African Boy Exhibited At Bronx Zoo Found Solace In Crown Heights
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by Pamela Newkirk, journalist, professor, and author, candidly talked about her new book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, yesterday evening at the Brooklyn Historical Society.
Ota Benga was a young Congolese male stolen from Africa and derogatorily featured at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Two years later, the New York Zoological Gardens displayed him caged with an orangutan in its Monkey House at the Bronx zoo.
“The moment Benga set foot on American soil he had been held up to public ridicule by those determined to prove he belonged to an inferior species,” writes Newkirk.
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During the night’s Q&A session, Newkirk was asked about the challenges of writing such a shocking story. She said, “for the first two years it was very very hard. There are many challenges when you are researching marginalized people. But then all of a sudden there were incredible finds. I was able to trace his footsteps from 1904 to 1905 to 1906 to 1907. It was like he (Benga) was saying here I am.”
OurBKSocial finds solace in knowing once Benga was released from his torturous Imprisonment at the zoo, he found some peace of mind at the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn. Howard was successfully operated by African Americans and was located at 1550 Dean Street, on the corner of Dean Street and Troy Avenue in Weeksville, (now Crown Heights).
What might this book do for us? It may motivate us to study our past and plan for a more prosperous future. Newkirk says, “Benga’s story helps to shed light on where we are today and sets our foundation. It’s a call to a collective consciousness and it’s a good thing to be in touch with one’s humanity.”
Follow Pamela Newkirk on Twitter @ptnewkirk.
