"Banyoles Loves You El Negro, Don't Go!": Affect, Commodities, and the Repatriation of El Negro

In 2000, El Negro of Banyoles became the first African body to be repatriated to Africa from a European museum. Many who have written about the El Negro controversy and repatriation have focused on the efforts of Dr. Alphonse Arcelin, the man credited with sparking the controversy and working to see the repatration through. I argue thatArcelin’s efforts must be understood in relationship to a complex set of political and symbolic processes specific to Catalonia, where El Negro was displayed. The Olympics of 1992 provide the conditions of possibility for the local struggle over El Negro’s body to become an international affair. Banyoles residents’ attachment to the body sustains the controversy and fuels the production of a wide variety of commodities that symbolically link the display of El Negro to the image of Spain. In this paper, I show how Banyoles residents’ attachment to the body of El Negro and the Spanish government’s desire to disarticulate Spain from the shameful display of the body clash repeatedly to produce the controversy. El Negro is not simply a case of racism manifested, denounced, and denied; El Negro became a symbol around which various forms of affect congealed in the critical historical juncture of 1992. I hope that by examining the controversy in light of wider historical and political processes and in terms of affect for the body I can offer a deeper understanding of a controversy that was much more than just another case of racism.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Comparative Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2005

Author dc:creator

• Murphy, Brian Michael

Contributors dc:contributor

• Skank, Barry

• Comparative

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1364460580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1364460580