I am a graduate student in early childhood education and I am doing research about the history of zoos to try and plan a social studies lesson as part of a unit of study about the zoo. I just came upon the information of Ota Benga today; unfortunately I had never heard of this before. I was completely shocked, disgusted, and enraged by the utter ignorance and disregard of culutral differences. I can’t stand the self-righteous and holier-than-thou attitude of some WASPs, especially those who felt the need to go “rescue” Ota from the Belgian Congo where he was completely at home and comfortable. I can’t blame him for becoming violent and frustrated after being subjected to abuse like being prodded with lit cigars. I understand some people thought they were doing this for the sake of research, but this is just ridiculous. They put a member of the human race on display in a zoo. I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it.
Welcome, ErinV.
It’s customary to put a link to the article in question. No problem, I got it this time. You’ll know next time.
Welcome to the boards.
Thanks for the clarification, Rico.
I think it fair to say that most of us here share your disgust and dismay over the events regarding Ota Benga.
I would point out that WASPs do not hold a monopoly on self-righteousness, holier-than-thou attitudes, or brutality to their fellow humans.
i agree with you, irishman, that WASPs do not hold a monopoly on self-righteous and holier than thou attitudes. I included them in my response because in the article, it was mostly white males who were going over to the congo to “rescue” pygmies from their environment. i suppose in 1906, those were the people who still held most of the power in the united states. A point that I found disturbing and yet interesting was that many of the people who reacted to Ota Benga being on display in the zoo were opposed to the fact that it supported Darwinism and evolution as opposed to the religious view that God created man. How about that there was a human being in a zoo?