German Zoo Changes Name of Primate

by Barbara Mathieson | July 13, 2009 at 03:40 am

47 views | 4 Recommendations | 0 comments

Yesterday, we had lunch with my in-laws, who hate Obama. They fear him as I feared the Bush/Cheney presidency. My unemployed husband mentioned that he was tired of being unemployed, which sent the in-laws into an Obama tirade. John and I both lost jobs during the Bush years. According to the in-laws, Obama is to blame for everything. A story such as the one below would send them into another tirade.

Baby monkey Obama, now Okeke.

An advocacy group for Black Germans has forced the Dresden Zoo to rename a baby primate dubbed “Obama” in honor of American’s first African-American president.

“It’s a catastrophe,” director of the Initiative for Black Germans (ISD) Tahir Della said. “Black people continue to be confronted by associations with the animal kingdom and primitivity.”

Zoo officials insist their naming the baby mandrill, a primate closely related to the baboon, was not racial in any manner. “This year they all begin with ‘O,’ and one of the zookeepers chose ‘Obama’ – it was meant to be positive and an honour in light of his visit to Dresden in June,” said Manuela Collmar, zookeeper at the zoo’s “Afrika Haus.”

“The possible associations of this name choice were not considered, and the racist charicterisation – particularly with the background that the US president recently visited Dresden – was far off,” wrote zoo director Karl-Heinz Ukena in an e-mail response to questions.

Ukena added that the zoo had meant to express its “esteem” for Obama and added her apology.

The baby monkey has been renamed ‘Okeke,’ which means ‘he who was born on market day.