RT Journal Article
T1 From the White Man's Grave
A1 Jules Skotnes-Brown
YR 2019
VO 11
IS Spring 2019
K1 World’s Fair
K1  international exposition
K1  colonial exposition
K1  exhibition
K1  science communication
K1  propaganda
K1  colonialism
K1  tropical medicine
AB The 1924–25 British Empire Exhibition was the largest colonial exposition in British history. Twenty-seven million people explored its 238-acre grounds, gazed at its displays, and marvelled at its architectural wonders. While exhibits ranged from a series of so-called ‘native villages’, to a spectacle of tropical medicine, the official intent was consistent – to promote the development of a more self-sufficient Empire. The exploitation of ‘underdeveloped’ African Crown Colonies was considered important in securing this vision. Eschewing the image of ‘Diseased Africa’, curators sought to encourage temporary settlement and investment by suggesting that medicine had transformed tropical Africa into a land of infinite wealth for the intrepid capitalist. In contrast to many analyses of World’s Fairs, which have focused on catalogues and official materials at the expense of visitor’s narratives, I uncover the tensions between curatorial intention and visitors’ experiences. Through an analysis of divergent responses from science communicators and lay-publics, I argue that the curators’ vision of ‘Brightest Africa’ was sometimes received, sometimes contested, misinterpreted, or lost in translation. This was because the fair was more than a series of exhibits: it was a miniature city, populated by living displayed peoples, which prompted concerns about disease, sanitation, and racial comingling. While catalogues and captions to the displays sought to pacify the White Man’s Grave, the curators misjudged the effect of the sensorial experience of the exhibition, which often suggested the opposite. Its sights, smells, and sensations conformed to a stereotype of tropical Africa as a deadly place, rather than a “white man’s home”.[1]
NO This title of this paper is taken from an article that appeared in The Scotsman (30 July 1924, p 10). At a dinner held in connection with Sierra Leone’s participation in the exhibition, co-organiser Lord Stevenson stated that people “talk about Sierra Leone as the ‘white man’s grave,’ and it must be very consoling to those concerned in its development to know that it was really becoming a ‘white man’s home’”.
NO This quote is taken from British Empire Exhibition: Official Guide (London, 1924), p 10
NO London, Brent Archives (BA), ACC 643/12: report of a planning meeting, 7 June 1920
NO London, BA, ACC 643/35: report of a planning meeting, 20 May 1919
NO Curators of the exhibits were not attempting to promote West African countries as colonies for permanent settlement and mass migration, but as sites for businessmen to invest, establish factories and farms, and develop industries. Such investment would require regular, extended visits, but official materials made it clear that these were not regions in which to settle permanently and raise families. Nevertheless, they wished to show that tropical Africa was no longer “a ‘white man’s grave’” (London, BA, 19241/PRI/17/1: Pamphlet from the Gold Coast Section, 1924)
NO There is much written on this topic. Some examples include: For European and British imperial identities: Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas (1988). For colonial identities: Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display (2001) and Stephen, The Empire of Progress (2013). For the USA: Rydell, All the World’s a Fair (1984). For the USA, Italy, Germany, and Japan: Kargon, et al, World’s Fairs on the Eve of War (2015), Mitchell, 'The World as Exhibition', (1989, pp 218–234).
NO The literature on this topic is immense. For live performances, see Lindfors (ed), 1999, Africans on Stage (Bloomington). For material culture see Coombes, 1994, Reinventing Africa (London). For photography see Maxwell, 1999, Colonial Photography & Exhibitions (London). For the significance of ethnographic displays in the development of anthropology and the cultural history of London, see Qureshi, 2011, Peoples on Parade (Chicago).
NO For an introduction to the history of the senses, see Mark Smith, Sensory history (Berg, 2007). See also his essay, ‘History of the senses: Producing sense, consuming sense, making sense’, Journal of Social History 40/4 (2007), pp 841–858 and Lona McCleery, ‘A sense of the past: exploring sensory experience in the pre-modern world’, Brain 132, 4 (2009), pp 1112–1117. Some scholars have already begun to focus on the senses in historical exhibitions. See, for example, Sonsoles Barbosa’s sensory history of the Maréorama, a simulated sea-voyage at the 1900 Paris Worlds’ Fair: ‘The 1900 World’s Fair or the attraction of the senses’, The Senses and Society 10/1 (2015), pp 39–51.
NO Such displays of living peoples have a long history in Britain, with roots in showmanship, spectacle and ethnography. See S Qureshi, Peoples on Parade (Chicago, 2011)
NO BA, 19241/PRI/17/1; London, BA, 19241/PRI/19/1: Pamphlet from the Nigerian Section, 1924
NO Ibid. 
NO The footage that comprised this film was shown at the BEE, but it is not clear in what form it was shown. These films were cut from two reels of stock footage, recorded in Nigeria (Kinematograph Weekly, 19 November 1925, p i). West Africa Calling itself was only officially released in 1927 as a propaganda film promoting the Conservative Party’s ‘policy of developing the empire’, and was almost certainly recut to portray this particular message. Nevertheless, visitors would have seen images of Africans at work, under the direction of British supervisors. See http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/1329 for more information.
NO London, Wellcome Library (WL), WA/BSR/NA/LSA/14: Andrew Balfour Papers, Subject Lines British Empire Exhibition, 1921–1924. For the tableau proposal, see the minutes of the third meeting, 21 February 1922. Unfortunately, no images of this tableau survive.
NO WA/BSR/BA/LSA/14: ‘Seventh Meeting of the Tropical Diseases Committee’, 23 June 1922
NO WHS/0/1/10/14: First Fruits of Wembley, pp. 18–19
NO Ibid, p 18
NO London, The National Archives (TNA), MH 55/32: JWS Fawcett, Report on the Ministry of Health’s Exhibit, 1924. These figures were based on estimates.
NO See MH 55/32: Wembley Exhibition; WHS/0/1/10/14
NO This catalogue contains numerous references to such displayed material. See, for example, pp 12–22, 31–33, 43, 47–48.
NO See also 19241/PRI/19/1, pp 1–9, 24–29
NO MH 55/32: Ministry of Health’s report, 1925
NO Wellcome Library, WA/MMS/PH/Ext/5: Results of search at the public records office, 1964
NO MH 55/32: Fawcett Report, 27 October 1924
NO Ibid
NO Ibid
NO Ibid
NO Ibid
NO Considering London’s population was seven million in 1924, five million visitors does not seem to be a disappointing figure. However, BEE tickets were cheap, and curators had hoped that the entire population would visit it.
NO London, BA, WHS/0/1/5/18: ‘Wembley Guide: British Empire Exhibition 1924’, p 48
NO MH 55/32, Ministry of Health’s report, 1925. This exhibition, focusing on innovations in medicine in the metropole, replaced the Tropical Health Exhibit in 1925.
NO Oxford, Weston Library, MSS. Afr. S.1149: Letter from Hugh Clifford to W T Gowers, 17 April 1924, cited in Stephen, 2013, The Empire of Progress, p 113
NO London, BA, WHS/0/1/13/6, ‘Contemporary account of visit to the British Empire Exhibition’
NO Oxford, Weston Library, MSS. Brit. Emp. s.23/H2/51: Letters to the Committee for the Welfare of Africans in Europe, 1924
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/191101
UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-11/from-the-white-mans-grave/
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WT Science Museum Group Journal
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