Exhibition uncovers the hidden history of Bradford’s 1904 ‘Somali Village’
During the original 1904 event, the Somali Village attracted nearly 350,000 visitors
An exhibition exploring the history and colonial legacy of a human display in Bradford’s Lister Park over a century ago has opened to the public as part of an ongoing research project by a Professor at the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies.
‘A Somali Village in Lister Park: Weaving Together Industry, Culture and Empire’ revisits the 1904 Great Exhibition, where 57 Somali men, women, and children lived and worked in a walled compound for six months as a colonial spectacle. It officially opened on 9 May at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and will run until 1 November 2026.
Professor Fozia Bora (third from left) with (left to right) Lowri Jones of the Bradford Museums Service and guest curators Abira Hussein and Yahya Birt
The exhibition, which has been co-curated by Fozia Bora, Professor of Islamic History at the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, with guest curators Abira Hussein and Yahya Birt, forms a major public-facing component of a wider research project by Professor Bora which seeks to reconstruct the identities and biographies of the Somali individuals involved.
Funded by the Cultural Institute and the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute (LAHRI), the project involves collaborations with contemporary British Somali communities, the Anglo-Somali Society, Bradford City of Culture 2025, the University of Bradford, Bradford Literature Festival and others.
“During the original 1904 event, the Somali Village attracted nearly 350,000 visitors, making it one of the most profitable attractions of the Exhibition,” Professor Bora says. “By centring the experiences of those in the Village, this new exhibition asks how Bradford’s public spaces and art institutions were shaped by empire, and how these histories have been obscured over time.”
The project team has also developed and launched a free-to-access secondary school learning pack based on the 1904 exhibition. A close collaboration between historian Abira Hussein and Professor Bora and drawing on their extensive research and curated source material, the pack reveals the hidden history of Bradford’s earliest Muslim community and asks important questions about how that community was seen and its historical significance.
The pack includes a specially commissioned poem by Dutch writer Ibrahim Hirsi which draws on the Somali tradition of Kebed weaving songs and learners can experiment with this form to ‘weave’ their own responses to the history uncovered in the pack.
