Negro of Banyoles

The man who became known as the Negro of Banyoles was estimated to have been about 27 years old when he died, based on an analysis of his teeth.^[6] He was originally identified as a member of the San people.^[6] According to Dutch writer and journalist Frank Westerman and the documentary El negre té nom ("The Negro Has a Name"), the individual may have been Chief Molawa VIII, who was born between 1800 and 1805 and came from Litakou (now Dithakong, South Africa).^[7]

In 1830, French natural history collectors and taxidermists Jules Verreaux and Édouard Verreaux obtained the remains in southern Africa and preserved them using taxidermy techniques. Later examinations found that the body had been extensively altered for exhibition. A wooden spine and shoulder supports were added, along with artificial eyes, hair, and genitals. The figure was also stuffed with materials including newspaper, and arsenic was used during the preservation process.^[3]

The brothers exhibited the remains in France, where they were displayed in various shops during the nineteenth century. Around 1886, Catalan veterinary surgeon and natural history collector Francesc Darder purchased the exhibit in Paris and added it to his collection. After unsuccessful attempts to profit from the display, he moved it to Barcelona. When Darder founded the Darder Museum in Banyoles, Catalonia, in 1916, the remains became part of the museum's collection.^[8]

For more than 80 years, from 1916 to 1997, the man was displayed at the Darder Museum wearing a loincloth, feathered headdress, and carrying a spear. The exhibit became one of the museum's best-known attractions. According to later accounts, museum staff periodically applied shoe polish to maintain his appearance.^[9][3]

For much of the twentieth century, the Negro of Banyoles was displayed at the Darder Museum without significant public objection. On 29 October 1991, Alphonse Arcelin, a physician of Haitian origin living in Catalonia, wrote to Banyoles mayor Joan Solana and called for the exhibit's removal.^[10][11] His campaign attracted widespread media attention and sparked debate about the public display of human remains.^[4]

The issue gained international attention during preparations for the 1992 Summer Olympics, when Banyoles hosted rowing events. Several African governments supported Arcelin's campaign and calls for the Negro of Banyoles to be returned to Africa. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, then Director-General of UNESCO, discussed the matter with Solana, and later Kofi Annan, as Secretary-General of the United Nations, also expressed interest in the case. The dispute also raised concerns among museum organisations about the display and return of human remains.^[4]

In 1997, the issue was debated by the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity.^[4] The Negro of Banyoles was removed from public display in March of that year.^[2] While some commentators described the exhibit as a relic of colonialism,^[12] many residents of Banyoles and the surrounding area opposed its removal. After more than 80 years in the museum, some viewed the Negro of Banyoles as part of the local community.^[13][3]

Botswana's government offered to assist the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in burying the man once all of his remains had been returned to Africa.^[4][3] The skull and remaining bones were subsequently sent to Botswana and arrived on 4 October 2000.^[14] He was buried the following day at Tsholofelo Park in Gaborone, and his gravesite was later declared a national monument.^[4][15]

According to historian Jeff Ramsay, the repatriation was intended as an act of restitution and reconciliation that would symbolically return an African man to his homeland after nearly 170 years of exhibition in Europe. However, the process quickly became controversial. Many Batswana had expected the complete preserved body that had been displayed in Spain for more than a century. According to Ramsay, what arrived was not a body but a skull and a small number of bones contained in an unvarnished wooden box. The preserved skin, soft tissue, and ethnographic objects that had accompanied the display in Spain were not returned, and Spanish representatives provided no public explanation for their absence.^[16]

The Darder Museum currently avoids any references to the controversy of the negre de Banyoles. The only record of the San in the museum is a silent video with black and white images on a small plasma screen. The video allows people to see the San as he was displayed until his removal.^[2]

Several books have dealt with the el negre controversy, most notably El Negro en ik (El Negro and me) by Frank Westerman, which shows that naturalist Georges Cuvier knew about the man.^[6]

• Human zoo
• Angelo Soliman, an African-born Austrian courtier taxidermied after death
• Julia Pastrana, a sideshow performer preserved via taxidermy
• Ota Benga
• Repatriation of human remains
• Saartjie Baartman
• Scientific racism

• Davies, Caitlin: The Return of El Negro. Johannesburg: Penguin Books 2003.
• Fock, Stefanie: »Un individu de raça negroide«. El Negro und die Wunderkammern des Rassismus. In: Entfremdete Körper. Rassismus als Leichenschändung, ed. Wulf D. Hund. Bielefeld: transcript 2009, pp. 165 – 204.
• Westermann, Frank: El Negro en ik. Amsterdam: Atlas 2004.