Ahhhh...so this is civilization! Have u stuffed (and displayed) your Negro today?

Ahhhh...

so this is civilized life in Spain?

Have u stuffed and displayed your Negro today? (dap @ Runoko Rashidi)

El Negro of Banyoles
repatriated to Botswana and given a dignified burial 1997

Dig it!

I came across this story via Runoko Rashidi.

"El Negro of Banyoles"
On display at the Darder Museum in Banyoles, Spain from 1916-1997.

In 1916, the body of an African from what is now known as Botswana was stuffed and displayed like an animal or some other trophy first in France and then in Spain. Incredibly, "El Negro," as the "display" came to be known, remained in public view until 1997 when a Spaniard of Haitian descent, and later the Organization of African Unity (OAU), demanded "El Negro's" removal.

It was in 1992 that Arcelin, a Spanish national of Haitian origin, drew the attention of Africa and the world to the display of El Negro in a Banyoles museum in Spain and five years later the OAU called for the repatriation of the body to Africa.

He was finally repatriated in 2000. Here's one report on how his bodily remains were received in Botswana:

Construction workers stood in line with drills in their hands. Mothers carried groceries and babies. There were businessmen in suits, students in baseball caps and old women leaning on canes. Some sang the national anthem and waved flowers. But when it came time to see him, most people walked solemnly in single file and peered quietly through a tiny glass window in the polished coffin.

There lay his remains, though all that could be seen through the glass was a skull with empty eye sockets and broken teeth.

But Didimalang Keakopa Bukha, a nurse, did not flinch. Instead, she struggled to recognize the lines of his cheekbones and the breadth of his brow. "He has got a small forehead like me," said Mrs. Bukha, 44, her voice breaking. "This part of southern Africa where they say he is from, I have kin there. And when I saw him, I saw a person. Not a skull -- a human being.

You can read a more detailed report here.[1] For more gruesome examples of "civilization" in Europe, check out my post, "Return of a Dead King's Head and other abominations."

tags: botswana, human display, museums, OAU, race, runoko rashidi, spain

[1] Thanks to Brother Haroon Kharem for finding the additional report.