The concept seems an oxymoron, though it reveals the violence of these exhibitions. The first ethnic exhibition of Nubians occurred in 1877 in Paris, when the term human zoo appears to have been used for the first time. Things changed in the late 19th century, when shows became part of national and colonial exhibitions. Such "freak shows" spread around Europe and North America, and included people considered different because of their unusual physical appearance, including dwarfism and albinism. Turned into a film in 2010, one of the most famous shows was Sara Baartman, the "Hottenton Venus".īecause of her unconventional body shape, she was brought to Europe from South Africa to participate in an exhibition. Human exhibitions were a form of entertainment invented in the early 19th century in Great Britain. Why? The answer lies in the country's past.įar from being a Swiss peculiarity, human zoos were spread around the West. Does it ring a bell to today's Swiss political campaigns? Indeed, the racist discourse that spread from the Parc de Plaisance is still largely among us. This triggered their fear of a "Black invasion". According to them, Senegalese individuals had "free time" to move around the city. On the other hand, racist groups were vociferous. As Davide Rodogno of the Geneva Graduate Institute stated, the general system of human zoos was not questioned, and the racial hierarchy was accepted as truth. This "missionary" point of view asked for respect for the "native" people and their dignity while attacking the behaviors of the allegedly civilized visitors. On the one hand, critical voices emerged in the press. These encounters were far from being a sideshow, triggering multiple opinions. Tourists could take pictures with the African troupe and walk around their dwellings. Their religious ceremonies were advertised as public events. For six months, paying visitors observed these "actors" living their lives.
Inhabited by more than 200 individuals from Senegal, the village was situated a few streets from the city's central square, the Plaine de Plainpalais. However, several researchers' archival work helped unearth the history of the first Swiss "Village noir". There are very few visible references to it, except for one street called after its corresponding "white" exhibition, the "Village Suisse". Back in 1896, during the Swiss Second National Exhibition, it hosted a human zoo. Today, Geneva is considered one of the capitals of human rights.
How is it possible that, half a century later, the exhibition of 200 African people that two million people visited has fallen into oblivion? How likely is it that none of them came from the region of Leukerbad? But most importantly, what was this "Village noir"?Ī 'Black village' in the heart of the Alps Fifty years before the American writer set foot in the Alps, about two third of the Swiss population visited the "Village noir" in Geneva. It did not occur to me-possibly because I am an American-that there could be people anywhere who had never seen a N_o."īaldwin's odd realization does not hold the historical evidence, though. I was told before arriving that I would probably be a 'sight' for the village I took this to mean that people of my complexion were rarely seen in Switzerland and also that city people are always something of a 'sight' outside of the city. "From all available evidence, no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came.
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