wow i learnd something new! heard about him, but never knew much! good post!

first! sorry couldnt help it lol

wow.good post

I just LOVE Concrete Loop! Black History usually consists of the same people everywhere it is acknowledged. Althought everyone that we are traditionally educated about did phenominal acts to contribute to the freedoms and liberties we take for granted, it is really good to learn about other aspects of our history as well. I learned something new. Keep up the great job CL!

I meant “Although”.

Would a black person ever do this?

The answer is no, because whites are evil, and we’re not. I hope that whites understand that blacks are not the ones who have to prove that they’re great people. But whites have to prove that they’re great people. Because they’re still doing a great deal of evil. And I’m wary of them, they have to prove that they’re not like that.

Be proud black people, don’t ever feel ashamed to be black. For you have no continuing legacy of bringing evil and hatred into the world, the whites do. It’s time that we start understanding what a great people we are.

OMG! Those images alone are striking. Thanks J. Dakar. I think your coverage is amazing! And kudos to Angel.La for recognizing that.

Uh…you sound a bit hostile there #4. Lol.

Very enlightening post J.Dakar. Man, i love being black. I love our skin, its tone and texture. i love how we look. The feel of our hair, I feel that blacks are the most soulful, most spiritual, and most artistic race that exists. There’s just something different about us compared to other racial groups. Being black is a blessing from God. I believe that to the fullest. Mos def.

We have so much history, a legacy! We should be inspired by our past and use it as motivation to excel beyond the stereotypes society places us in. If you’re angry about it, turn into positive energy and use it to your advantage.

Im sorry but if i was white i don’t know what I’d do. Probably shoot myself. (Statistically speaking.)

I’ve been coming to concreteloop for about a year now. I like to look at the site ,but I never comment; these Black History post are just phenomenal. I would never find out about these people while going to a predominately white school. Black History Month is a bunch of BS. If schools and other scholarly institutions wrote about this stuff it would be so meaningful and beneficial to young black people (and anybody else, for that matter). Keep up the good work man.

finally taking in some real education…

class dismissed!!

CONGRATS CL! You are uplifting your people…..remember knowledge is power once one is ignorant he or she will always be in the dark.

CONGRATS CL! Uplifting your people…..knowledge is power and ignorance leads to darkness.

Apart from learning something even I - from South Africa - didn’t know, I’m taking away Dr. R. MacArthur’s word: “The person responsible for this exhibition degrades himself as much as he does the African.”

Great post, welll done CL.

keep it up.

I have learned something new today. Thanx CL !!!!

@4 that was a extremely racist comment. OH BY THE WAY BLACKS ARE CAPBLE OF EVIL. Have you forgotten about The D.C. Snipers(black) The Genocide that has happened in Rwanda.The Genocide that’s happening in Darfur right now. Evil has no skin tone. any race is capable of evil acts. now i think about it race shouldn’t be in the equation, people are capable of evil. I have no shame at all at being black but i think it foolish to say it’s not within us to do bad things….am i wrong for feeling that way?

Thanks! I never knew this story. It’s so sad.

Go CL!

i think it should be a school requirement to seriously about other peoples history other than white and black. other races have rich and beautiful culture as well

*i meant to seriously learn about

Good Post, I never knew about him, its good to learn about someone different in Black History.

Beautiful, beautiful post concreteloop.
We all have to learn about our history, whether it’s good, bad, black, white, yellow…
But don’t selfsegregate using the excuse that ‘you were forced to do so in the past’.
No, our ancestors were forced to do so.
See, there’s nothing wrong with being proud of being black. I am.
But there’s EVERYTHING wrong with calling every white man evil.

PS, that was for #4.

I love this post, and I admire that this site is teaching us things that we may never get from a text book.

Thanks for this post. Wow my heart breaks when I read stuff like this. I appreciate it though things like this keeps my mind fresh of the cruelties we have overcome but at the same time endure.

Not that EVERY white man is evil, but ANY person who(white or black), makes a person feel ashamed for being born who they were, a HUMAN with the African blood running through them.

I have never heard this story, and it was very interesting. Keep this up!

