Savage Dramaturgy

Following Ota Benga’s Journey

King Leopold II in the Congo● King Leopold II succeeded his father in 1865 to

become King of Belgium● 1876 - Leopold commissions Sir Henry Morton

Stanley’s expedition to explore the Congo region, which led to the establishment of the...

Congo Free State● This land mass was bigger than Western Europe

and seventy-four times larger than Belgium● Belonged solely to King Leopold II as his personal

possession ○ He also proclaimed himself King–Sovereign of the

Congo Free State.

Uncovering Leopold’s Atrocities● George Washington Williams, the first African American

elected to the Ohio state legislature, first exposed these atrocities in 1890. He traveled to the Congo to investigate conditions and wrote a sixteen-page letter detailing the brutal mistreatment he witnessed to the King; ○ entitled Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the

Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo

● 1897: a Swedish missionary relayed information to a London meeting○ The British vice consul confirmed these brutalities and more

by 1899.

● Finally, in 1908, King Leopold II was forced to surrender the Congo Free State to the Belgian state.○ The Congo was under Belgian rule from 1908 – 1960

Mass Genocide● Enslaved people in the Congo were

subjected to forced labor, murder, rape, and torture

● Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing slave-traders when instead, he carved out his empire on a basis of terror○ Families were held as hostages and

would be starved to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber

○ If there was a late rubber delivery, they would chop off the children’s hands

Between 1880 and 1920 the population of the Congo fell from approximately 20 to 10 million.

Life in the Congo

Pre-colonial Congo [Mbuti people]● Kingdoms and monarchies were

established to maintain order Empires such as Kingdom of Kongo, the Luba empire, and the Lunda kingdom of Mwata

● Relations between Congolese people were largely harmonious; interethnic strife was benign

In Comparison...

America at the Turn of the CenturyMajor Events:

● 1869 - The first Transcontinental Railroad completed● 1901 - President McKinley assassinated, Theodore

Roosevelt becomes youngest man in the White House to date

● 1904 - Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle● 1904 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition at the St. Louis

World’s Fair opens● 1905 - Albert Einstein proposes his theory of relativity● March 25th, 1911 - NYC’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

catches fire● April 14th, 1912 - The Titanic sinks● Dec 1, 1913 - Ford opens his assembly line for

automobiles● June 28th, 1914 - Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

sets off sparks for WWI● May 7th, 1915 - British ship RMS Lusitania, carrying

American passengers, sunk by German U-Boats

The Progressive Era ● Post Reconstruction, the country turned its focus to the people. The Progressive Movement

sought to fight for every day Americans, pioneering issues such as Women’s Suffrage, direct and primary elections, and workers’ rights.○ Workers suffered unsafe conditions in the wake of industrialization, and fought for fair

wages and health and safety codes across all industries.■ Muckrakers wrote exposé’s on the issues caused by the government’s apathy in

regards to unbridled explosions in industrialization, immigration, and urbanization.● Included Nellie Bly, Ida Tarbell, and Jacob Riis

○ Trusts or major scale corporate coalitions monopolized American markets, skyrocketing prices and creating a large gap between classes.■ President Roosevelt reactivated the Sherman Antitrust Act to prevent such

corporate sweeps● The Government, up until Roosevelt’s presidency, had trusted the economic philosophy of

Laissez-Faire, leaving the country’s industries relatively unregulated

The Age of Innovation

● In the wake of the Civil War, America found itself unoccupied mentally, and as a result, a nationwide fascination with innovation and invention swept the people’s consciousness.○ Oil Fields were tapped in the Midwest and steel was

manufactured at a rapid rate, which led to the illustrious careers of tycoons such as Rockefeller and Carnegie

○ Ford Motor Company introduced the latest phenomenon to the American people: The Car

○ Telephones were largely popular by 1900○ Cities were rapidly converting to electricity as a source of

power and light○ According to the US Census, between 1900-1910;

8,795,400 immigrants traveled to the US■ This led to innovations in architecture, as populations

surged in urban areas, which ushered in the age of skyscrapers

Developments in FashionWomen:● 1900’s: Silhouettes characterized by the S-bend

corset. At the start of the decade, outfits were adorned with intricate lace, heavy frills, and puffy shirts. By 1908, the look became much simpler and more tailored. Decorative parasols were fashionable and women wore long coats for automobile trips.

● 1910’s: Women favored a straighter and more natural shape. Hobble skirts became popular in 1915, so-named because they were so tight around the legs that women had to take shorter steps. Handbags and gloves were important accessories.

