114 years later, Bronx Zoo apologises for displaying African man in monkey house
The
Bronx Zoo in the New York has apologised for its racist past which included
putting an African man on display in its monkey house in 1906.
The
Wildlife Conservation Society, the organisation that operates the zoo, said it
must confront its role in promoting racial injustice in the name of “equality, transparency
and accountability”.
A
specific instance of its past mention is the zoo’s display of a central African
man, Ota Benga, for several days in the primate exhibit which the body referred
to as “unconscionable racial intolerance”.
Benga,
who was of the Mbuti tribe in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, was
removed from the zoo after black ministers fought to end the “disgraceful
incident.”
“We
deeply regret that many people and generations have been hurt by these actions
or by our failure previously to publicly condemn and denounce them,” the officials
said in the statement.
