Overview

Starting in the 1890s, millions of Europeans and Americans encountered “native” Africans in person for the first time in so-called “human zoos.” This strange but once popular form of “entertainment” was long forgotten. Somali-British author Nadifa Mohamed now recounts what it was like to live in a human zoo. She tracks down the descendants of those involved, shows how people were used for racial experiments, and reveals that the remains of these “exhibited” indigenous people can still be found in museums today.