On Thursday the 12th of January, we visited the exhibition on the Black Indians of New Orleans at the Musée du Quai Branly. We went there with the SI of 4eme and 3eme and we had the chance to have a guide speaking in English during the visit.
This guide helped us understand the story of the exhibition and narrated it well. Unfortunately, we had to move fast and couldn’t have time to appreciate the art exhibited in the museum. During our visit, we heard a lot of European explorers and people such as René-Robert Cavalier de la Salle, Hernando de Soto or Jacques Cartier, but we didn’t really hear about the slaves and their point of view during that period of time, which we thought we would hear about according to the title of the exhibition.
The art exposed in the museum that we liked the most was the one that was making fun of the Ku Klux Klan. This painting was meant to educate people of this problem during the 19th century and goes on today. The baby, the phone and the car in the background were made to show that they are normal people with normal lives during the day and having a racist and horrible life during the night. The colors used in this painting are dark to show the dark side of the KKK and the size shows how important this group was and still is.

To conclude, the exhibition is very pleasant and interesting despite the crowd. It is overall very educational and we learned a lot. We recommend that you see the exhibition !

Emma, Lila, and Leonor

Only the Musee de Quai Branly will give you this experience

We chose this title because it was important to emphasize how original and great this museum was. All the international section really liked it and we learned more about slavery and hurricane Katrina. This school trip was very useful and it was related to our class.

On Thursday January 12th 2023, the 3ème and 4ème International section students went to the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. This exhibition was about the Black Indians from the 17th century to the 19th century. This costume was made for a carnival of New Orleans to honor Indians and African Americans.

We really enjoyed this museum and learned a lot about the Black Indian history.
The tour guide explained a lot about the history and the conditions aboard the ships. It was with this ship that the slave traders arrived to Lousiana.

We also learned that music was very important to the Black Indians since they couldn’t write or read. It takes a great part in their culture and gave birth to : Jazz, blues, etc …
We would definitely recommend this museum to understand more on the Black Indian history and are very grateful to have experienced this with our class.

Anna, Giulia, Lina, and Yathreb

Traveling in the Black Indians’ History

Our journey was telling the history of the Black Indians from their capture in Africa (during the 18th and 19th century), to the American segregation (during the 1900s- 1960s). How did this tour go ? What were our impressions of this journey in the Quai Branly museum, visiting the Black Indians exhibition ?

During this exhibition, we witnessed many Black Indians chief clothes and traditional Native American clothes. The clothes were very colorful and were inspired by the traditional Native American clothes. They were inspired many times by nature and animals like buffalos. They have many colorful gems and seashells which were inspired by the African traditional clothes.

After witnessing these beautiful costumes, the guide told us the history of the discovery of North America.

After that, we moved on to the Atlantic Slave Trade. It was caused by the growing need for tropical goods in Europe (cotton, sugar, coffee, etc…). The African slaves were captured in the center of Africa by African dealers of the Western Coast of Africa. Then they would trade with Europeans for manufactured goods. Next slaves were brought to America to work in plantations. We saw many shocking pictures and paintings of slaves. There were also small models of ships which were used to brought slaves in America.

We moved on to the American segregation which was implemented by the Jim Crow laws after the Union won the civil war.

We also discovered that secret associations were unfortunately common. Their number has decreased but they still exist. Most secret associations are against a group of people and/or minorities. We focused on those who were against Black people and pro-segregation. One of the most famous is sadly the Klu Klux Klan, also known as KKK.

During the segregation, “green books” were put in place. They were touristic guides exclusively for Black people that would indicate places where they could go and would be accepted.

In conclusion, this exhibition and this guide taught us a lot of things on this vast subject.

Eva
Alexandre
Gabriel
Mayeul