The missionary brought Benga to Missouri where he was put on display at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis in 1904. By 1906 he was moved to the Bronx Zoo which had an anthropology exhibit featuring him and other Africans as early examples of human evolution.

The idea that non-Western people were examples of early stages in the human evolution was common in the early 20th century, especially since racial theories were mixed in with the idea of evolutionary biology. Benga, for his part, was given free range in the zoo when it wasn't his time to be "exhibited" along with the monkeys in the monkey house.

Many people opposed the treatment Benga was given and eventually a letter sent to the New York City mayor by a reverend ended Benga's captivity. The reverend took him in and places him in the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn and made him a ward where the reverend was the supervisor. Eventually, the reverend spent his own money to clothe Benga properly, cap his teeth, and teach him English so that he could function in society.

He started working and saved up to move back to his homeland in the Congo. Unfortunately about that time World War I began and all routes out of the U.S. For civilians ceased. Benga grew so depressed that he ended up killing himself in 1916 at the age of only 32.