Ota Benga (ca. 1885-1916)

Mbye Otabenga, later known as Ota Benga, was born in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1904 the Rev. Samuel P. Verner, adventurer and former Presbyterian missionary, brought Benga and eight other Congolese purported to be “Pygmies” to be displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair. Two years later the Bronx Zoo in New York exhibited Benga in its “Monkey House” alongside an orangutan. Outraged African American ministers secured his release from the zoo and placed him in an orphanage in Brooklyn. In 1910 Benga was brought to Lynchburg to attend the Virginia Theological Seminary and College. Despondent over his inability to return to Africa, he committed suicide in 1916.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017