All’s well at the human zoo

Of all the fanciful and bizarre exhibits at the Brussels International Exposition of 1897, one in particular stood out. A section of the royal park at Tervuren was set up as a kind of living diorama and contained a simulation of a village of about 60 Congolese people. The exhibits were expected to go about their daily lives as they did back in the Congo. Thousands of people turned up to gape and prod, and the exposition was a hearty success. Part of the backstory was the vicious colonial experiment of King Leopold II of the Belgians, who in 1885 had appropriated a vast area of the Congo as... This article is part of our premium content. Full story is available on Times of Malta Premium.

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