Wow I love learnign something new…GREAT POST!

I think the Black History Spotlights are a great attribute to Concreteloop. Just from the few posts I have done so far, I have learned so much about some of our people that I didn’t even know about! This is very valuable information to know. I am very glad that you all here on Concreteloop are striving to inform us about who we are. I really did learn something new this day!

As for the main point of this post, Ota Benga, I am sad that they would do this to a human being. They made him look like some kind of unidentified animal or something. When I think of how they treated slaves, it brings tears to my eyes to know how they suffered and how some black people today take advantage of what they have. But I am just glad that it is different nowadays. I just wish blacks back then didn’t have to suffer like they did…….

LNever heard about this. Its cool that you guys have a nice balance. these kinds of psts tend to be my fav to comment on.

wow. I am Congolese myself and had never heard of Ota Benga. Makes me feel like i need to do some more research on that side of my family and history. thanks for the post J. Dakar.

BLACK HISTORY IN MARCH, I LIKE THAT, KEEP IT GOING…

lmao @ his teeth

keep these posts up

bought in 1906?
weren`t black man something by that year?
sometimes we just gotta KILL THIS MOTHERFUCKERS
WITHOUT VIOLENCE WE WOULDN`T BE SOMEWWHERE

well as he was 4″11 he wasn`t physically built to be violent
to this day if anything like that happens i dont care to kill myself as long as i kill the wrong doers

I never cared enough to post a message ,but that piece really move me.Keep up the good work,Knowledge is POWER.

Thanks CL for these post and the story was truly sad. I will keep passing them on to my younger brother. I have to make sure he knows about the past and appreciate the life he has now.

wow he shot himself in the heart?!?!?!?!?

this is a case where assimilation does not
work at all.

Damn, White Devils….

HEY, DEDICATE A COMPLETE BLOG FOR THESE TYPE OF TOPICS , KINDA HARD TO FOLLOW UP WITH CELEB B.S AFTER SIGNIFICANT SUBJECTS ARE BROUGHT UP. THIS TYPE OF EXPLOITATION CAN BRING AWARNESS OF WHAT INDIGNEOUS AFRICAN PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY REALLY INDURED FOR OVER 400 YEARS.

@70 you can be release from the mental chains of slavery by moving away from the stereotypes and not letting your situation your in hold you down.

the only thing i hate about these post is that people start drawing lines in sand. i think we need not to characterize all whites as devils.

Seriously—

J. Dakar will you marry me?

I am so proud to finally be a part of a discussion with my peers (I mean young black people my age) about OUR past and our struggle without being labeled racist, militant, or being told to “Get over it!” It is a wonderful thing, this dialogue. Keep up the good work, J!

@90 AH GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST PLAYING(LOLOLOLO)

Wow…..you guys always bring the good stuff out during the Black History Spotlight……keep bringing us this great info……………………

Hey thank you so much J.Darkar for posting this!!! I read about Ota Benga last year and was out raged by how he was dehumanized to be put on display for people to make fun of him and use his as some freak show.I’m surprised alot of people did not know about him lol but it’s all good at least people are knowing who he is now. Anyways Not only did they dehumanize him but they also try to use him as another evidence to support the theory of us blacks being evolutionized from apes SMH. I wish my people did not suffer the way they did back then however I can not change. Thanks alot J.Darkar.

I would like to ask who is Venus Iso?
I searched on yahoo and google but didn’t find anything.
Except a picture!

good post. Learned about someone new.

I feel the same way #74.

It makes me sick to know that Bronx Zoo that I visit time to time with my family once held human beings, and technically, not at all that long ago. How can people treat others so cruelly? May they all go to hell, sorry no sympathy from me.

i just read about him in my psychology of the african american experience class…when i read about him something really stuck with me. the story is sad but isn’t too far removed from black ppl in the media today. ota benga’s case is a little more blatant and extreme than how the we are used for coonery today. everything about this makes me sad.

WOW! Interesting

#50 maybe he felt lost, he wasn’t in his country, he wasn’t used to the life Americans lived working and going to school, but he didnt have any fmaily to go back to in Congo

This was really a great post. I would have never known about him. It’s a sad story, but I was glad to read about it.

