His charcoal-colored body was covered by a small orange loincloth wrapped around his waist.

Then he shipped the body to Paris along with a batch of stuffed animals in crates.

Shortly thereafter, the Africans body appeared in a showroom at No.

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3, Rue Saint Fiacre.

By then, his origins had been largely forgotten and he gradually came to be known as El Negro.

The Catalan people had grown very fond of their black man and were reluctant to hand him over.

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At Easter children were treated to miniature chocolate reproductions of him.

The mayor defended the display.

“We have mummies and skulls and even human skins in the museum,” he said.

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“What is the difference between those things and a stuffed African?”

The museums curator also agreed.

“El Negro is our property.

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It’s our business and nobody else’s.

Human rights only apply to living people, not to the dead.

This is a museum that shows different races and cultures with adequate respect.

Although an autopsy carried out in 1995 revealed that he probably died of pneumonia.

He was about 27 years old.

The tomb of El Negro in Tsholofelo Park in Gaborone, Botswana.