The Congolese Pygmy Who Became A Circus Attraction
The Leonard Lopate Show | Sep 2, 2015
This interview is a rebroadcast that originally aired on June 8, 2015
In 1904, Ota Benga, a young Congolese “pygmy” arrived from central Africa and was featured in an anthropology exhibit at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The New York Zoological Gardens displayed him in its Monkey House, caged with an orangutan. The attraction became an international sensation, drawing thousands of New Yorkers and commanding headlines from across the nation and Europe. In Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, journalist Pamela Newkirk explores the circumstances of Ota Benga’s captivity and the international controversy it inspired.