Men:● 1900’s: Men’s fashion didn’t change too drastically

during the beginning of the century. Overcoats were knee length, long neckties started to come into fashion, pants were worn straight without a crease or cuff, and hats and walking sticks were popular accessories.

● 1910’s: American men’s fashion became less formal than their British counterparts. Men wore crisp shirts, high collars, and bold stripes. Lounge suitsbecame popular, with long double-breasted jackets and pants turned up at the cuffs. Hats and walking sticks remained popular.

The Birth of AnthropologyAnthropology: The science of human beings, especially: the study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture. ● Emerged as a response to Charles Darwin’s work

concerning Evolution, specifically his texts The Origin of Species (1859) which posited that life shares a common ancestry, and The Descent of Man (1871), which suggested that humans share a common ancestor with African Apes.

● Sir Edward Burnett Tylor is largely considered the father of Cultural Anthropology. In his work Primitive Culture (1871), he developed the idea that, like the physiological features carried over millennia that Darwin discusses, cultural features can progress from primitive to advanced.

The Birth of Anthropology cont.● Fieldwork for early anthropologists was often organized by other institutions

○ Missionaries○ Colonial Administrators○ Museums

● By the turn of the century, ethnographic info was collected by the first generation of trained, officially recognized anthropologists. ○ No longer relying on second hand reports, these anthropologists studied the communities

in question personally, often living on location for extended periods.● Anthropology relied on concepts like Cultural Evolutionism and The Great Chain of Being

○ Viewed social advancement as a strictly linear progression of intelligence. ■ By this school of thought, technological societies of the Western world were seen as

more highly evolved than those of Africa and Asia■ The concept of race was directly correlated to a person’s place on the linear

progression of intelligence. Darker skin indicated a lack of biological capacity for advanced culture

The St. Louis World’s Fair

● Called The Louisiana Purchase Exposition due to the centennial anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase○ Held April 30 - December 1,

1904 in Forest Park○ Site was 1,272 acres, nearly

twice the size of the World’s Fair in Chicago

The World’s Greatest Fair: https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Greatest-Fair-Narrated-David/dp/B07FK9YK8Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549238657&sr=8-1&keywords=the+world%27s+greatest+fair

Anthropology Days● Held in conjunction with the Olympics, but due to

expensive international travel, many foreign athletes could not attend. The solution? Anthropology Days○ Organized by William McGee, August 12th and

13th, 1904○ The first day, the fair collected and paid “savages”

on display to participate in traditionally Western games (Sprinting, Shot put, Javelin throw, Weight-throwing) against white American competitors

○ The second day hosted “savage-friendly” competitions such as tree-climbing, archery, wrestling, a Mohawk vs. Seneca lacrosse match, and the highlight of the day, the “Pygmy Mud Fight”

The “Pygmy Exhibit”

The “Pygmy Exhibit” cont.● “They are noticeably cannibalistic and Otabenga like others of the tribe had his incisors filed to

sharp points in the imitation of the teeth of tutelaries and in token of the anthropophagous habit.”

● “At first charmed by the kaleidoscopic novelty of strange sights and surroundings, the passing crowds and especially the insatiate photographers soon palled on the Pygmies and they held long and frequent palavers with Mr. Verner with the object of hastening their return.”

● “When cold rain fell and chill winds blew in October and November they actually suffered. It required constant vigilance and half-cruel constraint to keep them out of close-fitting clothing… which would have interfered with the functions normal to their naked skins…”

- The Universal Exposition of 1904: Volume 1 (1913)

“The Batwa Pygmies, the smallest known type of mankind, were brought to the Exposition by the Rev. Samuel Phillips Verner...The group comprised four Batwa Pygmies with five representatives of other tribes, including a nephew of the local potentate, King Ndombe. They were...brought by special favor of King Leopold...In the group on the exposition grounds were five distinct languages, one of them knowing nothing of any other tongue than his own save what he learned upon his trip. This man represented a tribe who symbolize their devotion to cannibal practices by artificially sharpening their teeth…”

- History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Comprising the History of the Louisiana Territory, the Story of the Louisiana Purchase and a Full Account of the Great Exposition, Embracing the Participation of the States and Nations of the World, and Other Events of the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904; Comp. from Official Sources (1905)

Additional FiguresWilliam Temple Hornaday (1854-1937): ● Hunter, taxidermist, and founder of the American

Conservation Movement.● In 1886, he took a trip to Montana to collect bison

specimen. When he saw how close the bison were to extinction, changed his tune and immediately wrote back to the Smithsonian urging for conservation efforts.

● He installed an exhibit at the National museum that allowed visitors to watch live bison instead of taxidermied specimen, It was so popular, it led to the founding of the National Zoological Parkin 1888, with Hornaday as director.

