LONDON'S CANNIBAL CLUB

In 1863, a group of Victorian men gathered in a London club. They were there to create the Cannibal Club, a so-called anthropological society that, its members hoped, would explore far-off cultures in order to discover what made humans tick, even cannibals.

After the club was formed, they met regularly at Bartolini’s dining rooms in London. Cannibal club members were freethinkers, who came together to dine, drink, smoke and discuss topics such as censorship, polygamy, bestiality, female circumcision, ritual murders and cannibalism. In which one of its founders, Sir Richard Burton, called them ‘orgies’–although not of the sexual kind.

The club members also saw themselves as sex rebels and outsiders, and this is how they are treated by many historians, but many of the Cannibals were members of the Establishment – members of parliament, diplomats, the legal profession, the Army and even the church. They had a wide range of influential contacts – both formal and informal – with respected bodies such as the Royal Geographical Society and the government. It was through these contacts they gained much of the erotic literature that they prized.

Some Cannibals held the view that erotic literature was a form of truth-telling; a form of anthropological reportage. The reading about sex could be then seen as a scientific investigation. And also a frankness about sexual matters that was a mark of scholarly accuracy.

Richard Francis Burton, who possessed a mysterious love for shocking people, was to be the mastermind behind the new secret society. A knowledgeable geographer and explorer, he spoke 29 languages. A decorated captain in the army of the East India Company and renowned cartographer, Burton was also considered by some to be a rogue, a murderer, an impostor and betrayer, a sexual deviant, and a heroic boozer and brawler. He was a massive man, standing over six feet tall, with an imposing scar on his left cheek.

In 1853, Burton famously infiltrated Mecca disguised as a merchant, and for translating the raw texts of literature such as the Kama Sutra and the Arabian Nights. When asked by a priest if he’d ever killed a man, Burton replied, ‘Sir, I’m proud to say that I have committed every sin in the Decalogue.’ (the ten commandments). Burton was one of Hell’s original hounds and the club was his sanctuary.

On one occasion, erotica was smuggled into Britain via bag containing dispatches for Lord Palmerston. It was arranged by an officer with sadistic tastes who, on one occasion, asked Richard Burton to buy for him the skin of a young African woman which he could use to bind one of his volumes of erotica.

The group held the view of erotic literature as truth-telling; a form of anthropological reportage. The pleasure of discussing and reading about sex acts could then be seen as a form of scientific investigation. They met after the sun went down in Bartolini’s dining rooms near Fleet Street. A carved mace made to look like an African head chewing on a human thighbone was the club’s symbol. The club’s name is thought to derive from Burton’s interest in cannibalism.

Before launching into their meetings, a member would stand and recite the club’s Cannibal mantra.

Preserve us from our enemies;

Thou who art Lord of suns and skies;

Whose meat and drink is flesh in pies;

And blood in bowls!

Of thy sweet mercy, damn their eyes;

And damn their souls!

Later in the second half of the nineteenth century, the viewing privileges of the club and its consumers were weakened as French and British companies produced pornographic postcards. Many of them exploiting colonial imagery much like the Cannibal Club, had been doing all along.