This is good racial history but this is not black history.

fffGGOOOOOD POST! I love it we need more informational posts like this on CL

Learned somethin new!

Thank you so much for posting this!

DRC is still under the control of western countries. People are still suffuring. I know because some of theses people are my cousins, my aunts, my uncles….
The war that’s been going on in DRC is the worst war since WWII, but nobody cares….We should not even be calling it Democratic Republic of Congo, the country has never been a democratic country. Ah, Congo na biso….

WOW!! very interesting!!
learn something new today. im going to google him and see what else i can find cause i swear to bob, ive never heard of him till this day.

I must say, the last paragraph brought me to tears!!! So heartbreaking to hear about the trials and tribulations of an ultimately heartbroken man!

The ultimate need of human beings, because we are social, is to belong. Ota Benga’s nuclear and extended family were taken away from him - annihilated actually. His community/cultural family were extinguished also. The only somebody he had left to count on was his former enslaver/owner. Everything he had that gave him a reason to live for (not merely exist, but LIVE) were ripped away. He sense of self, his sense of place, his sense of thought had been violently uprooted in an instant and replaced with the self-serving , hollow assumptions of what he was or was supposed to be.

In the end, after suffering horrendously for the last 12 of his short 35 years he gathered the courage to reclaim himself in a brave and defiant outcry of his spirit. I hate that his life had to end this way. But I hate even more that the second half of his abbreviated life had to begin in such a cruel way even more.

I’m sure it was akin to a babe being ripped from the arms of his mother and his mother’s milk to only be placed in a crib in an orphanage and given kool-aid in a bottle. It just doesn’t work.

#97 Spelman girl:

“i just read about him in my psychology of the african american experience class…when i read about him something really stuck with me. the story is sad but isn’t too far removed from black ppl in the media today. ota benga’s case is a little more blatant and extreme than how the we are used for coonery today. everything about this makes me sad.”

What you see on television nowadays is NOTHING compared to what our ancestors had to go through. How DARE you even compare? Today, we (well, not WE, some of the fools out there) put ourselves to be regarded as the stereotype that is given to us. Don’t act like there is no way of portraying ourselves in the best light we can. I can, and I’m sure you can too, name a number of great examples of black men and women in the media. And I’m sure you can name gazillion of the bad examples. See, it all starts with US. Don’t blame anyone for anything. Go ‘head and portray yourSELF, OURselves in the best way that you can, and not as an angry fool blaming others for your problems. Like someone said, don’t segregate yourselves from the rest. Only then, we will all be at peace. Holla.

You guys are doing a GREAT JOB!

1. You’re extending Black History Month into March ^_^

2. Your featuring people most of us never read/heard of and probably would never have read about.

I thank you.

This was truly enlightening, after hearing this, I am more proud of being me. The feeling and mood was both sad and happy. Thank you CL, especially you J. Dakar.

Never heard of him. Great post though.

Although I have learned about this man so many years after his passing, my heart aches for what must have been a lonely and a painful life at many moments. May he rest in peace.

Damn, America is fucked up….

Judah, “good racial history, but not black history” ??? what do you mean? How can that piece of information that you’ve read get any blacker than that??? Is he not a black man like you?

Thanks J. Dakar for the post, it’s always disheartening to see this type of historical cruelty but the truth hurts. This is what kids should be learning in high schools, they are progressively sugar coating the history, and as a result creating even more misconceptions and ignorance. Revealing these types of information will explain the true extent of how blacks were treated in this country, and hopefully will garner more understanding and knowledge in order to spread more compassion in this country.

thanx for posting!!!!! I agree with number 4. White people are evil by nature

wow i just love these post. i still have the last post you did in my head about the woman who was also tricked by the white man to go to europe only to be showcased in the zoo for her body. Our people have soo much history, they give us these few historical figures, when there was really so much more. black history SHOULD be all year round. we need to learn about our history for its lasts more than 28 days.

wow..am from africa and am actually studying in lynchburg VA…..May God forgive all these racist…..most were ignorant of the truth, and were blinded by the devil. Keysha cole says LET IT GO….its Heavy but LET IT GO….

wow…that is a crazy story. i never heard of him. thats crazy sad!

I first learned about this from the Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, MD. There is information on him there. Anyone visiting Baltimore should certainly visit this place as it has lots of real Black History information.

