cover illustration: "African Pygmies," photo courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
Bernth Lindfors, editor
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
From the Publisher:
Ethnological show business has a very long history in Europe. It became increasingly common after advances in navigational technology had put Europeans in touch with human communities all over the globe.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some of the most interesting individuals and groups exhibited in Europe and America came from Africa. What did the average spectator think of such representatives from the "Dark Continent"? If the display was a dramatic one--that is, if the Africans sang, danced, or acted out events--what opinions did observers form of them as performers and as human beings? How was the spectacle staged, and who organized and managed the show? How authentic were these performances? Where did the performers actually come from? What notions about Africa and Africans were these exhibitions meant to convey?
Contents:
1 Zoe Strother, "Display of the Body Hottentot" 1
3 Bernth Lindfors, "Charles Dickens and the Zulus" 62
4 Shane Peacock, "Africa Meets the Great Farini" 81
4 Veit Erlmann, "‘Spectatorial Lust’: The African Choir in England, 1891-1893" 107
5 Robert W. Rydell, "‘Darkest Africa’: African Shows at America’s World’s Fairs, 1893-1940" 135
6 Jeffrey Green, "A Strange Revelation in Humankind: Six Congo Pygmies in Britain, 1905-1907" 156
7 Harvey Blume, "Ota Benga and the Barnum Perplex" 188
8 Neil Parsons, "‘Clicko,’ Franz Taaibosch, South African Bushman Entertainer in England, France, Cuba, and the United States, 1908-1940" 203
9 Bata Kindai Amgoza Ibn LoBagola and the Making of An African Savage's Own Story 228
10 "Bain's Bushmen": Scenes at the Empire Exhibition, 1936 266
Contributors 291
Index 293
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