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Look, a Negro!

WINTERNACHT 2 -
Kijk een neger - foto Serge Ligtenberg 2005
Kijk een neger - foto Serge Ligtenberg 2005


Up until 1997 one could admire a preserved and mounted human being in a museum in the Catalonean town of Banyoles, 'El Negro' was a black South African who, after persistant worldwide protest, was returned and buried in Africa. This little bit of history inspired Frank Westerman to write El Negro en ik (The Negro and me).
The South African Diana Ferrus wrote a poem about Saartje Baartman, also known as the 'Hottentot venus', a South African Khoisan, who in the nineteenth century travelled through Europa as a fairground attraction. Her skeleton, genitals and brain were kept in a French museum. In 2002, on request of Nelson Mandela, these remains were brought back to her native country and buried in the Cape. How did the white man look upon the black man then, and how does the white man look upon the black man now? Annie M.G. Schmidt's biographer Annejet van der Zijl writes about this matter in her novel Sonny Boy, acclaimed as 'the best novel in 2004'. A discussion about 'us and them', chaired by Noraly Beyer.

Dutch/Afrikaans spoken