Ota Benga was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo. Benga had been purchased from African slave traders. He tried to return to Africa, with no success.

Benga fell into depression and committed suicide in 1916.

When Benga, a teenager, returned from an elephant hunt in Congo, he found that his entire family and village had been slaughtered by Force Publique, the private army of King Leopold created to enforce rubber production quotas.

He was kidnapped by slave traders and put to work.

In 1904, Benga was "freed" by an American missionary and amateur anthropologist Samuel Phillips Verner who was under contract from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to bring back pygmies to be part of a human exhibition at the fair.

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Marina Amaral

@marinamaral2

26 Oct

Just in... Prints, puzzles, cards and more:

redbubble.com/shop/ap/608101…

Everyone in this picture is now dead.

Thought you should know

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Marina Amaral

@marinamaral2

26 Oct

I'm not freaking out, you are freaking out

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good heavens

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Marina Amaral

@marinamaral2

26 Oct

“Asbury Park's Casino housed amusements like video poker and dark rides similar to those across the street at Palace Amusements.

In the 2000s, the Casino suffered the same demolition by neglect that was one of the factors in the destruction of Palace Amusements.“