I do hope that CL will keep posts like this one coming. It certainly makes it worth the read on this site with all the annoying advertising.

Interesting.

Until the day I die, I will always believe that in general, white people are inherently evil.

That was an interesting article to think this man went through that. And to have your family murdered and your heritage erased is enough to make you go insane.

Actually “pgymy” is a derogatory word…it’s equivalent to the “n-word”…

Their proper name is “Twa” and they were among the first people on the planet. “Pygmy” is a name the Twa people detest and it really shouldn’t be used anymore…

what is up with all of the white people advocates? This is a Black site, so we say things about BLACK people. God! And the reason all of those horrible things are happening in DARFUR is because of European invasion and supply. And it still has not been throughly proven that the snipers commited those crimes, but even if they did it was really a shocker to find out they were black wasn’t it? AND since when do they teach BLACK hISTORY IN SCHOOL?THIS IS DIRECTED TOWARDS THE PERSON WHO SAID WE SHOULD LEARN MORE ABOUT OTHER CULTURES BESIDES BLACK AND WHITE? I LEARNED WHITE HISTORY ALL DAY, WITH MARTIN AND MALCOLM IN FEB. AND CINCO DE MAYO IN MAY. LET OTHER PEOPLE FIGHT THEIR OWN FIGHT…BECAUSE WE FIGHT FOR OURS AND EVERYONE ELSE TRIES TO REAP THE BENEFITS WHILE HATING US AT THE SAME TIME. YOU KNOW, THEY WANT TO GET CLOSER TO BEING WHITE. CONCRETELOOP , YOU SCORED BIG POINTS FOR THESE POSTS THOUGH!

Awsome read, keep the stories coming please!

#121: Thanks for the info. You truly learn something new every day.

Peace and blessings,
J. Dakar

wow, ive learned something new, once again.
This is real history and information like this should be incorporated into text-books everywhere, instead of the sugar-coated stories the feel obliged to tell students.
It’s very disturbing for me to hear this, but I am not surprised. Thanks for bringing it to my attention CL. Maybe this will further others to do some research into other stories as well. Cheers!

I am congolese and I am very pleased to see that some black oriented media actually takes time to look into very important history factsn that should never be forgotten.

Thank you concrete loop

Wow!!! I truly learned something new on that one. Extra interesting for me being from VA and having friends up in Lynchburg.

Wow I get so much from this story. Point A they really tried to dehumanize this african more overtly by sticking him in a Got Damn zoo!. Point B we tried to americanize him and he wasnt feeling that. I like how he stayed true to his culture and his heritage its just sad that it may have caused a turmoil within that lead to suicide. May his soul rest in peace. (if he could stay true to his culture back then thats a big accomplishment because i know too many phony black people today)

I credit you CL for my expanding knowledge!!!!

It is amazing what has happened and what continues to happen. No race is greater than any other. We are all amazing human beings. We choose to be different from each other and hurt eachother. But that has nothing to do with the skin color that happens to drape our bodies. It is the fault of the society in which we live. If more people stood up for what was right, instead of spouting off what they believe is right, then people might get better.

Whites are still on every continent doing evil. Is any other race? I don’t think so.

You should read some more, the whole world knows that most Americans have no idea on what’s going on in the world. Yes, skincolour has everything to do with it. Every African country has been colonized. The majority of Asian countries have been colonized. South America was not latin before the Spanish people went there and started killing natives.Even Australia and New-Zealand! The aboriginals forced away from their homes. How long ago do you think this is? All in the 20th century. From the 50ies till the 90ies they were official colonies. Oh my God, you don’t know HALF of what whites have done.

If you were more educated, you wouldn’t dare to disagree.

And the white man owes you alot! He brought you there don’t you see. And he’s still surpressing you.

Don’t trust white people, you don’t have to judge them. But don’t ever trust them.

That is sick what they did to that man…

thanks for giving him the spotlight!

He was buried in an unmarked grave, records show, in the black section of the Old City Cemetery, near his benefactor, Gregory Hayes. At some point, however, both went missing. Local oral history indicates that Hayes and Ota Benga were eventually moved from the Old Cemetery to White Rock Cemetery, a burial ground that fell into disrepair.

info from http://www.wikipedia.org