Post #744529 by Club Nouméa on Tue, Jun 9, 2015 3:06 PM

Cannibals in the Gardens - The Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931

(Poster advertising an exhibition held at the Trocadero Ethnology Museum to coincide with the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931.)

The Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931 was a showcase staged by the French Third Republic to show metropolitan French citizens the length and breadth of their colonial empire. Its origins date back to 1913, but the real impetus for it only came once the British Empire Exhibition was held at Wembley Stadium from 1924 to 1925. The success of the British event prompted various French leaders to begin taking concrete measures to bring it to fruition to demonstrate that France too had an empire that it could be proud of.

As it turned out, by the time the event opened on 6 May 1931, France was grappling with the Great Depression, and the event came to be seen by various of its critics as a "bread and circuses" event to take the minds of the masses off their financial troubles.

The exhibition grounds took up the Bois de Vincennes, on the south-eastern edge of Paris:

The park provided the setting for pavilions from the various parts of France's empire, including the French Pacific:

The largest French Pacific pavilion was New Caledonia's:

It featured a mix of French architecture and the traditional tall beehive shape of a Kanak hut:

Alongside it was the "Oceania" pavilion, representing the islands of what are now called French Polynesia and Wallis & Futuna:

Note the two Marquesan style tikis at the entrance. Around 8 million people visited the exhibition by the time it closed on 15 November 1931 and this was the first time that such a large number of French (and European) visitors came into contact with Polynesian and Melanesian culture.

Tikis were not limited to the Oceania pavillion. Various French companies had their own private pavilions. Here is the Louis Vuitton one:

The United States also had its own pavilion, and its Pacific territories were represented there, although I have not come across any evidence of whether there were any tikis on display. Here is a model of the US pavilion, the main building of which was a recreation of George Washington's house:

And a general view of the grounds from the main gate, with the New Caledonian and Oceanian pavilions on the far right of the photo:

These latter two buildings were near a secondary gate to the south of the main gate:

The buildings were all cleared away when the exhibition closed its gates in November 1931, with one exception:

This Art Deco masterpiece, in a French colonial style, was originally the exhibition's main building. After 1931, it was used to house a permanent collection of African and Oceanian art, and was still being used in this capacity when I first visited it in 1993.

The frontage of this building is quite striking, featuring a bas-relief showing images of the French colonies.

By the early 1990s, due to its colonial origins, this museum had become the black sheep of Paris's State museums. Its days were numbered, which was one of my reasons for visiting it when I did. With a French doctoral student who was also researching the French Pacific, we travelled across Paris from Pigalle to visit this colonial showcase. And what a marvel it was.

This is the main hall, still intact, although minus its exhibits now. Originally this room was filled with huge Papuan, Vanuatuan, New Caledonian, Maori and other totemic carvings and structures, surrounded by these mural depictions of the multitudinous benefits of France's civilising mission:

As if all this was not wonderful enough, the basement of the building housed an aquarium, which featured a crocodile pit:

I remember when we got back to my French friend's apartment (she was living with her aunt, uncle and their daughters) and she was telling the two amazed little girls there: "we have to go together - there are crocodiles there!"

Fortunately, the aquarium is still there, and it too is decked out in period style:

Sure enough, the crocodile pit is still there:

And it is inhabited:

Although its current residents are in fact American alligators, bred and raised in France.

The Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931 had some other supposedly wild denizens. Showcased alongside the crocodiles in the main building were native inhabitants from the various colonies, portrayed by the event's promoters as "savages" and "cannibals".

The largest contingent consisted of 111 Kanaks from New Caledonia:

Here's a group shot of the bulk of them, dressed in their street clothes when they arrived in Paris.

And here is how they were presented at the exhibition:

These people, who volunteered to travel to metropolitan France to showcase their culture, were dismayed at the treatment they received upon arrival, being told that, since they were being exhibited as cannibals, they should behave more fiercely and savagely. Worse, some of them were shipped across to the other side of Paris to be exhibited in an animal cage in the Bois de Boulogne and, as part of an even shadier side deal, in April 1931, various of them were forced to perform in the Hazenback circus in Germany.

These scandalous circumstances were revealed by Alain Laubraux, a New Caledonian reporter who came to cover the exhibition. In his report, he pointed out the great irony that all of these supposed "savages" spoke French and, in New Caledonia, various of them actually worked in government departments like Customs, the Printing Office, etc. His coverage resulted in New Caledonia's Governor receiving an early retirement, although it is hard not to conclude he was not the only one to blame for what transpired.

To show that the Kanak contingent's time at the Paris Colonial Exhibition was not all in vain, and that they did succeed in showcasing their culture whilst in Paris, in spite of the idiocy of various of their Parisian hosts, here is a link to various field recordings made of them performing in 1931:

http://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/enregistrements-sonores/nouvelle-caledonie-oceanie

Out of curiosity, after revisiting the museum building (now being used for the Museum of Immigration), I dodged the traffic and wandered over to the Bois de Vincennes to see if I could find the site of the New Caledonian and Oceanian pavilions. As I approached the corner of the park in question, it became apparent this was a wild, abandoned section of the park:

Shortly after taking this photo, I came up against a wire fence and had to backtrack and go around a bit to get to what used to be the south gate, where I found....

A truck stop!

With the two security guards watching me warily (Paris is currently in the grip of a terrorist scare, with 10,000 troops guarding various public buildings), I stopped in front of the gate just long enough to take this photo of the approximate location of the New Caledonian and Oceanian buildings:

And, for posterity, captured this guy snoozing in the shade of a container. In his defence, it was a particularly hot day, and I retreated to the shade of some trees in the park afterwards for a well-deserved rest myself.

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Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-06-09 15:13 ]

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-06-09 15:17 ]