Tag: Africa

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Ota Benga at the Bronx Zoo

Ota Benga: The Congolese Pygmy Who Became a Zoo Exhibit

Around the beginning of the last century—in 1906, to be exact—the 4’11” Ota Benga was featured in an infamous human exhibit at the Bronx Zoo’s Monkey House. Ota Benga, a Mbuti (Congolese pygmy) man from what was then known as the Congo Free State, stayed at the zoo for just a few months until the public outcry over his treatment at the zoo resulted in another home for him. However, Benga’s short life was marked with tragedy.

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bathtub in abandoned house at Kolmanskop ghost town

Kolmanskop: Inside the Eerie Ghost Town of Namib Desert

By now, you have seen reports on the news of once-thriving cityscapes and bustling urban areas reduced to stagnant wastelands as COVID-19 coronavirus infections spread. New York’s Time Square and Piccadilly Circus in London, two neighborhoods typically choked with throngs of people all day and every day, currently stand vacant. These images are not too dissimilar to the desolate views of Kolmanskop, a ghost town in southern Africa’s Namib Desert.

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A man and an elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya.

Operating the World’s Most Successful Orphan Elephant Rescue

Drought and habitat destruction. Ivory, horn, and bushmeat poaching. Human-wildlife conflict. While these threats may not be everyday struggles in your life, they are an ongoing concern in Kenya. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT) in Nairobi is doing something about it. In fact, they have been at it for more than 40 years as one of Africa’s oldest and most established wildlife charities, protecting elephants and rhinos from harm.