Leopold II’s ‘human zoo’ that exhibited Congolese people in Brussels | #crownundone

When Leopold II of Belgium ordered that a ‘Colonial Section’ be added to his country estate in 1897, 267 Congolese men, women, and children were abducted and shipped to Belgium.

Ironically, this human zoo was designed to display the “work of civilisation among the primitive Congolese population.” In reality, the zoo–where the Congolese people were literally shown as exhibits–seemed to be the very antithesis of humanity.

A mock African village was built on the royal grounds, and 1.3 million Belgians visited the exhibition.

Seven of the imprisoned Congolese died of pneumonia and the flu over a particularly cold summer, and their bodies were merely dumped in a nearby, unmarked cemetery.

60 years later in 1958, Belgium hosted the world’s last human zoo–showcasing Congolese men, women, and children, once again, as exhibitions.

One journalist wrote at the time, “If there was no reaction [from the Congolese], [visitors] threw money or bananas over the closure of bamboo.”

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