In 1906 the Bronx Zoo brought a Congolese Pygmy named Ota Benga over from Africa to exhibit at the zoo and housed him in the Zoo’s ‘Monkey House.’ Two years ago, the New York Times in a long report recalled the event and criticized the paper’s own coverage then. As the New York Times reported in 2006: ‘One hundred years later, the Ota Benga rage.episode remains a perfect illustration of the racism that pervaded New York at the time.’ So you’d think they’d learn. This Sunday in the City section, a headline on page 3 screams ‘Out of Africa, the Wisdom of a Warrior,’ by one Josh Weill. Weill is an assistant to a photographer Elizabeth Gilbert who had brought over ‘the warrior,’ Andiri Lekelani, to help promote her new book “Tribes of the Great Rift Valley.” As for the launch it appears from the article that was held at, stop, wait: The American Museum of Natural History. Yeh. The rest of the article consists of Weill’s impressions ‘chaperoning’ Mr Lekelani around New York City. What follows is one of the stupidest things I read in a while, filled with outdated stereotypes. Samples:
I wondered if the Masai saw the beauty of the stuffed animal the way I did, or if the sight just made him homesick. Was he awed by the beasts plucked from his land and hoarded half a world away?
and the prize quote:
By the time he and I were sipping our Cokes, he was guiding me through his world. Watching him tear off a quarter of his paper napkin and reserve the rest for later, or sip on a straw to avoid touching the glass’s rim, I felt as if I were in Africa, with its scarcities and health dangers.
The full piece here. I am tired.
7 responses so far ↓
kenyanchick // March 31, 2008 at 3:13 am
You have GOT to be kidding. If you hadn’t included a link to the story, there was no way I would have believed that the Times could print such crap.
Or that in 2008 someone would have written a book called “The great tribes” of anywhere, or that the author and her agent would have thought of taking a Maasai man to the MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY as some sort of mascot for said book.
Good Lord.
sepoy // March 31, 2008 at 10:27 am
Priceless. I have long believed that the only true champion of old-fashioned racism and unadulterated Orientalism is our paper of record, the NYT. There was a piece a shortwhile ago about Arab Sheikhs and their falcons that was just as bad - ok, maybe not THIS bad.
Barrie // April 1, 2008 at 11:10 am
WOW
This makes me so sad.
Stephanie Camp // April 1, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Looks like exhibits of African people in zoos & natural history museums are making a come-back. The San Diego Zoo had a
“cultural exchange program” during the summer of 2007 in which Maasai men were on exhibit, dancing etc, and sleeping in the zoo. Here is a description of the program from the zoo’s own web page:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wap/wap_maasai.html
Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo has had Massai “cultural interpreters” in the zoo’s “African Village” (actually a Kikuyu village), which includes a number of homes and a school house—with the seats facing a plain with giraffes and zebras. What else would African/Kikuyu/Maasai children focus their eyes on in school? To their credit, in the zoo, they are not decked out in traditional hear (as they were in San Diego and NYC), though they do sport it in the zoo’s literature. Oh yeah: the advertisements alternate the logo “This Close” with close-ups of zebra stripes, elephant skins and Maasai necklaces. If you Google the Seattle Zoo and Maasai, you;ll find lots of hits because a number of people made quite a stink about this during the summer of 2007.
Finally, in DC, the Smithsonian includes exhibits of African cultures along with its lesson plans about butterflies, dinosaurs and other fauna. See: http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/
And, as a friend pointed out to me, the museum is also featuring, significantly, a temporary exhibit on Rastafarianism and another on Mexican people and religion.
And permanent exhibits of Korean people, ‘Western Culture’ (indigenous peoples of the Americas). see
http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/current.html
So yeah, apparently in this post-race moment, it seems unremarkable and even enjoyable to many to engage in “cultural exchange” with non-Western peoples in zoos and natural history museums.
Sara Baartman 2.0 « Africa is a Country // April 10, 2008 at 12:31 pm
[...] live at the zoo as part of a ‘culture share’ program, then followed the spectacle of a Masai man being brought to New York City to promote a coffee table book. Now comes the news that a group of Masai ‘warriors’ will take part in the London [...]
monkey house at the bronx zoo // April 18, 2008 at 4:34 am
[...] years ago, the New York Times in a long report recalled the event and criticized the paper’s own chttp://theleoafricanus.com/2008/03/30/the-new-york-times-takes-a-masai-warrior-to-the-zoo/WAZA - World Association of Zoos and Aquariums - Zoos & Aquariums …Bronx Zoo, operated by the [...]
masai tribe // June 28, 2008 at 6:09 am
[...] years ago, the New York Times in a long report recalled the event and criticized the paper’s own chttp://theleoafricanus.com/2008/03/30/the-new-york-times-takes-a-masai-warrior-to-the-zoo/Pilot Guides.com: Beautiful Warrior: The African Masai Tribesthe lives, culture, rites of [...]
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