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[[File:Ota Benga at Bronx Zoo.jpg|thumb|Ota Benga in the Bronx Zoo]]

[[File:Ota Benga at Bronx Zoo.jpg|thumb|Ota Benga in the Bronx Zoo]]

'''Ota Benga''' was a [[Pygmy|pygmy]] man dehumanized by [[evolutionary racism|evolutionary racists]] and placed on display alongside an [[orangutan]] at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. This incident reveals the potential for [[racism]] under the [[theory of evolution]] propagated by [[Charles Darwin]].<ref name=CREATIONRESEARCH>{{cite web|url=http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/30/otabenga.html|title=Ota Benga: The Story of the Pygmy on Display in a Zoo|author=Jerry Bergman|format=HTML|accessdate=2008-07-07|publisher=Creationresearch.org}}</ref>

'''Ota Benga''' was a [[pygmy]] man dehumanized by [[evolutionary racism|evolutionary racists]] and placed on display alongside an [[orangutan]] at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. This incident reveals the potential for [[racism]] under the [[theory of evolution]] propagated by [[Charles Darwin]].<ref name=CREATIONRESEARCH>{{cite web|url=http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/30/otabenga.html|title=Ota Benga: The Story of the Pygmy on Display in a Zoo|author=Jerry Bergman|accessdate=2008-07-07|publisher=Creationresearch.org}}</ref>

Ota Benga lived in the Kasai region<ref name="TE">{{cite book|author=Fatimah Tobing Rony|title=The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle|publisher=Duke University Press|location= |year= 1996|pages= p. 157|isbn= 0822318407|oclc=|doi=}}</ref> of the [[Congo]], but lost his family in a mishap. Samuel Phillips Verner, a businessman influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin,<ref name=CREATIONRESEARCH/> went to [[Africa]] in order to find pygmies for exhibition. In 1904, Ota and several other pygmies were shipped across the Atlantic and displayed<ref name="CAHC">{{cite book|author=Haviland et. al.|title=Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge|publisher=Thomson Wadsworth|location= |year= 2005|pages= p81|isbn= 0534624871|oclc=|doi=}}</ref> by [[Theory of evolution|evolutionist]] scientists<ref name="ED87">{{cite book|author=Harun Yahya|title=The Evolution Deceit|publisher=Global Yayincilik|location=|year=|pages=p87|isbn=9758718819|oclc=|doi=}}</ref> at a World's Fair in Saint Louis, Missouri.<ref name="CAHC"/> Evolutionist scientists described him as "the closest transitional link to man".<ref name="ED87"/> The fair was successful and the pygmies were shipped back to Africa, where Verner and Ota collected many artifacts. Both men returned to the [[United States]] in the summer of 1906, where Ota was handed over to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and later transported to the Bronx Zoo.<ref name="CAHC"/> The evolutionist<ref name="ED88">{{cite book

Ota Benga lived in the Kasai region<ref name="TE">{{cite book|author=Fatimah Tobing Rony|title=The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle|publisher=Duke University Press|location= |year= 1996|pages= 157|isbn= 0822318407|oclc=|doi=}}</ref> of the [[Congo]], but lost his family in a mishap. Samuel Phillips Verner, a businessman influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin,<ref name=CREATIONRESEARCH/> went to [[Africa]] in order to find pygmies for exhibition. In 1904, Ota and several other pygmies were shipped across the Atlantic and displayed<ref name="CAHC">{{cite book|author=Haviland et. al.|title=Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge|publisher=Thomson Wadsworth|location= |year= 2005|pages= p81|isbn= 0534624871|oclc=|doi=}}</ref> by [[Theory of evolution|evolutionist]] scientists<ref name="ED87">{{cite book|author=Harun Yahya|title=The Evolution Deceit|publisher=Global Yayincilik|location=|year=|pages=p87|isbn=9758718819|oclc=|doi=}}</ref> at a World's Fair in Saint Louis, Missouri.<ref name="CAHC"/> Evolutionist scientists described him as "the closest transitional link to man".<ref name="ED87"/> The fair was successful and the pygmies were shipped back to Africa, where Verner and Ota collected many artifacts. Both men returned to the [[United States]] in the summer of 1906, where Ota was handed over to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and later transported to the Bronx Zoo.<ref name="CAHC"/> The evolutionist<ref name="ED88">{{cite book

|author= Harun Yahya

|author= Harun Yahya

|title= The Evolution Deceit

|title= The Evolution Deceit

|oclc=

|oclc=

|doi=

|doi=

}}</ref> displayed Ota in a cage at the Monkey House<ref name="SN">{{cite book

}}</ref> displayed Ota in a cage at the Monkey House<ref name="TE"/><ref name="SN">{{cite book

|author= Lee D. Baker

|author= Lee D. Baker

|title= From Savage to Negro

|title= From Savage to Negro

|oclc=

|oclc=

|doi=

|doi=

}}</ref><ref name="TE"/> with an orangutan<ref name="SN"/> named Dohung under the denomination of "ancient ancestors of man".<ref name="ED88"/> A sign was placed in the front of the cage which stated Ota's name, height, weight etc. as in the case of animals in a zoo.<ref name="AS"/>

}}</ref> with an orangutan<ref name="SN"/> named Dohung under the denomination of "ancient ancestors of man".<ref name="ED88"/> A sign was placed in the front of the cage which stated Ota's name, height, weight etc. as in the case of animals in a zoo.<ref name="AS"/>

Black clergies protested against this display and ultimately the exhibition was closed. On September 27, 1906, Ota was transferred to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, a church-sponsored orphanage.<ref name="ITC44">{{cite book

Black clergies protested against this display and ultimately the exhibition was closed. On September 27, 1906, Ota was transferred to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, a church-sponsored orphanage.<ref name="ITC44">{{cite book

|oclc=

|oclc=

|doi=

|doi=

}}</ref> Clergyman James H. Gordon condemned this exhibition, which was aimed for promoting [[Darwinism]], and called the dehumanization of Ota Benga hostile to [[Christianity]].<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all|title=The Scandal at the Zoo|author=Mitch Keller|date=2006-08-06|format=HTML|accessdate=2008-07-07|publisher=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> On March 20, 1916, Ota committed suicide by shooting himself with a stolen revolver.<ref name="ITC44"/>

}}</ref> Clergyman James H. Gordon condemned this exhibition, which was aimed for promoting [[Darwinism]], and called the dehumanization of Ota Benga hostile to [[Christianity]].<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all|title=The Scandal at the Zoo|author=Mitch Keller|date=2006-08-06|accessdate=2008-07-07|publisher=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> On March 20, 1916, Ota committed suicide by shooting himself with a stolen revolver.<ref name="ITC44"/>

==References==

==References==