Malinda Words: The inhuman ‘elephant’ in a human zoo

There was a man once, one of many, who was taken to the United States of America to be part of a human exhibition. He, like others from territories and cultures unknown or lesser known to the average North American would-be viewer, was shown off, much like a reptile, mammal, bird or fish that was foreign and on account of rarity considered ‘exotic.’

I don’t know if the ‘collection’ saw this man as just another specimen as any other creature on earth or in air or underground. I don’t know if he and others like him ascribed a greater value on account of being closer in similarity to them, the ability to converse, gather, create homes, cultivate crops etc. The generous view is that given ignorance they assumed some kind of inferiority and concluded, ‘lesser species.’ It was probably not just that, considering the narratives of various invaders, slave traffickers, slave owners, mass murderers and sackers of continents. Even this particular exhibitor used the word ‘human’ and a pernicious streak is certainly evident.

It is really hard to put it down to ignorance and erroneous conclusions about species hierarchies. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans delighted in visiting ‘human zoos’ in Paris, London, Berlin, New York, Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona and Milan. The trauma these incarcerated people suffered, the diseases they were afflicted with, the humiliation, insults, pain of mind etc cannot be fathomed. Many probably died in captivity. We know that outside the Catholic Church in Tervuren, Belgium, there are seven stone graves holding the remains of six Congolese men and one woman who were exhibited like zoo animals during 1897. They were exposed to the rains and died of influenza and pneumonia. Apparently they, along with 260 other men, women and children had been brought to Tervuren for a colonial exhibition.

The graves hold the remains of six Congolese men and one woman who were exhibited like zoo animals in a nearby park in Tervuren during the rainy summer of 1897 and who died of influenza and pneumonia after being forced to spend their days outside. They were among the 267 men, women and children transported to Tervuren for a colonial exhibition ordered by the Belgian king, Leopold II.

[Leopold II. Responsible for approximately 10 million deaths in the Congo Free State. Hitler and other European mass murderers, counted among whom are several war-criminals who head their respective states and have turned other countries into slaughterhouses, would have to collectively step back in awe at the colossus that is Leopold II the Butcher.]

A necessary parenthesis, that.

Those who supplied ‘attractions’ to places like Tervuren, those who commissioned such crimes, the lords, ladies and priests who promoted such things or were silent, the ‘scientists’ who treated the human being incarcerated as lab rats to propound theories of racial superiority and inferiority, and of course those who visited these facilities are all guilty.

One could call it ‘inhumanity,’ but I wonder if that is not what we truly are as a species. I wonder if our ‘humanity’ is just that: arrogant, superior and at best condescending.

We haven't really, as a species, resolved the issue of perceptions pertaining to people who are different in terms of language, location, skin color, belief systems etc. It’s a trait that as a species we imprint on all we touch, including the ways in which we engage with other species.

What is the difference between human exhibits/exhibitions and zoos? The assumption of superiority and inferiority is at its heart. We judge in terms of our conceptualization of right and wrong, good and bad, holy and unholy. And so we rank countries and communities, vocations, intellect and humanity. If the overriding determinants were humility, kindness, compassion and tolerance, where would the human species stand in this world of creatures big and small, visible and invisible to the naked human eyes?

We inhabit a human zoo. We are as a species a collection of zoos where we imprison and are imprisoned in turn. Perhaps it is because we cannot bear this truth we find succour in defining other creatures as somehow being inferior.

They, simply, don’t speak our language. That’s all. It is not a determinant of intelligence or species nobility. We constitute the proverbial elephant in the human zoo and we are not different to that American of the United States who took a Lankan ‘specimen’ to be exhibited in New York over 100 years ago. And we are that man who was exhibited as well. Only, we don’t have the eyes to see the cage we live in. Or we look away.

Wait, not an elephant. A rogue elephant.

Finally, this: A note that could be read to elephants of all species one day by a kind person who knows elephant-language. 'Sorry.'

malindadocs@gmail.com

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is 190th article in the new series but it was not published perhaps because it was seen to be controversial. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]

08 August 2023

The inhuman ‘elephant’ in a human zoo

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