e seen in Europe for over three centuries, since the Medici giraffe was sent to Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence in 1486. Standing nearly 4 m high, her image opened an exotic window in the eyes of enthusiastic spectators on the early nineteenth century. It was a symbol of another world, a representative of a different culture, a forerunner of a completely different nature.
But the gifts of Pasha were not enough for the disengagement of England and France from the Greek Revolution. The French, who loved so much Zarafa, didn’t show the same concern for the donor. Muhammad Ali and his intentions were quickly forgotten as France fell in love with its “beautiful stranger”. On 20 October 1827 at the Navarino Bay, the entire Egyptian navy was sunk by the European Allied fleet, under the command of Admiral Edward Codrington. With its fleet essentially destroyed, Egypt had no way to support its forces in Greece and was forced to withdraw. Ultimately the campaign cost Muhammad Ali his navy and had not yielded any tangible gains.
As political ploy, it didn’t work. But as ambassador from an exotic land, this odd animal captivated the French people for many years, as she lived out her life as part of the royal menagerie. Although her arrival did not keep the French out of Ali’s war, she became an instant celebrity in Paris and over the next years she fascinated all of Europe. But as the years went by she received fewer visitors after her fall from fashion, living in near solitude, lonely and unloved, until her death in 1845. Her corpse was stuffed and displayed in the foyer of the Jardin des Plantes for many years, before being moved to the museum at La Rochelle, where it remains.
This is the short story of Zarafa, a giraffe who was adored by a nation and brought two very different worlds together. Her strange and wonderful journey linked Africa and Europe in mutual discovery and wove a captivating tale of nations and nature. But beyond the fairy tale, a complex web of politics, culture, religion, and greed was revealead, that fueled the phenomenon of the giraffe called “Zarafa”.