ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Contested identities, human-animal relations, and the role of non-European handlers in nineteenth century zookeeping practices

• In Event: Animal Networks. Zoos in the Peripheries 2

English Abstract

Zookeepers have played an essential role in the history of zoological gardens. Their duties were taxing, yet no doubt rewarding, harbouring a certain amount of emotional attachment; keepers were (and continue to be) hands-on workers in the service of zoos. However, the role of zookeepers in the nineteenth century, especially non-European handlers, has largely been overlooked by historians. Shifting perspectives to the hidden personnel behind the animals, this paper explores the role(s) of non-European zookeepers at London Zoo and their impact on animal management practices in the mid-nineteenth century. The paper explores the services of Hamet Safi Cannana, Jabar Abou Maijab, and Mohammed Adu Nescian, who were specialists in their own right, and were directly involved in the acquisition and transportation of the first ever hippopotamus exhibited at London Zoo. These non-European keepers played a pivotal role in the exchange of zoological knowledge, the physical mobility of the hippopotamus (and other animals), as well as the advancement of veterinary care. Indeed, once they arrived at the zoo, they were allowed to enter and leave the enclosure space, literally holding the keys to a qualitative and quantitative form of care in and beyond the zooscape. However, unlike their ‘white’ keeper counterparts, Hamet, Jabar, and Mohammed were often viewed as ethnographic spectacles akin to the animals themselves, creating racial and dehumanised characterisations of these individuals. Situated across these plural worlds, this paper therefore takes an alternative perspective into human/non-human relations currently at the periphery of zoo history, exploring how non-European zookeepers simultaneously reinforced the spectacle of animal displays, whilst also actively performed in it and contributed to its development.

Author

• Daniel Phillips, Zoological Society of London