The rest of the title is: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga. What caught my eye and reason I got this book and read it, is this person Ota Benga was brought from Africa to the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis as part of native cultures exhibits there--he was brought as pygmy with others. This is a well researched book that is kind of amazing could get this much information. The author writes about the person and others around him that went to Africa and brought back people from there for the World's Fair and about how Ota was basically attached then to this person. Ota was then given to the New York Zoo where he was put on display in a cage in the monkey house and sometimes with the monkeys. There was a outcry about this being wrong and it only lasted a month. While it sounds like Ota wanted to return to Africa, he wasn't able to do so. He ends up in a orphanage and then to Virginia to a school and then work. In the end he shoots himself. It is a sad story and just one that makes you think about what the time was like only a little over 100 years ago.
There were no copies or WL for the book so I posted it and it has already been requested so I will get it mailed off in next few days.
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