Africans on Stage: Studies in Ethnological Show Business - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253212456 ISBN 13: 9780253212450

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2000

Synopsis

...engaging, richly illustrated, and well-reserached.... Part anthology, cultural studies, history, journalism and political science, it... manages to consistently engage the reader..." - African Studies Review

Lindfors's book shows how the 'edutainment' of the 19th century perpetuated an ignorance of Africa that makes it easy for whites to stay racist and difficult for blacks to gain an accurate and dignified understanding of their heritage.... an unusually strong, readable collection." ―Boston Book Review

Ethnological show business―that is, the displaying of foreign peoples for commercial and/or educational purposes―has a very long history. In the 19th and 20th centuries some of the most interesting individuals and groups exhibited in Europe and America came from Africa, or were said to come from Africa. African showpeople (real as well as counterfeit), managers and impresarios, and the audiences who came to gape are the featured attractions here―how they individually and in concert helped to shape Western perceptions of Africans.

About this title

From the Author:

Bernth Lindfors is Professor of English and African Literatures at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the founding editor of the journal of Research in African Literature and has written and edited a number of books on African verbal arts, the most recent being African Textualities: Texts, Pre-texts, and Contexts of African Literature (1997).

Synopsis:

Ethnological show business that is, the displaying of foreign peoples for commercial and/or educational purposes has a very long history in Europe, and it became increasingly common after advances in navigational technology put Europeans in touch with human communities all over the globe. As the world shrank, traffic in all kinds of exotic goods grew, and living specimens from remote corners of the earth were in great demand. Indeed, the stranger the creature, the stronger the draw. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries some of the most interesting individuals and groups exhibited in Europe and America came from Africa, or were said to come from Africa.What did the average spectator think of such representatives from the Dark Continent? If the display was a dramatic one that is, if the Africans sang, danced or acted out events what opinions did observers form of them as performers and as human beings? How was the spectacle staged, and who organized and managed the show? How authentic were these performances? Where did the performers actually come from? What notions about Africa and Africans were these exhibitions meant to convey?African show people, real as well as counterfeit, are featured as the main attractions in this book, but standing just behind them are a supporting case of managers and impresarios whose efforts to capitalize on spectacular displays of physical and cultural differences share some of the spotlight.

The audiences that turned out to see such shows, expecting them to corroborate what they had heard or read about remarkable African abnormalities and idiosyncrasies, are also glimpsed in illuminating sidelights. "Africans on Stage" is a book about how these three groups players, promoters and spectators individually and in concert helped to shape European and American perceptions of Africans.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0253212456
• ISBN 13: 9780253212450
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Lindfors Bernth