Blacks that suffered Inhumane Treatment Part 1.

OTA BENGA

An african native who suffered inhumane treatment by being kept in a zoo. He was born around 1833, part of the Mbuti tribe which lived in the Kassi forest in what is now the Rebublic of Congo. Their's was a hunter gather society, and they lived up in the forest.

When Ota became a man, his teeth were chipped into sharp points, part of his tribal customs. He married and had two children, supporting them with hunting, like most of his tribes men, Ota was small in stature, under five feet tall and just a little over one hundred pounds in weight.

Tooth sharpening is customary in various cuiltures, historically it was done for spiritual and identification purposes.

Ota's world came crashing down when King Leopold II of Belgium[The butcher of congo] established a colony in the congo to exploit it's valuable resources, and created an army there under his personal control, the force publique.

The demand for rubber was increasing around the world and leopold wanted to corner the market, he subdued the native population to force them into labouring on the rubber plantations. The abuses were horrific and millions of Congolese people died under Leopold's reign.

In Belgium Congo, women were held hostage until their men returned with enough rubber for the colonizer, King leopold, the butcher of congo. Some had their hands chopped off for not meeting rubber Quotas.

Ota was out on an hunting expendition, when his village was attacked by the slavers, whether they were were force publique or an african group working to collect people to sell them varies from story to story. He was taken captive.

On the other side of the globe, a man named samuel verner was preparing exhibits for the 1904 world's fair. The fair's organizers wanted to do an exhibit showing the progress of mankind, from the dark prime to the highest enlightment, from savagery to civic organization.

He was given a hafty budget to collevt loving '' speciemens'' of people from africa to represent the savage depths from which mankind had sprung. He set sail for africa after securing the permission of king leopold, who expressed intrest in attending the fair himself.

Verner later told contraditory stories of how he found ota, but he purchased him from the slave traders, bragging that he had secured a '' Pygmy'' for the fair's collection.

The experience of the young african man at the ''Fair'' pseudonym, human zoo was not a plesant one. Billed as cannibals , they shook spears st the crowd and grimaced with their filled teeth, modeling their '' war '' dance in betweenshows, they were poked and prodded by curious visitors.

Verner travelled around, distributing the '' african '' wildlife specimens he'd collected while searching for a home for Ota. He finally sent Ota to the American museum of Natural history in New york city in 1906,

Ota was put as an exhibit, a plaque was erected describing him in the same way an animal would be described, and put into a cage in the monkey's house alongside a trained orangutan named '' Dohong''.

The cage was littered with bones to suggest that Ota was a cannibal. He also ecncouraged to perform for the audience , waving his speae and grimacing to show off his pointed teethor playing with his cage mate , The ''orangutan''.

On the evening of march 19, 1916, Ota Benga stole a revolver gun and shot himself through the heart.