DanielBOT CROSSPOST: PIXELFED CONTENT
April 2026 / Zoo Basel, CH
I find zoos problematic. Today we stare at apes like chimpanzees, orangutans or gorillas. We see them as "just animals", yet they are far closer to us than many people admit. They can learn sign language, communicate with us in complex ways, and show real emotional depth. Think of Koko († 19.06.2018), a female gorilla featured in National Geographic.
In the past, Europeans also stared at colonized people in racist “human zoos,” displayed in their so-called “natural” or “primitive” state.
Like many other European zoos, Zoo Basel organized so-called “Völkerschauen” in the 19th and early 20th centuries. To its credit, Zoo Basel acknowledges this history on its website.
Is this enough?
A few signs by the flamingos and a blog post in German?
Another example: following public pressure, Tierpark #Hagenbeck in Hamburg issued a statement about its past. It is difficult to find and, again, only in German: https://hagenbeck.de/_download/pdf/2025_Statement_Voelkerschauen_Hagenbeck_Maerz.pdf
In my view, the statement is still #racist and humiliating in its defensiveness. It tries to recast racist history as a capitalist success story, using exoticism as an excuse. Even today, this contributes to the normalization of a colonial mindset that I still see all around me: a horrible, deeply unsettling superiority complex visible in the re-emergence of #fascism in Europe and the USA.
Original: https://pixelfed.guerrill.art/p/daniel/946345093516636161
Max
GuacamOlé 🥑
Cameron
Sebastian Lammermann
Ulrike E.
NDR