Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman (1789 – December 29, 1815) was the most famous of at least two Khoikhoi women who were exhibited as sideshow attractions in 19th century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus—"Hottentot" as the then-current name for the Khoi people (see further discussion of this now offensive term), and "Venus" in reference to the many works of art depicting the female form.
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Life
Africa
Saartje Baartman was born to a Khoisan family in the vicinity of the Gamtoos River in what is now the Eastern Cape of South Africa. She was orphaned in a commando raid. Saartje, pronounced "Sahr-key", is the Afrikaans form of her name; it translates to English as "Little Sarah", where the use of the diminutive form commonly indicates familiarity or endearment rather than a literally short stature. Her original name is unknown. Baartman was a slave [1][2][3] of Dutch farmers near Cape Town when Hendrick Cezar, the brother of her slave owner, suggested that she travel to England for exhibition, promising her that she would become wealthy. Lord Caledon, governor of the Cape, gave permission for the trip, but later regretted it after he gained a complete understanding of its purpose. She left for London in 1810.
Great Britain
Saartjie travelled around Britain, showing what to Europeans were unusual bodily features, thought to be typical of her people. She had large buttocks, a condition known as steatopygia, and visitors were permitted to touch them for extra payment. In addition, she had a sinus pudoris, otherwise known as the tablier (the French word for "apron") or "curtain of shame", all names for the elongated labia of some Khoisan women. (Although "sinus pudoris" refers only to the labia of Khoisan woman, all labia vary in size and shape to some degree.) To quote Stephen Jay Gould, "The labia minora, or inner lips, of the ordinary female genitalia are greatly enlarged in Khoi-San women, and may hang down three or four inches below the vagina when women stand, thus giving the impression of a separate and enveloping curtain of skin" (Gould, 1985). Saartjie never allowed this trait to be exhibited while she was alive [4]. Her exhibition in London, scant years after the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807, created a scandal, and an abolitionist benevolent society (equivalent to a charity or pressure group) called the African Association petitioned for her release. Baartman was questioned before a court in Dutch, in which she was fluent, and stated that she was not under restraint and understood perfectly that she was guaranteed half of the profits. The conditions under which she made these statements are suspect, because it directly contradicts accounts of her exhibits made by Zachary Macaulay of the African Institution and other eyewitnesses [5].
France
Baartman later traveled to Napoleonic Paris where an animal trainer exhibited her under more pressured conditions for fifteen months. French anatomist Georges Cuvier and French naturalists visited her and she was the subject of several scientific paintings at the Jardin du Roy. She died December 29, 1815 of an inflammatory ailment, possibly smallpox, while other sources suggest she contracted pneumonia. An autopsy was conducted and the findings published by French anatomist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1816 and by Cuvier in the Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in 1817. Cuvier notes in his monograph that Baartman was an intelligent woman who had an excellent memory and spoke Dutch fluently. Her skeleton, preserved genitals and brain were placed on display in Paris's Musée de l'Homme until 1974, when they were removed from public view and stored out of sight.
Legacy
There were sporadic calls for the return of her remains beginning in the 1940s but the case became prominent only after U.S. biologist Stephen Jay Gould published an account, The Hottentot Venus, in the 1980s. When Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994, he formally requested that France return the remains. After much legal wrangling and debates in the French National Assembly, France acceded to the request on 6 March 2002. Whilst studying in Europe, Diana Ferrus, a South African poet of Khoisan descent, wrote "A Poem for Sarah Baartman", which includes the desire "to wrench [her] away-/ away from the poking eyes..." Baartman became an icon in South Africa as representative of so many aspects of their history. Her remains were repatriated to her land of birth, the Gamtoos Valley, on 6 May 2002.
Cultural references
- The science fiction author Paul Di Filippo used her story as the basis for the second novel of his Steampunk Trilogy.
- Canadian performance artist Mara Verna created a web-based project and travelling exhibition cataloguing the story of Saartje Baartman. [1]
- Poet Elizabeth Alexander explores Baartman's story in her 1987 poem and 1990 book The Venus Hottentot.
- Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks fictionalizes Baartman's story in her play, Venus.
- South Africa's first offshore environmental protection vessel is named after Sarah Baartman. News24.com article
- Barbara Chase-Riboud wrote a fictional account of Baartman's life, Hottentot Venus.
- Her life features in the Afrikaans romantic novel Frats by Chris Karsten.
- In 2006, a feminist artist and filmmaker adapted the name Venus Hottentot to direct an independent film with erotic content called Afrodite Superstar with the intention of reclaiming the strength and voice of Sarah Baartman as a sexually exploited woman of color.
Documentary
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7mmMe4klQ&feature=related
See also
References
- Gilman, Sander L. (1985). "Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality in Late Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and Literature". In Gates, Henry (Ed.) Race, Writing and Difference 223-261. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
- Gould, Stephen Jay (1985). "The Hottentot Venus". In The Flamingo's Smile, 291-305. New York, W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0-393-30375-6.
- Holmes, Rachel (2006). The Hottentot Venus. Bloomsbury, Random House. ISBN 0-7475-7776-5, ISBN 1400061369 (U. S. edition).
- Strother, Z.S. (1999). "Display of the Body Hottentot", in Lindfors, B., (ed.), Africans on Stage: Studies in Ethnological Show Business. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press: 1-55.
