The Wasp — 1879 — page 96: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents a theatrical burlesque mocking African peoples and colonialism. The play features caricatured "Black Hottentots" and "White Hottentots" (a dehumanizing term for the Khoisan people of southern Africa). The satire appears to ridicule both colonizers and the colonized: the British characters are portrayed as absurdly pompous (a slave-ship owner, his wife, a captain), while the "Hottentot" characters use exaggerated dialect and behavior. The illustrations show crude, stereotypical depictions typical of 19th-century racist entertainment. The accompanying scene illustration depicts musicians and performers in grotesque caricature. This represents the type of blackface/ethnic burlesque entertainment that was common in American popular culture of this era, reflecting deeply racist attitudes toward African and indigenous peoples.