Colonial expositions presented Africans as proof of civilizing progress

Evidence

The universal expositions of 1889 and 1900 imported colonial subjects to provide living examples of civilization in the making. These examples apparently worked, albeit in the crudest possible fashion. The official commentator of the 1889 fair in Paris, which included a large colonial section, wrote happily of the Africans present that they had shown themselves capable of progress. The proof was that, having arrived barefoot in a state of almost “complete savagery,” the “blacks” in question had at least left France fully shod. Thanks to such innovations, the author concluded, “the moralizing role of France among these peoples still so far from our civilization” would be easier than in the past. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 62

Categorization

• SEED: The shoe anecdote — Africans deemed civilized because they left France wearing shoes — is a striking, usable detail for a piece on the absurd metrics of ‘civilization.’
• CANDY: The detail that ‘proof of progress’ was colonial subjects leaving France with shoes is a darkly funny, quotable tidbit.