Ota Benga

The Pygmy in The Zoo A review by Dan Schobert

It has been well said that 'ideas have consequences. It was the idea of evolution which, early in the 20th century, placed a human being behind zoo bars.

The account is detailed in: Ota Benga, The Pygmy in the Zoo by Phillips Verner Bradford and Harvey Blume. (1992, St. Martin's Press)

The story is how the paths of two men crossed in the late 19th century. One was ex-missionary turned explorer, Samuel Verner and Ota Benga, estimated to be about 28 years old in 1906 and described as being 4'11" and weighting some one hundred pounds. By definition a pygmy is a short person, a dwarf, though some people would choose to view these people as being less than human, a creature not quite evolved to full human status.

Verner grew up in a prominent southern family and had visions of becoming an adventurer, not unlike Robinson Caruso. He traveled to the Congo as a missionary but changed his vision when he saw the possibility of adventure, even with financial reward. The idea that he could gain some riches came on the heels of an intense desire by many in this country to develop the science of Anthropology. There were attempts to exhibit people like Ota in fairs and elsewhere, supposedly representing early stages of man in a long evolutionary history. It was into this turn of events that Ota Benga fell a (perhaps) willing victim. During one of Verner's trips into the African interior, he came upon Ota and brought him along to this country. Eventually Ota became part of an exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.

One of the few photographs show Ota holding an Orangutan, in an African setting. Ota was not said to represent a stage of evolution but it was implied. This incensed a number of black ministers in the New York City area who initiated a campaign which eventually had Ota released and placed into an orphanage for black children. Keep in mind he was an adult, perhaps over 32 years old. Later he attended school in Virginia where in died in 1916, at his own hand.

Squeezed between these 280 pages, Bradford and Blume present little glimpses of the atrocities visited upon many in the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium in his search for wealth.. This story, written in part by Verner's grandson, does not apologize for the treatment Ota received. There is an apparent contempt for the ministers who felt 'Darwinism was a Christian fraud.' More than anything, Ota Benga is an account of what happens when people start from the wrong point. Wrong ideas always give wrong results. An apple tree does not produce oranges.

Verner attempted to reconcile his missionary concerns with those he thought to be true from Darwin. According to these authors, "To Verner, there was no contradiction." Apparently Verner, no student of the Bible, was a Theistic Evolutionist.

In all fairness, this story is very interesting though sad and provides some insights into events long past. The idea that someone, an actual human being, would be put on exhibit in a zoo is incredible, but the question revolves around the more basis concern: what does it mean to be human?

This question was being asked in the days of Ota Benga and is still being asked today, largely by those who endorse abortion.

. May 17, 2001

I picked up this book not expecting it to be true. The author does a good job of illuminating the lives of many people in and around the main character Ota Benga. This book also expertly portrays the cultural and political environment that raped Africans in the Belgian Congo, and oppressed them in Anglo-America. I highly reccomend this for your own library if you are an honest student of history.

A remarkable story of a heroic pygmy caught up in western society and western prejudices. Recommended as a good read.