In an act of protest, a 7-foot statue of Harambe has been placed in front of Wall Street’s Charging Bull surrounded by 10,000 bananas to make a point about wealth disparity. The gorilla was made famous after carrying around a 3-year-old child that had fallen into its enclosure in Cincinnati back in 2016. Harambe was later shot and killed. The bananas will later be donated to local food banks and community fridges.
The organizers of the protest are founders of Sapien.Network, an in-development social networking platform that is “dedicated to putting the needs and welfare of human beings first.” The display is intended to shed light on Wall Street’s having gone “bananas,” having become fully out of tough with the needs of everyday people.
The trio of founders – Robert Giometti, Tejay Aluru and Ankit Bhatia, said they chose the symbol of Harambe to represent the millions who continue to struggle under the U.S. capitalist system. It “enriches wealthy elites and leaves the average person behind.”
“Harambe is a representation of something that lets us look at more than just ourselves. What are we aspiring to be as people? It’s about connecting” he said. “A simple gesture of giving a banana builds community. As a society, we need to come together. We can’t keep fighting to come together.”
As aforementioned, Harambe sparked controversy and uproar when he was shot dead back in May of 2016 by zookeepers who, at the time, feared for a 3-year-old’s safety after it had fallen into the gorilla’s enclosure. Harambe, however, never displayed any aggression towards the child; many say the gorilla was merely trying to protect him.