French theme park Nigloland is forced to apologise for 'racist' ride where a black character carrying a bunch of bananas and hiding up a tree helps his white 'boss' escape a rhino
- African Cruise in Dolancourt, l'Aube sees visitors float past attractions on a boat
- One shows a black man helping a 'white boss' up a tree, while holding bananas
- Revellers complained the display shows colonial and racist messages
- Park has now apologised and said they are looking into changing the ride
French theme park Nigloland has been accused of racism over a ride that shows black a character carrying a bunch of bananas and hiding up a tree while speaking in an exaggerated African accent.
The 'African Cruise' ride in Dolancourt, l'Aube, sees visitors ride on a boat and float past attractions, including one where a black character helps a 'white boss' who is being attacked by a rhino.
Revellers said the display, which sees the black man wearing a fez while the white man dons a pith helmet, shows colonial and 'obviously racist' messages.
The animatronic display is accompanied by audio, where the white 'boss' character says 'Stop talking Bounama, and help me climb onto this branch before my trousers start looking like a sieve'.
Speaking with an exaggerrated African accent, the black man refers to the white character as 'boss' several times.
French theme park Nigloland has been accused of racism over a robotic display on one of its rides that shows black characters carrying a bunch of bananas and hiding up a tree in an attempt to escape a rhino - while speaking in a exaggerated African accent
Revellers complained the display, which see the black man wearing a fez while the white man dons a pith helmet, shows colonial and 'obviously racist' messages.
One visitor posted a picture of the ride on Twitter writing 'I went to Nigloland and I saw this. I want to know if you find this normal??'
The company has been bombarded with messages accusing the ride of comparing black people to monkeys and perpetuating 'racist, colonial stereotypes'.
One twitter user said: 'Shocking that this can still exist. Boycott this park and its colonialist kicks from another era. And it's only now that this comes out, better late than never.'
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Another wrote: '@Nigloland, Hello, could you enlighten us as to the point of this kind of caricature that strangely resembles colonial – and obviously racist – images?'
A third commented: 'So basically they've put a black man up a tree with bananas in his hand; pretty sure that's a reference to monkeys if I'm not wrong'.'
Since, the theme park has announced they've taken concerns on board and will look into changing the ride.
The animatronic display is accompanied by audio, where the white 'boss' character says 'Stop talking Bounama, and help me climb onto this branch before my trousers start looking like a sieve'. Speaking with a 'comedy African accent' the black man refers to the white character as 'boss' several times
Since, the company has been bombarded with messages accusing the ride of comparing black people to monkeys and perpetuating 'racist, colonial stereotypes'.
In a tweet they wrote: 'We apologise to the people we were able to encounter with one of the scenes of the Africa Cruise.
'We are listening to our customers and sensitive to the quality of our park, we change the scene in question this weekend. Thank you for your understanding.'
They also told local media in France the park 'had nothing to gain from showing racist scenes'.
Since, the theme park has announced they've taken concerns on board and will look into changing the ride
