historial museum displayed a number of pygmies on the museum's window. According to the organisers, the aim was to show the world the sufferings of the pygmies.

Given Belgium's history in Africa -with King Leopold at the helm- including the creation of the NOSE department to classify Hutus and Tutsis, there was a media storm.

[Gara Man]

Indeed Somalis were displayed in human zoos in Europe like many other people across the globe. Most people that made it to the zoo were kidnapped from their homes by trveling Europeans to display the many races around the world, and of course justify colonialism. I actually came across these zoos a couple a years and was amazed to find it.

But what amazed me more is that they allegdly kidnapped Oromos but the pictures they have look more somali. They simply refered the Oromos as Gallas.


I found this as one of the captions

Carl Hagenbeck's "Galla Truppe," a group of Oromo people, kidnapped from Ethiopia. and displayed with native animals.

And one of the operators of the zoos

In his memoirs, Carl Hagenbeck praised himself, writing, “it was my privilege to be the first in the civilized world to present these shows of different races.”
__________

But it’s not just Chile that has to confront the fate of those who were put on show across Europe. The five who arrived back in South America on Tuesday — given the names Henry, Lise, Grethe, Piskouna and Capitán by their captors — were just some of the hundreds of natives put on display across Europe at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

Human Zoos

Known as “human zoos,” the shows involved the abduction of indigenous peoples from around the world, particularly Africa. Often they were displayed in villages built in zoos specifically for the show, but they were also made to perform on stage for the amusement of a paying public.

One of the most prominent of the human zoo operators was the Hamburg animal trader Carl Hagenbeck, whose name still graces the zoo in Hamburg. Indeed, it was a Hagenbeck expedition which brought the five Kawesqars to Europe (along with six others, five of whom were allowed to return with the sixth dying on the way home). They took part in Hagenbeck shows in Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Zurich in addition to Hamburg. In Paris, the show, called “The Savages from the Land of Fire,” attracted a half-million visitors

One of Hagenbeck’s human zoo shows received half a million visitors in Paris. Many of those put on display died quickly of diseases unknown in their homelands.

http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/ent ... &of=12&c=1

http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2010/01/1 ... 130-years/

[LobsterUnit]

Bollocks. The french and British never took a single Somali women from Somalia.

[kadarre]

One of Hagenbeck’s human zoo shows received half a million visitors in Paris. Many of those put on display died quickly of diseases unknown in their homelands.=

[/quote]

The cold plus being exposed to European diseases.