A fragment of Paris's Monument to the glory of colonial expansion
Clea Caulcutt
By Clea Caulcutt
At Vincennes, on the edge of Paris, visitors may stumble across the relics of the 1907 colonial expo in which men and women from the former colonies were exhibited to crowds of visitors. French authorities have neglected the site, a sombre reminder of Europe’s colonial past, which is now in danger of being irreparably lost.
The Gallic rooster at the entrance of the Jardin tropical has seen better days. Once destined to preside over one of Paris’s main avenues, the central figure of the Monument to the glory of colonial expansion has lost a leg and is now covered in moss. But it still stands proudly, strutting on a globe representing the earth, on a bed of weapons and travelling instruments.
Fragments of this monument have washed up in the Jardin tropical, where many hope it will be forgotten.
“It’s the junkyard of French colonial history,” says French historian Pascal Blanchard, “The memory of France's relations to its colonies over the last century is concentrated here.”
There is little logic in the site’s layout. Buildings of Paris’s 1907 colonial exhibition stand alongside memorials to colonial soldiers dead in World War I. Embarrassing reminders of a sombre period in European history, the buildings of the colonial exhibit have been left to rot away, paint peeling, roofs falling in, overrun with brambles
Paris's Jardin tropical
Traces of the exotic can still be found, in the shape of an etched palm tree on Benin’s pavilion, or a couple of mosaics on Tunisia’s pavilion. Typical world fair pavilions, but with a more sinister story. Many historians now call such colonial exhibits "human zoos".
Men and women from the French colonies were brought to Europe and rented out to zoological and tropical gardens, where they were put on show alongside exotic animals.
Kanak warriors and their families were shipped over from French New Caledonia. African families were recruited in Senegal, Niger, Guinea and Dahomey (in what is now Benin) to live in replicas of their villages. They were given mock traditional costumes, and told to dance or play music for the visitors.
Such ethnological exhibitions were hugely popular at the beginning of the 20th century. They served the interests of the owners of tropical gardens seeking to spice up their shows as well as the purposes of colonial administrators and anthropologists at the time.
The Jardin tropical is the only remaining site in France where the displays have not been razed to the ground.
The garden could be a great teaching tool for historians, many say, but it remains largely unknown and ignored.
“The exhibit has been neglected. I know Parisians who have lived all their life near Vincennes and who have never once set foot in it,” says Benjamin Pelletier, a writer and intercultural management trainer.