It is so encouraging to so that someone is really dedicated to spreading the
word about our WORLD history. Thanks for this and past history posts—
keep it up and I’ll keep on reading.

#17 post

Again, stories and the real life situations of African persons such as Ota Benga or Hot-n-Tot Venus are extremely sad. Especially considering that both performers were our community’s early black superstars- performing and entertaining Europeans (for a little of nothing OR for free). Yet, after all of their entertaining both performers ended up in a cage. SMH.

Good look on this post

I LOVED THIS POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, wasn’t he basically an African-American after all that?

Wow I never knew about this either. this was a great post and I love the way you post about things that are not normally included in black history month. Great Job J.Dakar

Intriguing.Can’t get this kind of information everywhere.People need to know their history in order to know who they are.

Good CL!

Very Crazy, Love this Black History Spotlight!

iI DEFINITELY GIVE CONCRETE LOOPS THEIR PROPS FOR FINDING BLACK HISTORY INFO LIKE THIS…..I THINK I MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT HIM BEFORE…THIS IS GREAT INFO….WE NEED MORE BLACK EDUCATION LIKE THIS…KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!

Keep bringing this history to light. Thanks CL. You guys are really do it big.

Very good information! Something that I have never heard before! That’ s a good look CL!

AMAZING!!!! I love learning new stuff. That was so interesting. He was so tiny. Someone should do a movie about him. Wow, I’m speechless.

I LOVE CL. I usually come here and read, but never feel obliged to comment. This story however, and the many others that you tell in this section are more than enlightening. There are so many people, myself included, who just have no idea and this forum really does provide a supplement to what is currently out there. Thank you CL, for not only providing us with the usual celebrity fodder, but for actually seeing the need out there for to educate us all. we cannot know ourselves truly, till we know and understand our history.

Keep up the EXCELLENT work. This right here is responsible journalism!!!

I agree with #32, this really does need to be made into a movie.

very glad J Dakar is writing for this site, the education of the history of black people as well as current news and affairs is so important and he does it so well. the sad reality is even though things look better to the human eye in terms of now compared to then, shit is still the same. we are all oppressed mentally (through manipulation of government and corporations) if not physically (those thrown in jail for absolute bullshit). education is really the only way to take your mind back from those who own it and hopefully then we can have a true revolution where people are manipulated into charity, education and loving one another instead of worshipping materialism which makes them rich and us trapped in their machine.

Concreteloop thanks for posting this!! I grew up in Lynchburg, VA and I NEVER heard this story until now….I guess it’s like E. Badu says ” They be tryin’ the history, but they know who we are..”

keep new black history facts coming CL!!! Very interesting

Wow, what a really good post. Thanks

Wow. Enlightening. I love your posts J. Dakar.

Very interesting indeed…
There’s a tribe in Namibia (Africa) who still crack their teeth like that. They are called himbas. I used to be very afraid of them when I was growing up. But apparently there’s a reason why they do that.

Please do a black history post about something better than this…i really don’t want to know about a midget that played in monkey cages…what’s uplifting about that shit.

Excellent post!

Keep up with these post PLEASE. I love reading them and pass them on to the my co-workers.

What a captivating story that was,it makes me very thankful for the little everyday things i take for granted. We have such a rich deep history,and i love tha CL is exploring it.

Amazing post. Keep up the good work.

love it! thank you! i love to learn new things about my history. CL is the best!

Very interesting!!! I so love the fact that CL is posting information such as the black history facts other than what in the hell some celebrity is wearing or doing!! Not that there is anything wrong with that because you know “we” meaning black folks would have never learned who was playing Lil’ Kim in the movie about Biggie’s life on TMZ, or the “other” folks websites, blogs, whathaveyou!! Our people need to know our history and interesting facts such as this instead when the latest jordans are coming out on what Saturday!!! Knowledge is power and it is one thing that no one can take from you!!! Be informed People!!!

i dont understand why he killed hisself

This story is great!!! Keep ‘em coming

I wish I wish I wish I wish Angela and CL there were more people like you. In the midst of all the BS in the world and pop culture you continually expand our minds and feed us with information entertainment (unbiased and opinionated at times). But I just love that you guys even exist!!!!!!! So thank you….

