In most historical accounts of modernism the words ‘Féral Benga’ never appear. My first encounter with the name occurred several years ago while conducting preliminary research on the role of sculptural traditions and practices in African American art. Féral Benga: (Dance Figure) was the title given to a 1935 statue by the renowned African American sculptor James Richmond Barthé (1901–89) (Figure 3.1). I was under the impression that the title referenced a type or style of dance. I learned subsequently, however, that Féral Benga was not a dance but a person whose influence and importance to the story of Africans in the modern world went well beyond that singular work of art. Further research into the life and legacy of Benga led to a revelation that African, African American, and European encounters with modernism are not always as confrontational as we are sometimes led to believe and that such engagements can, in fact, combine in a variety of ways to contribute to a productive crossroads. This essay embraces that fruitful intersection by considering the performative self-stylings and visual representations of Féral Benga's corporeality by modern artists in the first half of the twentieth century.