Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga

"There’s just no other way to say it: Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk is required reading. In 1906, Ota Benga, a young man from the Congo, was put on display in a cage at the Bronx Zoo — with an orangutan. Based on years of research, Newkirk masterfully explores the circumstances that culminated in Benga’s horrifying ordeal and then goes a step further to unpack the layers of racism, wealth and imperialism that made this racist spectacle possible."

"'Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga,' by Pamela Newkirk. The true story of a Congolese man who is held captive and exhibited next to an orangutan in the Bronx Zoo in the early 1900s."