Ota Benga: The Man Exhibited in a Zoo

From the Congo to St. Louis

Ota Benga was born around 1883 among the Mbuti people of the Congo Free State. His community lived in the equatorial forests near the Kasai River, but their lives were shattered by violent attacks from King Leopold II’s Force Publique militia.

His wife and children were killed, and Benga was later captured by slave traders from the rival Bashilele tribe. In 1904, American businessman Samuel Phillips Verner purchased him for a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth. Verner was under contract to bring Africans to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Benga agreed to travel, and he joined a group of Africans—including Batwa and Bakuba men—taken to the United States.

The St. Louis Fair and Beyond

At the fair, Benga became a popular figure, with crowds eager to see his sharpened teeth. Newspapers falsely promoted him as a cannibal, and he even received an arrowhead from Apache leader Geronimo. When Verner returned, he realized the Africans were being treated more as prisoners than performers.

After the exhibition ended, Benga briefly returned to Africa with Verner, but soon came back to the United States. For a time, he lived at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but he grew restless and homesick.

The Bronx Zoo Controversy

In 1906, Benga was taken to the Bronx Zoo. Initially hired to help with animal care, he was later placed in the Monkey House alongside an orangutan named Dohong. Visitors crowded to see him, and the zoo displayed a sign listing his name, age, and height.

The exhibit drew widespread protests, especially from African American clergy who denounced his treatment as degrading and cruel. Under pressure, the zoo released Benga into the custody of Reverend James H. Gordon, who placed him at the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn.

Life in Virginia and Tragic End

In 1910, Benga moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lived with Gregory W. Hayes’s family. His teeth were capped, he received tutoring in English, and he found work in a tobacco factory. He adopted the name Otto Bingo and dreamed of returning to Africa.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 made this impossible, as passenger travel to the Congo ceased. His hopes diminished, and on March 20, 1916, at the age of 32 or 33, Ota Benga ended his life by gunshot. He was buried in Lynchburg, Virginia, in an unmarked grave. In 2017, more than a century later, a historical marker was erected in his memory.

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