‘Human Zoo’ Project in Norway Sparks Racism Row
A Norwegian project displaying people for entertainment by highlighting the evolution of racism has recreated a notorious ‘human zoo’, depicting Africans in cages as uncivilized and primitive animals, a move that sparked public outrage.
The outdoor exhibition called European Attraction Limited which was set up in the capital, Oslo, in Frogner Park, has recreated a notorious 1914 Norwegian human zoo. The original Congo village, or Kongolandsbyen, was inhabited by about 80 people, actually Senegalese, who were put on display for public entertainment for five months.
That show attracted about 1.4 million people who were eager to watch "traditionally-dressed Africans,"living in palm-roof cabins and going about their daily routine of cooking, eating and making handicrafts.
Now, a hundred years later, the curators of the exhibition - Mohamed Ali Fadlabi, who arrived in the country as a Sudanese refugee and Lars Cuzner, a Swedish national - have recreated the notorious display and dedicated it to the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution. . . .