32 Facts About Ota Benga

Ota Benga was placed in a cage with an orangutan, regarded as both an offense to his humanity and a promotion of social Darwinism.

Ota Benga used this instead to shoot at visitors who mocked him and partially as a result of this the exhibition was ended.

Except for a brief visit to Africa with Verner after the close of the St Louis fair, Ota Benga lived in the United States, mostly in Virginia, for the rest of his life.

In 1910, Gordon arranged for Ota Benga to be cared for in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he paid for his clothes and to have his sharpened teeth capped.

Ota Benga was tutored in English and began to work at a Lynchburg tobacco factory.

Ota Benga tried to return to Africa, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 stopped all passenger ship travel.

Ota Benga's people were attacked by the Force Publique, established by King Leopold II of Belgium as a militia to oppress the local people and communities, most of whom were used as forced laborers in the extraction and exploitation of Congo's massive supply of rubber.

Ota Benga was later captured by slave traders from the enemy "Baschelel" tribe.

Ota Benga purchased Benga from the Bashilele slave traders, giving them a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth in exchange.

Verner was unable to recruit any villagers to join him for travel to the United States until Ota Benga said that the muzungu had saved his life, and spoke of the bond that had grown between them and his own curiosity about the world Verner came from.

Ota Benga had an amiable personality, and visitors were eager to see his teeth that had been filed to sharp points in his early youth as ritual decoration.

The Apache leader Geronimo grew to admire Ota Benga, and gave him one of his arrowheads.

Ota Benga accompanied Verner when he returned the other Africans to the Congo.

Ota Benga briefly lived amongst the Batwa while continuing to accompany Verner on his African adventures.

Ota Benga married a Batwa woman who later died of snakebite, but little is known of this second marriage.

Not feeling that he belonged with the Batwa, Ota Benga chose to return with Verner to the United States.

Verner eventually arranged for Ota Benga to stay in a spare room at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City while he was tending to other business.

Ota Benga initially enjoyed his time at the museum, where he was given a Southern-style linen suit to wear when he entertained.

Ota Benga had an image of himself, stuffed, behind glass, but somehow still alive, crouching over a fake campfire, feeding meat to a lifeless child.

The disaffected Ota Benga attempted to find relief by exploiting his employers' presentation of him as a 'savage'.

Ota Benga tried to slip past the guards as a large crowd was leaving the premises; when asked on one occasion to seat a wealthy donor's wife, he pretended to misunderstand, instead hurling the chair across the room, just missing the woman's head.

William Hornaday, director of the zoo, initially enlisted Ota Benga to help maintain the animal habitats.

At the zoo, Ota Benga was allowed to roam the grounds, but there is no record that he was ever paid for his work.

Ota Benga became fond of an orangutan named Dohong, "the presiding genius of the Monkey House", who had been taught to perform tricks and imitate human behavior.

The events leading to his "exhibition" alongside Dohong were gradual: Ota Benga spent some of his time in the Monkey House exhibit, and the zoo encouraged him to hang his hammock there, and to shoot his bow and arrow at a target.

Toward the end of 1906, Ota Benga was released into Reverend Gordon's custody.

Ota Benga received tutoring from Lynchburg poet Anne Spencer in order to improve his English, and began to attend elementary school at the Baptist Seminary in Lynchburg.

Once he felt his English had improved sufficiently, Ota Benga discontinued his formal education.

Ota Benga began working at a Lynchburg tobacco factory, and began to plan a return to Africa.

Ota Benga became depressed as his hopes for a return to his homeland faded.

Ota Benga was buried in an unmarked grave in the black section of the Old City Cemetery, near his benefactor, Gregory Hayes.

Local oral history indicates that Hayes and Ota Benga were eventually moved from the Old Cemetery to White Rock Hill Cemetery, a burial ground that later fell into disrepair.