● In 1896, he was appointed Director of the Bronx zoo, and remained there for three decades.

Herman Bumpus (1862-1943):

● Professor of comparative anatomy at Brown, Director of the American Museum of Natural History, and President of Tufts College.

● His love for the natural world began at an early age, and he took every opportunity to educate others and make science accessible for the everyday public.

● He began his career at the Museum of Natural History in 1900, and within a year, was promoted to Director.

● In the final years of his life, he devoted much of himself to Brown University. A close friend said of him when he died:○ "Dr. Bumpus thoroughly enjoyed his stay on this planet, which he

found so full of a number of things. He enjoyed pointing out these things in a new light to the men, women, and children, high and low, who were here in his time, and he did not neglect the interests of those yet to arrive.”

William McGee (1853-1912):

● Initially fascinated with geology, he studied earthquakes across the United States.

● In 1904, he became the Chief of Anthropology for the St. Louis World’s Fair and organized the Anthropology Days.

● Began in 1836 as the Home for Freed Children and Others until donations were received to form the Brooklyn Howard Orphan Asylum in 1868.

● The administration and staff of the Orphan Asylum was all black, which was a rarity, even for foundations whose purpose was to serve and aid the black community.

● In 1911, the Orphan Asylum became too small for the number of children housed there, so the establishment was re-founded in the country, to a farm home in Long Island, where the children could live, go to school, and learn life skills.

The Howard Colored Orphan Asylum (Rev. Dr. James Gordon):

Samuel Phillips Verner (1873-1943):

● From his childhood, Verner was subjected to extreme pressure from his prominent family. ○ His mother was a Phillips, an impressive family in the history of the

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill since its founding○ His father was an exponent of the White Supremacy party and a

notorious lawyer during Reconstruction○ Due to the loss of the family’s lands in the Civil War, his family pressured

him to return the family to its former glory● Throughout his life he referenced a “fatal whisper” that he dubbed

TweedleDee.○ “Who has oversight of children to and from school? Who effectively

controls them during recesses? What can be done to stop the fatal whisper?” - S.P.V.

● Allegations of seeking sexual gratification from black women○ “...white women were angelic, untouchable, and in need of protection

from carnal desire; black women were better targets for insinuations like those of TweedleDee”

○ “The first time he looked into [her eyes]... he nearly lost his balance… she became a frequent guest at Mt. Washington. Verner (until caught and banned) became a frequent late-night visitor to the Mission School.”

Samuel Phillips Verner cont.:

● Studied Shakespeare at the University of South Carolina, graduated at 19 at the top of his class○ Shortly after his success, he fell into a deep, troubled

depression, akin to that of Hamlet, who he studied so dutifully.○ At times he was convinced he was the Hapsburg Emperor.

● He attempted to quell his deep-seated discomfort with race through an intellectual kind of therapy by studying Darwin’s works.○ His evangelical foundation collided with his insatiable curiosity

and determination to prove himself, and all roads pointed toward Africa.

● Founded his 10-point proposal for a missionary expedition on the White Man’s Burden

● Exempted his three year missionary course due to a desperation for white missionaries in the Congo

● He was 22 when he first left for Africa

Anne Spencer (1882-1975):

● Born an only child to parents whose childhoods were the first to come after the dissipation of chattel slavery.

● Her mother did not approve of local schools, so Anne was illiterate until she was 11○ As a girl, she would hide in the outhouse with a Sears-

Roebuck catalogue and dream of reading real books● Her parents were divorced, and her father threatened to take

Anne away from her mother if she did not attend school, so she was enrolled in the Virginia Seminary at 11, and excelled despite her late-bloomed literacy.

● Her first poem was published in 1920 when Spencer was 40 years old.

● She died at 93, and her house and gardens have been converted to a museum.

● In 1923, she was the first African American from the state of Virginia to have her work published in the Norton’s Anthology of Literature by Women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNJJ82cviMM

Caging Humans in Today’s America

Incarceration Trends in America

Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people

incarcerated in America increased from roughly 500,000

to over 2.2 million.

Today, the United States makes up about 5% of the

world’s population and has 21% of the world’s prisoners.

1 in every 37 adults in the United States, or 2.7% of the

adult population, is under some form of correctional

supervision.

Racial Disparities in Incarceration

African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the

rate of whites.

The imprisonment rate for African American women is twice

that of white women.

Though African Americans and Hispanics make up

approximately 32% of the US population, they comprised

56% of all incarcerated people in 2015.

If African Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the

same rates as whites, prison and jails populations would

decline by almost 40%.

Statistics gathered from naacp.org.