Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman was a beautiful and curvy Khoikhoi woman. She was born in South Africa's Eastern Cape in 1789 and later trafficked to Europe where she was inhumanly displayed in European freak shows with the stage name ‘Hottentot Venus’.
Sarah Baartman spent her childhood and teenage days working on Dutch European farms. Growing up as a Khoikhoi woman, she underwent the tribe’s rites of passage. Amazingly, she is said to have kept a small shell necklace, given to her by her mother until her death in France.
Sarah's mother died when she was 2 years old and her father - a cattle raider - died when she was an adolescent. She was engaged to a Khoisan man, a drummer, with whom she had a child. Sadly, the child died shortly after birth and her lover was also murdered by Dutch colonialists later.
In the 1790s, a mixed black trader, Pieter Willem Cezar made her leave for Cape Town to work as a domestic servant for his brother. It is reported that the Cezar brothers began displaying Sarah Baartman for cash at a city hospital in Cape Town where Alexander (sometimes wrongly quoted as William) Dunlop worked as a doctor.
Dunlop became the third man in the tragic story of Sarah Baartman. In October 1810, Sarah Baartman who could not read nor write allegedly signed a contract with Alexander Dunlop and her master, Hendrik Cezar.
In the contract that Dunlop pushed hard for, Sarah was said to have agreed to travel to England to work as a domestic servant. She would also take part in shows and get a portion of the earnings. After 5 years she was to return to South Africa. Too bad for her, she was tricked into the contract.
What made Sarah Baartman get into history books was her outstanding physical features that spoke loud of her feminity. She had large hips and backside. Of course, this kind of shape is not only common in one race or rather a monolithic shape for all black women but is highly associated with them (black women).
The Baartman body shape can be witnessed among black women today. Sadly the immoral fascination with thick black women continues today, sometimes it is carried out by a few black men. It is time we treat our women with respect.
The group forged their way to England. Sarah Baartman was first put on display in London in the Egyptian Hall at Piccadilly Circus on November 24, 1810. Alexander Dunlop as the master planner and initiator of the idea thought that he would make money out of the ignorance of Europeans toward Africans.
On her display, Sarah wore skin-tight, flesh-coloured clothing, as well as beads and feathers, she also smoked a pipe. BBC in its news magazine reports that: “Wealthy customers could pay for private demonstrations in their homes, with their guests allowed to touch her.”
A racist 1810 etching of Saartjie Baartman. British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) |
The promoters named Sarah Baartman “Hottentot Venus” which is now considered a derogatory term. It was used by the Dutch to refer to the Khoikhoi and Khoisan people. Her display raised the concern of British abolitionists who thought that Sarah Baartman was being exploited.
Her masters were prosecuted but never convicted. They produced the contract that had Sarah’s signature. She also testified in their favour. This raises the concern as to if Sarah Baartman had been coerced or if she consented. According to a BBC interview, a history lecturer at Southampton University, Christer Petley, says that it is hard to know.
The case against her inhumane display in London played both a negative and positive role. She lost the novelty in the capital which forced her promoters to take her for further display around the countries of Britain and Ireland.
In 1814 she was taken to Paris by her handlers where she was sold to a man named S. Reaux. He worked as an animal exhibitor. The new handler went to the extent of sexually exploiting her by prostituting her.
Sara Baartman died in France on December 29, 1815, at the age of 26. “Inflammatory and eruptive disease” was reported as the cause of her death. However, it has been suggested that she died of pneumonia, syphilis or alcoholism.
Shamefully for the involved team led by naturalist Georges Cuvier, they dissected her body and put some parts on display at the Museum of Man in Paris. When Nelson Mandela was elected as the president of South Africa, he requested the repatriation of Sarah Baartman’s remains.
In March 2002, the French government agreed to South Africa’s demands. Later in August, Sarah Baartman’s remains were buried in Hankey in the Eastern Cape Province. That is almost 192 years after Baartman had left for Europe.
A plaque at Sarah Baartman's memorial site in South Africa. |
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