The Return of the Stuffed African Bushman

The Windy City is known throughout the Midwest for its numerous museums that are thought of as being top-notch learning institutions. A museum, in theory, is a place where one can find objects and specimens of all walks of life, whether it be archelogical findings of ancient tools or artwork, modern-day famous oil paintings, dinosaur skeletons, or replicas (or stuffed specimens) of exotic sea or animal life. Virtually every schoolage child visits at least one museum during his or her elementary school years, and the Chicago tourist does not feel satisfied with their experience of the city without visiting at least one of the huge museums during their stay. Museums have, in fact, become an appointed authority of science and education for the modern human. But how does one react when one realizes that the giant rhino that is displayed behind the protective glass barrier was once a living being? What legitamite excuse will one give when asked why an American (or European, or Mexican, or African) museum has the right to proudly display an Egyptian Mummy who was disturbed from his peace, stolen from his resting place, and displayed as an object or commodity? What possible explanation can be given for the display of a stuffed human being in a museum showcase?

It is true that human history is tarnished with many stories and events that are swept under the table and hidden from public awareness, and the case of the stuffed African man is yet another of these episodes. It was in October of the year 2000 that the Darder Museum, a small museum in Banyoles, Spain, returned the body of a stuffed African bushman who had been on display for over 100 years, to his home in Africa.

The African is thought to be from the Botswana/South African area of the Motherland, although his name and ancestors are not known. The body was stolen from his grave on the night of his burial, stuffed, and brought to Europe in 1830 by Edouard Verraux, a French taxidermist. The body was primarily displayed in Paris as part of an exhibition of stuffed animals until Frances Darder purchased the body in 1888. The town of Banyoles later inherited the body with Darder's entire collection. The stuffed African had been on display without protest until 1992.

It was the Olympic Games that brought controversy to the stuffed African in the Spanish museum. A Haitian doctor practicing in Spain asked that the body to be removed from display due to its racist nature, but the directors of the museum refused. The doctor began an Olympic boycott, giving the issue international attention. Both the museum faculty and the citizens of Banyoles were strongly opposed to returning the stuffed man to his home and claimed that the body was its central exhibit. Meanwhile, admission fees were raised and visitor attendance tripled. The body was finally removed, however, and after eight long years of delays, he was returned to his homeland.

This story is just another example of the cruelities of the system of colonization and power. Most of us cannot imagine such a thing happening today, yet there is evidence of this attitude in our own city! The Field Museum of Chicago is very proud of its Ancient Egypt display consisting of ancient artifacts, hieroglyphs, and mummies. Most of the items on exhibit have been stolen from Africa. The bodies on display have been uprooted from their resting place and stolen from their ancestors. The "treasures" and mummies have been plundered from tombs and graves. Meanwhile, the public does not protest, and many do not consider the exhibit offensive, but rather educational. Yet nowhere in the world is there an exhibit featuring the stolen remains of a White man. European ancestors are not uprooted from their graves and put behind a glass case in a museum; burial chambers are not broken into, and rings, jewelery, roseries, and spiritual items are not stolen.

The fact is that most people of today feel very removed from the mummies they see, the treasures they admire, and the stuffed corpses they view. Yet the stuffed African man could be an ancestor of yours! While we are sickened at the idea of somebody digging up our grandfather's grave and stealing his body and jewlery, the public attitude changes when the shoe is put on the other foot. We should consider the honorable African Bushman who was stuffed and put on display as our ancestor, and we should consider the bodies of the mummies currently on display in the same manner.