A new exhibition in Bradford is set to revisit a controversial live display of 57 Somali men, women and children that took place at the city's Great Exhibition in 1904. The original show, which ran from May to October, attracted over 350,000 visitors and featured Somalis cooking, weaving and dancing for Edwardian audiences. It was one of the most popular and profitable attractions, helping to fund Cartwright Hall's civic art collection for decades.
Curators of the new exhibition, opening on Saturday, argue that the term 'human zoo' oversimplifies the reality of the Somali village. Guest curator Abira Hussein said that while the phrase captures the violence of colonial display, it can flatten the conditions of recruitment, labour and negotiation that shaped the village. Members of the Somali troupe, including leader Sultan Ali, negotiated contracts and wages, sold crafts, and even picketed the town hall after receiving inadequate compensation following a fire that destroyed four huts.
The exhibition does not aim to recreate the spectacle but instead centres the lives and experiences of the Somali people, confronting how empire shaped Bradford's cultural institutions and wealth. It brings together season tickets, commemorative badges, postcards, archaeological finds, and Somali textiles loaned by Culture House and Koor Archives, many of which have never been displayed in a British institution.
Yahya Birt, another guest curator who discovered his uncle's grandmother attended the 1904 exhibition, noted that Yorkshire's involvement in colonialism is often overlooked. The exhibition also identifies artworks funded by profits from the Somali village, including a 1906 marble bust of Baron Masham and a 1907 children's book by Arthur Rackham. Lizzie Llabres, collections manager at Bradford District Museums and Galleries, said the exhibition is about recognising the organisation's role in history and the relevance of the Somali village as Bradford's first Muslim community.
