Its official symbol was a mace carved to look like an African head gnawing on a human thighbone.
The club's name is thought to derive from Burton's interest in cannibalism which he regretted that he never witnessed on his travels.
[2] Club members included: Richard Monkton Milnes, Charles Bradlaugh, Thomas Bendyshe, Algernon Swinburne, Sir James Plaisted Wilde, General Studholme John Hodgson and Charles Duncan Cameron.
In his biography of Burton, Dane Kennedy suggests that "the very name of the new club signaled the determination of its organizers to create an atmosphere where subjects deemed deviant by society could receive an open airing" and to liberate its participants from "the sober, 'scientific' etiquette that governed the proceedings of the Anthropological Society.
"[3] Burton's brother-in-law and father-in-law attended the club's meetings which he facetiously referred to as "orgies.