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Ota Benga

A young 23 year old man from an African Pygmy tribe in the Congo Free State, entered the St. Louis World’s Fair as a foreign object viewed in the same iron cage and enclosure as the Bronx Zoo monkey’s. American explorer, Samuel Verner, who was contracted by fair officials to import the people of the “pygmies”, brought in Ota Benga from Africa to be displayed as some sort of barbaric animal due to his sharpened pointed teeth. Ota Benga’s filed pointed teeth is a form of initiation in his community, but is labeled as a cannibal due to the lack of knowledge of the African Pygmies cultures and traditions. Ota Benga’s outgoing personality brought him large amounts of attention from the spectators at the World’s Fair because he enjoyed entertaining crowds through his singing, dancing, and skits. Samuel Verner, who attests to be Benga’s friend or mentor, and the keepers of the human zoo, claimed to maintain the exhibition due to its educational purposes. However, the humanity in Ota Benga diminishes as he is laughed at and mocked by the crowds at the fair. Clear evidence is given that Ota Benga has been kept in forced captivity and exploited throughout the human exhibition as he mimics the audience’s condescending behavior, housed in the same building as the orangutans or monkeys, and forced to perform for certain hours of the day. Ten years after the human zoo fiasco, Ota Benga was reported to have committed suicide in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Japanese Concession

An experienced exposition planner from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair named Blackmer introduced the idea of holding an exhibition for the Japanese at the 1940’s St. Louis World Fair due to the rising interest and popularity upon their culture. The idea of the Japanese revolutionizing their country into a powerful militant nation whom grasps and mastered the practice of exhibitions of the Western world during its peak. The Japanese gained higher international status compared to other races like Native Americans, Filipinos, and Africans, due to its Western constructed policies and methods when exhibiting their literature or fine arts. Publications of Japanese literature in the practice of Western methods played an important role in creating a positive portrayal of Japanese, and as moral equivalent to the Western powers. This established an accessible form of familiarizing Japanese culture and traditions to the Western audience who acknowledged the Japanese as equal and labeled “intelligent” while other races were known to be “savages”. The Japanese fine arts exhibition was a form of education or literacy which was an all-around theme for the St. Louis World’s Fair. Through this, the Japanese were able to gain more power and a higher status within the Western world due to the conformity they arrange when displaying their fine arts. The fine arts gifted by the Japanese represented their cultural sophistication as well as symbolizing their national uniqueness in a way for Western audiences to easily understand and acknowledge.