White Rock Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia 37°23′56.23″N79°7′58.41″W / 37.3989528°N 79.1328917°W / 37.3989528; -79.1328917
Occupation
Hunting
Height
4 ft 11 in (150 cm)
Ota Benga (c. 1883[2] – March 20, 1916) was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo. Benga had been purchased from native African slave traders by the explorer Samuel Phillips Verner,[3] a businessman searching for African people for the exhibition, who took him to the United States. While at the Bronx Zoo, Benga was allowed to walk the grounds before and after he was exhibited in the zoo's Monkey House. Benga was placed in a cage with an orangutan, regarded as both an offense to his humanity and a promotion of Darwinism.[4]
To enhance the primitive image and presumably protect himself if need be from the ape, he was given a functional bow and arrow. He used this instead to shoot at visitors who mocked him and partially as a result of this the exhibition was ended.[5] Except for a brief visit to Africa with Verner after the close of the St. Louis fair, Benga lived in the United States, mostly in Virginia, for the rest of his life.
African-American newspapers around the nation published editorials strongly opposing Benga's treatment. Robert Stuart MacArthur, spokesman for a delegation of black churches, petitioned New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. for his release from the Bronx Zoo. In late 1906, the mayor released Benga to the custody of James H. Gordon, who supervised the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn.
In 1910, Gordon arranged for Benga to be cared for in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he paid for his clothes and to have his sharpened teeth capped. This would enable Benga to be more readily accepted in local society. Benga was tutored in English and began to work at a Lynchburg tobacco factory.
He tried to return to Africa, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 stopped all passenger ship travel. Benga developed depression and died by suicide in 1916.[6]
^Graves, Katherine (September 15, 2017). "Ota Benga Honored". The Critograph. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
^Bradford and Blume (1992), p. 54.
^Crawford, John R. (1982). "Pioneer African Missionary: Samuel Phillips Verner". Journal of Presbyterian History (1962-1985). 60 (1): 42–57. JSTOR 23328464.
^
Keller, Mitch (August 6, 2006). "The Scandal at the Zoo". The New York Times.
^"The Language Of Genes" by Steve Jones, p. 197.
^Evanzz, Karl (1999). The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0679442608.
OtaBenga (c. 1883 – March 20, 1916) was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in...
was, indeed, a man, a Congolese pygmy named OtaBenga. The next day, a sign was posted that gave OtaBenga's height as 4 feet 11 inches, his weight as 103...
board as a replacement for Johnson. In September 1906, Congolese pygmy OtaBenga (aged about 23) was exhibited in the Monkey House of the Bronx Zoo. Controversy...
the United States. The most well known among Verner's activities was OtaBenga, the sole survivor of his clan, who Verner brought to the United States...
anthropologist, and head of the New York Zoological Society—had Congolese pygmy OtaBenga put on display at the Bronx Zoo in New York City alongside apes and other...
Madison Grant, head of the New York Zoological Society, exposed Pygmy OtaBenga in the Bronx Zoo alongside the apes and others in 1906. At the behest...
size in insular humans. Koro-pok-guru, small people in Ainu folklore OtaBenga, man taken as slave and zoo exhibit to the U.S. Vazimba, possible first...
agreement of Madison Grant, head of the New York Zoological Society—had OtaBenga, a Congolese pygmy, displayed in a cage with the chimpanzees, then with...
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba (2009). Published in OtaBenga Alliance Interview with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba | OtaBenga Alliance The Thought and Practice of an Emancipatory...
languages: Some Bantu and Central Sudanic animal names of Ituri languages: OtaBenga (c. 1893–1916), Mbuti man taken to the United States Ofosuah Johnson,...
independent tribes worldwide, most notably a young Congolese man, OtaBenga. Benga's imprisonment was put on display as a public service showcasing "a...
other colored volk, were displayed between apes and white men. In 1906, OtaBenga, a Pygmy, was displayed as the "Missing Link", in the Bronx Zoo, New York...
Farini, one of several sideshow performers billed as a "missing link" OtaBenga The cited reference says, "Zip didn't upset sideshow visitors the way...
cages, in what has been termed "human zoos". In 1906, Congolese pygmy OtaBenga was put by American anthropologist Madison Grant in a cage in the Bronx...
century. The second volume was La casa sulla roccia (2014), followed by OtaBenga (2015), L'indegno (2016), L'evidenza delle cose non viste (2017), Io sono...
Feminine beauty ideal Feminism and racism Human variability Human zoo OtaBenga Racial fetishism Racism in Europe Scientific racism Tono Maria Willis...
1906, as Secretary of the New York Zoological Society, he lobbied to put OtaBenga, a Congolese man from the Mbuti people (a tribe of "pygmies"), on display...
historian and militant. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the OtaBenga International Alliance for Peace in the DR Congo. A native of the Congo...
animals beside humans who were considered "savages". Congolese pygmy OtaBenga was displayed in 1906 by eugenicist Madison Grant, head of the Bronx Zoo...
with and enemies of the Yahi. Ishi's story has been compared to that of OtaBenga, an Mbuti pygmy from Congo. His family had died and were not given a mourning...
Human zoo Julia Pastrana, a sideshow performer preserved via taxidermy OtaBenga Repatriation of human remains Saartjie Baartman Scientific racism Davies...
for conservation, but he encountered controversy after the exhibiting OtaBenga, a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man. In the late nineteenth century William Temple...
2022) Rusch, Robert D., CIMP Records, liner notes from CD releases, OtaBenga the Batwa, The Music, Retrieved 1 February 2010. Tempkin, Todd, Fundacion...
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