Since the 1990s, bonobos have gained popularity as the “make-love-not-war” ape, symbolizing as a peaceful
evolutionary counterpoint to the bellicose chimpanzees. However, my talk will address the violent history behind
the discovery of the “hippie” ape. Bonobos were described as a species distinct from chimpanzees only a century
ago, based on a peculiar skull in the Museum of the Belgian Congo (now AfricaMuseum) in Tervuren. I will focus
on the subsequent quest of the museum to acquire more specimens of this “last” great ape. Central is the
connection to a medical laboratory near Stanleyville in Belgian Congo where both chimpanzees and bonobos were
captured for polio vaccine research during the late 1950s. Some of their remains were sent to the museum, where
they later served for studies on human evolution.
Tracing the bonobos’ journey from the wild to the lab
to the museum, I’ll explore different human-primate encounters in which the dividing lines between human and
animals were constantly renegotiated. Rather than focusing on a collecting expedition, my talk highlights the
role of a field lab, thus situating natural history collections not only within practices of hunting but also
within the equally violent practices of keeping animals alive for experimentation. Overall, my talk aims at a
better understanding of the entangled history of natural history collections with biomedical and anthropological
primate research, revealing their connections to colonial policies.