Sixty years ago, Belgium staged one of the last human zoo. There was a live display of Black men, women and children, who were exhibited for the education and amusement of the white Europeans.
As at then Belgium still ruled over Congo, so they imported hundreds of Congolese to Brussel, where hectares of tropical gardens have been prepared for them which looked like A “typical” village where the Congolese spent their days carrying out their crafts by straw huts while they were mocked by the white men and women who stood at the edge. Some would throw bananas or money over to them.
Most Congolese died from pneumonia and influenza and their bodies dumped in mass grave in local cemetery.
A young Congolese man with sharpened teeth, who thought he was being offered a job as a zoo keeper, only to be given a home in the monkey zoo.This photos was taken in Brussels in 1958, it’s a picture of an African child displayed for viewing, while being fed by a white man, with a fence standing between them. it was not unique to Brussels, they have been hosted earlier in the century, in London, Paris, Oslo and Hamburg e.t.c
Visitors would jeer, laugh at them and decorate them with ornaments
Some Congolese families who could no longer take it, went back home. Though as at now, the human zoo has now been closed down, and such a zoo was not to be staged anywhere again.
