However unsavoury the “human zoo” was, the people were not in cages like in the image. They were paid actors, used like a kind of freakshow to gawk at “the savages”, and IIRC they lived in a house or hotel they went to after the exhibit closed at night.
A quick wiki check reveals they complained about the visitors´ disrespect towards them and were therefor sent home before the expo was over.
>Another exhibition at the Belgian pavilion was the Congolese village that some have branded a human zoo.
[…]
>The 700 Congolese chosen to be exhibited by the Ministry were educated urbanites referred to by Belgians as évolués, meaning literally “evolved,” but were made to dress in “primitive” clothing, and an armed guard blocked them from communicating with white Belgians who came to observe them.
[…]
>However, in mid-July the Congolese protested the condescending treatment they were receiving from spectators and demanded to be sent home, abruptly ending the exhibit
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Also “picture unrelated”
However unsavoury the “human zoo” was, the people were not in cages like in the image. They were paid actors, used like a kind of freakshow to gawk at “the savages”, and IIRC they lived in a house or hotel they went to after the exhibit closed at night.
A quick wiki check reveals they complained about the visitors´ disrespect towards them and were therefor sent home before the expo was over.
>Another exhibition at the Belgian pavilion was the Congolese village that some have branded a human zoo.
[…]
>The 700 Congolese chosen to be exhibited by the Ministry were educated urbanites referred to by Belgians as évolués, meaning literally “evolved,” but were made to dress in “primitive” clothing, and an armed guard blocked them from communicating with white Belgians who came to observe them.
[…]
>However, in mid-July the Congolese protested the condescending treatment they were receiving from spectators and demanded to be sent home, abruptly ending the exhibit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_58