the human zoo in france was called “Bamboula’s village”

    • SadArtemis🏳️‍⚧️@lemmygrad.ml
      0·
      5 months ago

      Somehow, I suspect that even then, the Congolese and Indian human zoos were likely run by European colonials, not the locals. The Japanese on the other hand have no excuse.

      • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        5 months ago

        Apparently according to the source of the map, they aren’t counting zoos put on by Imperialist nations in their colonial holdings since those nations didn’t have sovereignty in making those decisions.

        They marked India because of the Andaman Islands incident where the local government and police forced the indigenous population to perform as savage native peoples for tourists that they would take on human safaris. The police would torture, beat, kidnap, and sexually assault tribe members if they refused or didn’t preform to their liking. There is a famous video of a police officer throwing some food at some at native peoples before holding them at gunpoint and yelling for them to dance for the tourists because he has given them food.

        This went on from the early 2000’s to 2015, when the scheme was revealed; which created massive outrage in the Indian government and UN. Thankfully everyone associated was imprisoned and the native populations hold more autonomy over the islands.

    • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboula's_Village

      https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgda34/human-zoo-france-safari-africain

      Bamboula’s Village was an attempt to recreate an Ivory Coast village within the Planète Sauvage zoo in Port-Saint-Père, near Nantes, in France.

      In 1994, the biscuit brand Biscuiterie Saint-Michel teamed up with the safari park to create the village, naming it “Bamboula’s Village” after its “Bamboula” chocolate biscuits, which had a black mascot with the same name (a racial slur, dating from colonial times).

      Twenty-five Ivorians, including children, were hired for six months to build and inhabit the village. They performed every day of the week, and received pay below the French minimum wage. Dancers were forced to work bare-chested despite bad weather. Performers’ passports were confiscated; most lived confined to their huts (the park gate being closed in the evenings), which provided less space than required by labour law. Children were kept out of school, while medical care was provided by the zoo’s veterinarians.

      Anti-racist organisations and unions formed the group “Non à la réserve humaine” [“No to the Human Zoo”] and began legal action against the park. By the time that the court had sent an expert to document human-rights violations, the performers had been ordered out of the country. The village was closed in September of 1994. The park had to pay a symbolic one French franc (€0.15) in damages, plus legal fees. Bamboula’s Village was demolished, and the Bamboula chocolate biscuit was no longer sold.

      • Spahija@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        5 months ago

        “Bamboula” […] (a racial slur, dating from colonial times).

        So this is how I learn that “bamboula”, which everyone in my family uses to mean “a mess” (“c’est la bamboula!”) is a racial slur… I guess I’m thankful I haven’t heard the term be used in years, but still…

  • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    5 months ago

    This map is extremely poorly made and missed quite literally half the world.

    The Swiss and Norwegians had human zoos where they paid black peoples to preform racist stereotypes. Norwegians and Swedes also forced the Sami minority to preform in human exhibits.

    The Russian Empire had multiple human zoos that ran for short periods of time between 1800-1914. They were a rare form of entertainment for the Tsars and nobility.

    The Dutch aren’t marked on this man but they literally hired and kidnapped several black people to preform in a human zoo called “N-word village”. Along with a village dedicated to native people from Suriname.

    Thailand held hundreds of refugee women from Myanmar in a human zoo that was operating as late as 2008. They were not allowed to leave the country and were essentially slaves until the UN stepped in.

    Czechoslovakia operated a human zoo with Pygmy individuals.

    Ireland operated a human zoo in Dublin with Senegalese “performers” in 1904.

    The Austrian-Hungarian Empire operated multiple human zoos.

    Australia had human zoos of aboriginal peoples.

    Warsaw had a human zoo that attracted 200,000-300,000 attendees.

    Portugal operated a human zoo with kidnapped Africans from its colonies in 1940.

    Argentina forced indigenous tribe leaders to preform in natural history museums.

    The Aztec Empire operated a human zoo in their capital city with hundreds of enslaved performers that were considered “odd” note that means disabled. It was recently unearthed by archeologists a few years ago after being considered a myth, since it was only documented by the Conquistadors as the zoo was part of the personal collection of the Emperor.