French senators have unanimously passed a bill allowing for the remains of people who were exhibited in colonial-era “human zoos” in Paris to be returned to their ancestral lands in French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America. The draft law meets a long-standing demand of Indigenous communities in France’s overseas territories, acknowledging a dark chapter from the country’s past.
A leisure park with more than 150 years of history, the Jardin d’acclimatation in Paris owes its distinctive name to a 19th-century fascination for exotic species shipped in from across the French Empire and beyond.
