“Just a Way to Trick the French”

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the lived experience and self-advocacy of three troupes of colonial actors displayed globally between 1929 and 1931: two troupes of Sara men and women from Chad and a troupe of Kanak actors from New Caledonia and Dependencies. While multiple studies of colonial ethnic displays have focused on the nature and reception of these spectacles, actors themselves have rarely been researched as subjects. In listening to their voices and retracing their agency, this article shows the numerous and nuanced ways they resisted the violence of their displays and the strategies they deployed to make their voices heard on the global stage of empire. Furthermore, this research argues for a scholarly reconsideration of the term human zoo and demonstrates the central role played by those on display in the gradual disappearance of this phenomenon of colonial entertainment.