Like many non-human primates that were brought to Europe from Africa or Asia during the long 19th century, the chimpanzee Mafuka, who lived at the Dresden Zoological Garden between 1873 and 1875, was assigned to very different roles: she was a (travelling) companion, zoo animal, capital, model, research and museum object. Numerous human and non-human actors were involved in these stages and transformation processes. These processes were also negotiated in different spaces. The keeping and research of non-human primates as supposed borderline beings between humans and animals opened up debates on evolutionary biology, behavioural psychology, educational science and racism, which were violently tested on Mafuka's body. This violence was mostly justified as care and thus legitimised. But which role of the chimpanzee, whether alive or dead, required which form of care? How did the tension between violence and care manifest itself and how was it perceived? And what agency was given to the chimpanzee in the care she received?