Ota Benga Alliance For Peace, Healing and Dignity

(c) Mumia Abu Jamal
Find out more about Ota Benga

Welcome! We are the Ota Benga Alliance for Peace, Healing and Dignity in the D.R. Congo and the U.S.A., located in Berkeley, California and Kinshasa, D.R. Congo.

Who was Ota Benga? A Congolese man, brought to the United States to be exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. He was an Mbuti (a pygmy), about 4 feet 8 inches tall, put on display at the Fair’s Hall of Man along with an exotic collection of indigenous peoples from all over the world. Ota Benga was exhibited next to a group of Native Americans that included Geronimo.

In honoring Ota Benga, we focus our efforts on the need to treat each other with dignity, with respect for cultural diversity as a source of strength, and with truth as a foundation for genuine reconciliation to end the cycles of violence, vengeance, and militarism. We believe that peace and dignity cannot be achieved while the injustices of the past and present are buried in silence, and while the struggles of the present go unheard.

Who are the Ota Bengas of today? Individuals and communities under siege all over the planet who are treated as less than human by a system built on greed, profit and violence:  read more »