114 years ago, the Bronx Zoo locked an African in a cage as a 'living exhibit': now because of this again a scandal

Over 100 years ago, the Bronx Zoo placed an African Ota Benga in a cage. The man was used as an exhibit in the "human zoo" - a controversial exhibition. He was released a week later. But the consequences of the imprisonment became fatal for him. The details of the tragic story were shared by the publication CNN.

In 1906, the Bronx Zoo of New York placed Ota Benga, a Mbuti pygmy, as a "living exhibit" in a cage. For one week, the Central African was kept in an enclosure with monkeys while hundreds of people came to gaze at him every day.

Now, 114 years later, the organization running the Bronx Zoo has apologized for the incident. On July 29, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released a statement of official apology for Ota Benga's cage. “We deeply regret that many people and generations have suffered from these actions, or from our inability to publicly condemn them earlier,” wrote WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper. “We recognize that open and systemic racism persists and our institution has a big role to play in combating it.”

Benga was released only after local black ministers expressed their outrage and demanded his release.

According to Pamela Newkirk, author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, Benga was in inhuman conditions during his time at the zoo. He was forced to face hundreds of people at the same time, being imprisoned among the orangutans. He was only allowed to be outside for short periods of time. A week later, Benga began to resist and threaten the attendants, which also contributed to his release, Newkirk wrote in her article.

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When he was finally released, the Reverend James Gordon took him to an orphanage that he ran in Vicksville, Brooklyn. Benga, who "could not return home", committed suicide ten years later, writes WCS.

The organization also denounced the "eugenics-based pseudoscientific racism, scriptures and philosophy" promoted by its founders, Madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborn.

Grant's book The Passing of the Great Race was used as a defense during the Nuremberg Trials. Grant and Osborne also helped found the American Eugenics Society in 1926.

WCS also decided to do everything records and archivesrelated to Benga, public. “Today, I urge myself and my colleagues to do better,” Samper said, and asked never to turn away if they witness any injustice.