Before the world saw Nazi Germany turn racism into law, many Germans were already being entertained by it. In the years after Hitler came to power, a traveling show called the German Africa Show (Deutsche Afrika-Schau) toured across the country, parading African men, women, and children before fascinated German audiences, turning them into “living exhibits” for public amusement.
Though shocking by today’s standards, the show was part of a broader European obsession known as the Völkerschauen, or “human zoos”, which displayed people from colonized regions in mock “villages” to showcase their supposed primitiveness.
Human zoos first appeared in Europe in the late 1800s, when colonial powers like Germany, Britain, France, and Belgium sought to justify their overseas empires. Colonialism was often sold to the public as a “civilizing mission,” and these exhibitions provided visual proof of that racist ideology. Visitors were invited to see “savages” and “tribal people” up close, while pamphlets and posters described them as examples of humanity’s lower stages of evolution.
In Germany, these shows became wildly popular in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, and Leipzig. Promoters constructed artificial “African villages” in zoos and fairgrounds, complete with huts, fires, and staged rituals. Crowds flocked to watch Africans perform songs, dances, and mock hunts.
By the 1930s, one of the last and most famous of these exhibitions emerged, the German Africa Show.
The Deutsche Afrika-Schau began touring around 1934, nearly two decades after Germany had lost all its African colonies following World War I. But despite the loss, nostalgia for empire remained strong. The show was partly a response to that longing, a way to relive the colonial past and glorify Germany’s “civilizing role” in Africa.
It was marketed as both entertainment and education. On stage, African performers sang traditional songs, acted out dances, or demonstrated “tribal customs” for German audiences. Behind the scenes, the show was often controlled by white German managers who dictated how performers should dress, behave, and even speak.
The show’s organizers claimed it helped promote understanding of Africa, but its real purpose was far more crafty. It fed the public’s appetite for racial stereotypes and reinforced the idea that Africans were exotic, childlike, and inferior.
The show also served a practical purpose for Afro-Germans. Under Nazi racial laws, many lost their jobs and were banned from working in most industries. Performing in the Deutsche Afrika-Schau was one of the few ways they could earn a living, even though it meant participating in a racist spectacle.
The performers came from across Africa and the African diaspora, some from Germany’s former colonies, others from African families already living in Germany.
One of the best-known figures was Bayume Mohamed Husen, a man from Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Husen had fought for Germany as an Askari (African soldier) during World War I and later settled in Berlin. In the 1930s, he joined the Deutsche Afrika-Schau as both a performer and language teacher.
But like many Afro-Germans, Husen’s life ended tragically. He was later arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died in 1944.
Another well-known participant was Kwassi Bruce, a Togolese performer who had been appearing in German shows since before World War I. He too became part of the Deutsche Afrika-Schau and was often billed as the “African Prince.” His real life, however, was far from royal, he lived under constant surveillance and was forced to perform roles that reduced his identity to colonial fantasy.
The Deutsche Afrika-Schau toured across Germany until the early 1940s. As World War II escalated, the show’s popularity declined and eventually disappeared. The Nazi regime, increasingly obsessed with racial purity, saw little place for people of African descent, even those who had once entertained the public.
Many of the performers vanished from historical records. Some were deported, others forced into menial labor, and some, like Bayume Husen, were sent to concentration camps.
By the time the war ended, the human zoo era was over. But the damage had been done. The shows had helped shape generations of Germans’ perceptions of Africa and its people, embedding racist stereotypes that would take decades to challenge.
Sources:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/members-of-the-deutsche-afrika-schau-taken-around-1937
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/tal.2018.0345
