If you logged onto the internet in the past two weeks and went on social media, there is probably no way that you didn’t see a Harambe Meme. If you somehow didn’t see any of these, they are amazing and you need to look them up.

Harambe, the late gorilla that was killed by zookeepers at the Cincinnati Zoo, has become one of the most popular things that the Internet has seen all summer.

The whole Harambe craze is actually amazing. The actual death of Harambe was met with a lot of controversy when the shooting of the beast happened this past June, but there has been a surprisingly small amount of controversy in this resurgence.

Everyone loves Harambe and misses him dearly, or is indifferent to the whole joke.

Harambe is a relief to the negative culture that unfortunately seems to dwell in the social media world all too often. Social media can almost seem like a battleground in the current cultural climate.

The election is heating up and so are people’s opinions about each candidate. The racial issues of this country continue to rise. There are many more hot button issues that seem to turn Facebook and Twitter into a warzone every single day between friends.

This is not the case with Harambe.

Harambe memes are shared between friends and brings people together instead of tearing them apart. Some are inappropriate (as the internet does sometimes) and can turn people off because of that, but the family friendly ones can be enjoyed by almost anyone.

The most interesting aspect of the Harambe Meme phenomena is what Harambe means. “Harambe” has a deep, and very ironic, meaning. The gorilla is named after a Swahili phrase that promotes unity. This is actually why the man who named the gorilla in 1999 named the gorilla Harambe. "Harambe" as a phrase is about coming together, working together, caring for each other and sharing with each other. This sharing is actually sharing, not just sharing memes on Facebook.

The story of Harambe, and the popularity of the memes about him, might actually be more important than we think.

Harambe memes have created the most unity of anything that we’ve seen on the internet for the past six months, or even longer, and maybe there is a lesson that Harambe can continue to teach us.