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Oliver Smithies Lecture: ‘The Sudanese Giraffe Who Went to France: The Life and Afterlife of Zarafa, 1824-2024'
Please note start time is now 5.15pm
In 1826, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, sent a giraffe from the Sudan as a gift to the French king, Charles X. Later called “Zarafa,” she caused a sensation as the first live giraffe to set foot in France, and inspired scientists, artists, and members of the public, who visited her in the Menagerie of Paris. Zarafa died in 1845, but popular interest persisted. Her stuffed skin, which entered a museum in Verdun, became a talisman for French soldiers in World War I, while her mounted skeleton drew visitors at a museum in Caen until it was destroyed in a World War II bombing. Meanwhile, her species dwindled and went extinct in the Sudan itself. In this talk, I will consider how Zarafa’s life and afterlife can illuminate myriad histories, of contacts between Egypt, the Sudan, and France; science and environmental change; art and material culture; and human relationships with other animals.
Date:
27 February 2025, 17:15
Venue:
Balliol College, Broad Street OX1 3BJ
Venue Details:
Gillis Lecture Theatre
Speaker:
Professor Heather Sharkey
Organiser contact email address:
college.office@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?:
Recommended
Booking email:
college.office@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Genny Teague
