HARAMBE | THE UNDEAD MEME

Harambe Gorilla at the Cincinatti Zoo

It was a pleasant scenery inside Cincinnati zoo and Botanical Enclosure in 2016. People were roaming around animal enclosures gazing the inhabitants of the zoo. But amid this, a tragedy was about to happen. On May 28,2016 a 3-year-old boy climbed into one of the gorilla enclosures in the Cincinnati zoo and fell into the moat. In the blink of an eye, he was grabbed by a 17-year-old silverback male gorilla named HARAMBE who was one of the primates among the three gorillas present in the enclosure. This incident led to a bawl among the bystanders where the boy’s mother was watching the whole incident in a shock. The 400-pound low land gorilla was alone with the child for ten minutes, grabbing him and dragging him around at that time. Fearing the death of the child in the hands of the beast the zoo officials took the decision to end the life of Harambe in order to safeguard the child’s life. Consequently, Harambe was shot dead by a zoo worker. A tragic fact of this incident is that Harambe celebrated his 17^th birthday just the day before he was shot dead. The tragedy was recorded on video by a bystander which was uploaded to youtube and obviously, it became an international standout. The incident garnered huge attention and led to a critical controversy among the mass.

Footage of Harambe with the child in the moat

The Controversy

After the killing of Harambe, many people had the opinion that the gorilla was just playing with the child and had no intention of harming. Some also believe that zoo officials could have used other non-malignant ways to save the child. Some primatologists and animal conservationists later said that the zookeepers had no other way rather than to kill the gorilla and emphasized on better caution to take for the animals around humans. Shortly after the incident, a Change.org petition called “Justice for Harambe” was uploaded. The petition demanded charges to be brought against the parents for their negligence, though eyewitness accounts don’t suggest this. Nonetheless, Facebook and Twitter raged up with hashtags like #JusticeForHarambe in addition to #RIPHarambe. The incident was criticized by several high-profile celebrities, like  Ricky Gervais, Brian May, and Piers Morgan. The incident ignited a debate among primatologists and biologists whether primates should be kept in an enclosure or they should roam freely in their habitat. There were charges against the mother for the criminal act but it was dropped down after the police investigation. The zoo was investigated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which sets the standards for zoos, and the USDA. Harambe’s death occurred the same week in which around 1,000 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to immigrate into Europe. Given that the gorilla’s death largely overshadowed the conversation about actual human life, the backlash was obvious. Cosmopolitan along with other outlets had the opinion that the public seemed to value the life of a gorilla more than the life of the endangered child or the safety of his mother, both of whom are black. So Harambe’s death was inherently a complicated, polarizing subject. 

RIP Harambe Cosplay at the New York 2016 Comic-Con

The Meme wave

In response to the incident, many on the web turned to humor. Soon, memes about Harambe were circulating on Twitter. As an example, various users included images of Harambe in tributes to other celebrities who died in 2016, including Prince, Muhammad Ali, and David Bowie. The ‘Harambe’ meme became the most sensational meme trend of 2016 and is believed to be one of the first memes to create a meme revolution. The slogan "dicks out for Harambe" became much popular during the time. It has also been vilified for its racist connotation, despite the fact that black communities played a part in creating the meme and publicize its initial spread on social media. 

'Harambe in Heaven' Meme. This was one of the first memes made on Harambe. This template is often used after the deaths of an eminent person as a way to pay tribute through a meme.

On Reddit, numerous forums memorializing him, like r/Harambe and r/dicksoutforharambe, have gained thousands of followers since Harambe’s death. Online petitions were submitted to build a statue of Harambe in the White House, make him a pokemon character, put his face on the currency, and change the name of Cincinnati zoo to Harambe. The Harambe meme, meanwhile, shows no sign of stopping. The dead gorilla has inspired numerous song tributes, a computer parody fighting game, human baby names, different meme trends till now. On March 30, 2019, Elon Musk released a surprise two-minute rap song titled "RIP Harambe", onto his SoundCloud. The track was performed by Yung Jake. Rolling Stone magazine referred the track as "a bouncy tribute to Harambe". 

Harambe meme still going strong in 2020

It’s easy to astonish at the fame and tenacity of the Harambe meme. But like every great meme, this dead gorilla assembles many traits of internet culture — including the best and the worst of us. Harambe meme undoubtedly became the Meme Of The Year in 2016 but still now it is prevalent. Nowadays many people believe that the killing of Harambe triggered all the unfortunate events happening one after the other in the world. This is clearly an absurd assumption which has the spicy material for meme creation but as long as Harambe the meme survives, so will the memory of Harambe the fallen gorilla.