This is a story that hasn’t been shared as widely as I believe it should. While society in general has progressed and became generally more sensitive our entire human history is filled with the poor treatment of those the majority deems unacceptable. While it might of been for the objective better of the whole it often lead to unjustified action being taken against those abnormal. There’s a storied history of human oddities and their treatment. However... even in a majority of circles of collectors, experts and historians a majority of it is deemed macabre and goes untouched. Ota Benga is somewhat in that category.
Ota Benga was an Mbuti man who lived with his people within what was known as then, The Congo Free State. Sadly very early into his life his people were attacked by a militia created by Léopold II of Belgium. Both Bengas wife and two children were slaughtered. He only ended up surviving due to being of absence on a hunting trip. While this was already more tragedy than a vast majority of us will ever deal with it’s simply the beginning for him.
He ended up getting caught within a short window of time by slave traders. A business man sent to Africa named Samuel Phillips Verner under contract with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World Fair) discovered Benga on his way to a Batwa village. He negotiated his release for a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth, but later claimed that he rescued him from cannibals. Verner had spent weeks with Ota and eventually recruited several other pygmies, “Red-Africans”, and other related people’s. The initial intentions of Verner were unknown, but some believe he had a general fondness and admiration for them. We’ll never know either way because he fell ill to Malaria and the group was brought over without him.
Within the anthropology exhibit people found a general admiration and intrigue with Ota and his “personality”. Usually very eager to see his teeth which were filed down earlier in his youth as a tribal decoration. The Africans eventually learned to charge and people were eager to throw many at Ota for showing his abnormal mouth. However, Verner arrived about a month later and realized they were being treated as prisoners rather than performers. Their attempts to congregate peacefully in the forest were often ruined by obnoxious crowds. Eventually they adapted to acting in a “Warlike” manner after observing the American Indians. They were noted as savages and were forced into acting as such for others entertainment so they could live in peace every now and then.
They were taken back to Africa by Verner and Benga even for married once again. However he did not take well to living amongst a different people and his wife ended up passing due to snakebite. He returned back to the states because at this point Verner was all he had left. Verner has worked out a deal with a curator at a museum to allow Benga to live in a separate room and meet guests. As time went on he longed for his once sacred home land that was destroyed and people slaughtered not long before this. The isolation burned him on the inside, but with no one to express it to he grew depressed and angry.
He eventually started to attempt to exploit how his employers displayed him as a “Savage” in a form of both expression and humor in order to cope with his life. He attempted to escape once, but ended up getting caught and lied saying he misunderstood direction to avoid getting in trouble. At this point Verner ended up finding another place for him to live.
He was brought to the Bronx Zoo originally to help maintain animal habitats. However the director of the zoo took notice that people paid more attention to Ota than any animal in the zoo. So he decided to capitalize and put Benga in his own exhibit. He eventually made friends with the only thing to not harass and gawk at him, an Orangutan named DoHong. They invited him to hang his bed in his exhibit and shoot arrows he made at targets. Soon a display was put up of the two and promotional pictures were taken.
This display was seen as a valuable spectacle and was moved to be alongside the Apes exhibit. The only people to truly protest the display were African American clergymen, but their articulate and thought provoking pleas were shrugged off. The New York Times backed the choice by echoing popular opinion and arguing Ota was a “Lesser human”. In this situation Ota eventually became much more mischievous and even violent. No one wanted to help, but a large crowd would eagerly harass him at any chance given.
Benga was eventually released into the custody of Reverend Gordon after he had drawn plenty of money and enough people voiced their outrage. In reality this wasn’t an act of love, he simply had become a risk to business. He was taken to a church and eventually to Lynchburg, Virginia to live with the McCray family. To fit into a more localized society they had his teeth capped, made him wear American style clothes, and was tutored by a local poet. Eventually to be enrolled in elementary school.
As his English had gotten to a suitable point he discontinued his education and became a valuable employee at a local tobacco factory. Here he won favor of coworkers who had nicknamed him Bingo. At this time Ota was planning his trip back to Africa, still absolutely heart broken and longing for a life without isolation and being a person rather than a spectacle. However as WW1 broke out all trips via passenger boat to the Congo were made impossible.
Benga became depressed as he realized his last hope for a place he thought would fix all of his problems didn’t exist in his reality. A age 32 Benga built a ceremonial fire and chipped off the caps on his teeth. He then proceeded to go into the woods and commit suicide with a gun he had stolen. In the end the people who ended up deeming him a savage were the actual savages. The majority of those people either wrote it off and ignored it or realized their hypocrisy and went on to change nothing about their own actions.
There are many parallels with his story and someone who experiences true Inceldom. As well as the arguments of people who target incels. That’s why I went ahead and did a quick write up of it here. Someone in their worst place imaginable did everything those on the other “just” side wanted for entertainment and was a generally good human being relying on only hope and coping mechanisms to live. In the end he didn’t lash out nearly as much was warranted, but minded his own business and eventually took his own life.
These people are forgotten, because the people mocking Benga at the zoo are the ones who put those who are different on display. Just instead of thousands, billions can now see those a general society deems unacceptable. While they shrug their shoulders and divert criticism, even objective fact, the ones behind the exhibit are left to suffer until we get to the point where it’s okay to be how we are.
While many people on Incels.Me align with ideologies people deem dangerous or rooted in evil morality the reality is that those with privilege created the way we act. I don’t rightfully expect any incel to change their ways when all people oppose them say they just need guidance, but then proceed to mock them and never offer actual solutions. I just ask you not to join mob mentality or lash out beyond verbal satire or written exaggeration , because we have a level of introspection and innocence worth infinitely more than the average person. Try your best to avoid isolation and cope with these brutal side effects.
