congenitaldisease:In the early 20th century, when Darwisim couldn’t be separated from the era’s deep
congenitaldisease:In the early 20th century, when Darwisim couldn’t be separated from the era’s deep-seeded racism and it was theorised that non-Western humans were closer to primates, non-Western humans were sometimes put on display as so-called examples of “earlier stages” of human evolution. One such man that suffered this depressing fate was Ota Benga, a Congolese man. Ota was captured by slavers after losing his wife and two children. He was then purchased for a pound of salt and bolt of cloth by Samuel Phillips Verner, a man who had travelled to Africa under the orders of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in search of “pygmies” to be shown at an exhibition for “representatives of all the world’s peoples, ranging from smallest pygmies to the most gigantic peoples, from the darkest blacks to the dominant whites.” He was put on display at The Louisiana Purchase Exposition and was promoted as being “the only genuine African cannibal in America.” This title was most likely attributed to his sharpened teeth, which was actually a ritual decoration in his tribe. After the exposition, Ota returned to Africa where he married another woman. His wife sadly perished after being bitten by a snake and Ota decided to return to the United States after Verner told him of a new endeavour: living in the American Museum of Natural History in New York where he was “free to roam.” Even more distressing, in 1906, Ota was sent to the Bronx Zoo where he lived in the Monkey House with a sign which read:The African Pigmy, “Ota Benga.”Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches.Weight, 103 pounds. Brought from theKasai River, Congo Free State, South Cen-tral Africa, by Dr. Samuel P. Verner. Ex-hibited each afternoon during SeptemberHere he was put on display for the amusement of the white public and here he stayed for a number of months, where afterwards he was sent to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum where he remained until 1910. Following this, he relocated to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lived with the McCray family and desperately tried to adapt to life after being treated like an animal for a prolonged period of time. The family tutored him in English and even enrolled him in school. He had planned to return to the Congo but these hopes were crushed in 1914, when WWI broke out. In a tragic ending to a bleak tale of racism and captivity, on 20 March, 1916, at the age of 32, Ota built a ceremonial fire, chipped the caps off his teeth, and then shot himself through the heart. He was finally free. -- source link