Learning and being enterianted at one destination is so convenient and uplifting. I check on you through out the day.

even though the demographic is different Perez’ and all other pretenders to the crown better watch out for the LOOP we commin…………..

——————-HE GOT SHARK TEETH LOL

#43: I’m sorry you feel that way.
Ota Benga’s story is a shocking display of the inhumanity that exists in this world
and highlights Western pride and human exploitation.

Ota Benga did not “play” in monkey cages. He was put on display, housed with a gorilla, an orangutan, monkeys and chimpanzees.

Samuel Phillips Verner’s grandson, Phillips Verner Bradford, authored The Pygmy at the Zoo and described the scene: “Nearly every man, woman and child of (the) crowd made for the monkey house to see the star attraction in the park, the wild man from Africa. They chased him about the grounds all day, howling, jeering and yelling. Some of them poked him in the ribs, others tripped him up, all laughed at him.”

Again, I’m sorry you feel that way; in fact, I feel sorry for you.

Peace and blessings,
J. Dakar

Excellent. I love this segment. Keep it comining. We were in dying need of this type of information in this format. Excellent!

Thanks CL for this post. Thank you so much.

@#4,

Not just white people are capable of evil or evil period–anyone is capable of evil. Any race any gender. And i’m sorry, but if your not from Africa with African parents, no Black person here in America is 100% black. Massa was in your Ancestors slave quarters just like everybody else.

There’s a program that comes on PBS every year during Black History Month called “African American Lives”. It’s hosted by Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and he follows and finds out the famiilty trees of many celebrities and this year he picked a non-celebrity to trace thier family trees.

It’s very interesting because he found out that everyone of them had alot more percentage of European ancestry in them than they ever imagined. So before you start saying that all white people are evil, if you already haven’t,check your heritage and family tree to your great-great-great granparents and so forth to see if your 100% Black/African.

This gentlemen on this show is so bad, he can trace all the way back to what African tribe they decend from. He even found for some people the slave trade papers of their ancestors. For Tom Joyner, he found the name of the slave ship his great-great-great grandfather was on. Amazing!

Again, thanks CL for posting info like this. This stuff just is not taught in most schools.

TThats is so sad Thanks CL i didnt know about this.

Wow! Great post. I’m so glad that you all are putting Black History in your posts now. IDK if it’s the computer I’m on or what, but alot of times the comments and parts of the post gets cut off. Am I the only one having this problem on CL?

Thank you so much for bring this story to light! These are the stories that we need to hear.

@54 well said J, its ok hopefully she’ll get it

maybe she justs need a tutor

Very Interesting…Way to go CL, for educating us on our history.

NNever heard of this.. I care about stuff like this much more than how many times Beyonce wore the same dress. That picture with the teeth was extreamly sad. God bless him

there is no black history !

there is a African history, a Congolese history, a black-american history.
there is a human history.

Am guessing the gun was provided by a whte man, so sad and should have never happened. Its a shmae coz he just landed in the wrong hands. Lets not forget that some white pple did help black people and educate and look after them Not all white people are bad people as much as not all blck people are ghetto.

GREAT READ!! This is why CL is head and shoulders above other blogs

Angel…I absolutely ADORE u for this!

Well damn!

This story simply broke my heart…

Thanks for the post

i’ve never heard of this story. i love that you guys are taking these things to a new level. i’m a bit tired of hearing about the same ppl over and over again as if there were only 10 important ppl in black history.

1 question though. why did he shoot himself? was he just trying to “escape” his life?

Jesus this is sad and brings tears to my eyes. It hurts so much to know what are ancestors went through. Their lives were torturous and I can only pray that one day people of African descent will LIBERATE ourselves, as Bob said, from the mental chains of slavery. Even though this hurts me to the damn core, Thanks J. Dakar and Concrete Loop.

wow. I love CL. Yall make a point to educate as well as entertain. yall r great.

Fantastic post, Concreteloop. I love it when you all address REAL issues! Great work, Angel!!!

dang…he got dat lil wayne grill

These stories, while making me sick and sad, are necessary to know…

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