We may be victims, but I envision a world where we’re not. Our outlandish behavior does not represent our behavior accurately, especially on the internet. Stay alive and stay happy brothers.
Ota Benga was an Mbuti man who lived with his people within what was known as then, The Congo Free State. Sadly very early into his life his people were attacked by a militia created by Léopold II of Belgium. Both Bengas wife and two children were slaughtered. He only ended up surviving due to being of absence on a hunting trip. While this was already more tragedy than a vast majority of us will ever deal with it’s simply the beginning for him.
He ended up getting caught within a short window of time by slave traders. A business man sent to Africa named Samuel Phillips Verner under contract with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World Fair) discovered Benga on his way to a Batwa village. He negotiated his release for a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth, but later claimed that he rescued him from cannibals. Verner had spent weeks with Ota and eventually recruited several other pygmies, “Red-Africans”, and other related people’s. The initial intentions of Verner were unknown, but some believe he had a general fondness and admiration for them. We’ll never know either way because he fell ill to Malaria and the group was brought over without him.
Within the anthropology exhibit people found a general admiration and intrigue with Ota and his “personality”. Usually very eager to see his teeth which were filed down earlier in his youth as a tribal decoration. The Africans eventually learned to charge and people were eager to throw many at Ota for showing his abnormal mouth. However, Verner arrived about a month later and realized they were being treated as prisoners rather than performers. Their attempts to congregate peacefully in the forest were often ruined by obnoxious crowds. Eventually they adapted to acting in a “Warlike” manner after observing the American Indians. They were noted as savages and were forced into acting as such for others entertainment so they could live in peace every now and then.
They were taken back to Africa by Verner and Benga even for married once again. However he did not take well to living amongst a different people and his wife ended up passing due to snakebite. He returned back to the states because at this point Verner was all he had left. Verner has worked out a deal with a curator at a museum to allow Benga to live in a separate room and meet guests. As time went on he longed for his once sacred home land that was destroyed and people slaughtered not long before this. The isolation burned him on the inside, but with no one to express it to he grew depressed and angry.
He eventually started to attempt to exploit how his employers displayed him as a “Savage” in a form of both expression and humor in order to cope with his life. He attempted to escape once, but ended up getting caught and lied saying he misunderstood direction to avoid getting in trouble. At this point Verner ended up finding another place for him to live.
He was brought to the Bronx Zoo originally to help maintain animal habitats. However the director of the zoo took notice that people paid more attention to Ota than any animal in the zoo. So he decided to capitalize and put Benga in his own exhibit. He eventually made friends with the only thing to not harass and gawk at him, an Orangutan named DoHong. They invited him to hang his bed in his exhibit and shoot arrows he made at targets. Soon a display was put up of the two and promotional pictures were taken.
This display was seen as a valuable spectacle and was moved to be alongside the Apes exhibit. The only people to truly protest the display were African American clergymen, but their articulate and thought provoking pleas were shrugged off. The New York Times backed the choice by echoing popular opinion and arguing Ota was a “Lesser human”. In this situation Ota eventually became much more mischievous and even violent. No one wanted to help, but a large crowd would eagerly harass him at any chance given.
Benga was eventually released into the custody of Reverend Gordon after he had drawn plenty of money and enough people voiced their outrage. In reality this wasn’t an act of love, he simply had become a risk to business. He was taken to a church and eventually to Lynchburg, Virginia to live with the McCray family. To fit into a more localized society they had his teeth capped, made him wear American style clothes, and was tutored by a local poet. Eventually to be enrolled in elementary school.
As his English had gotten to a suitable point he discontinued his education and became a valuable employee at a local tobacco factory. Here he won favor of coworkers who had nicknamed him Bingo. At this time Ota was planning his trip back to Africa, still absolutely heart broken and longing for a life without isolation and being a person rather than a spectacle. However as WW1 broke out all trips via passenger boat to the Congo were made impossible.
Benga became depressed as he realized his last hope for a place he thought would fix all of his problems didn’t exist in his reality. A age 32 Benga built a ceremonial fire and chipped off the caps on his teeth. He then proceeded to go into the woods and commit suicide with a gun he had stolen. In the end the people who ended up deeming him a savage were the actual savages. The majority of those people either wrote it off and ignored it or realized their hypocrisy and went on to change nothing about their own actions.
There are many parallels with his story and someone who experiences true Inceldom. As well as the arguments of people who target incels. That’s why I went ahead and did a quick write up of it here. Someone in their worst place imaginable did everything those on the other “just” side wanted for entertainment and was a generally good human being relying on only hope and coping mechanisms to live. In the end he didn’t lash out nearly as much was warranted, but minded his own business and eventually took his own life.
These people are forgotten, because the people mocking Benga at the zoo are the ones who put those who are different on display. Just instead of thousands, billions can now see those a general society deems unacceptable. While they shrug their shoulders and divert criticism, even objective fact, the ones behind the exhibit are left to suffer until we get to the point where it’s okay to be how we are.
While many people on Incels.Me align with ideologies people deem dangerous or rooted in evil morality the reality is that those with privilege created the way we act. I don’t rightfully expect any incel to change their ways when all people oppose them say they just need guidance, but then proceed to mock them and never offer actual solutions. I just ask you not to join mob mentality or lash out beyond verbal satire or written exaggeration , because we have a level of introspection and innocence worth infinitely more than the average person. Try your best to avoid isolation and cope with these brutal side effects.
We may be victims, but I envision a world where we’re not. Our outlandish behavior does not represent our behavior accurately, especially on the internet. Stay alive and stay happy brothers.
