Having spent years as an attraction in European spectacles, Sarah Baartman passed away almost two centuries ago. Her authentic image has now been circulating on the internet.
Speculations about a potential Hollywood biographical film depicting Baartman’s life have raised concerns.
One of the initial black women involved in human trafficking was Sarah Baartman. Europeans mockingly referred to her as the “Hottentot Venus” because, during her short lifetime, her body was cruelly exhibited and subjected to public scrutiny.
Furthermore, her experience confirmed the Europeans’ extremely harmful intimate preoccupation with the bodies of African women.
Reportedly, she was taken to Europe under false pretenses by a British doctor.
Referred to as the “Hottentot Venus,” she was showcased at unusual exhibitions in London and Paris, where the public was allowed to stare at her prominent buttocks.
She is now widely regarded as the emblem for racism, colonial exploitation, and the devaluation and commercialization of black individuals.
Beyonce’s representatives denied rumors of her intention to create and star in a film about Baartman.
Beyonce faced criticism for lacking the ‘the essential human decency to be capable of authoring Sarah’s story, let alone acting the part,’ according to Jean Burgess, a leader from the Khoikhoi tribe to which Baartman belonged.
Due to her ample hips and unusual body coloration, Sara Baartman drew the attention of colonial Europeans who believed themselves to be racially superior.
Dunlop wanted Sara to move to London and become an exhibit.
She was eventually transported to London, where she was displayed in a building on Piccadilly, a street known for having the most grotesque attractions and the largest deformity in the world, among other peculiarities.
Sara’s semi-nude body was placed in a cage about a meter and a half tall for white men and women to pay to observe. She attracted people from various parts of Europe.
Although Sarah Baartman passed away on December 29, 1815, her exhibition continued.
Her skeleton, reproductive organs, and brain were exhibited in a Parisian museum until 1974. In 2002, her bones were finally returned and laid to rest.
Even though denying any association with a film, Beyonce’s representative stated: ‘This is a story that needs to be shared.’
Who was Sara Baartman?
The Eastern Cape, now known as the Gamtoos river, is where Sara “Saartjie” Baartman was born in 1789.
She belonged to the Khoikhoi Gonaquasub tribe, which reared cattle. Young Sara was brought up as a servant on a farm during the colonial era.
Her mother passed away when she was only two years old, and her father, a cattle driver, passed away while she was growing up.
Sara also married a Khoikhoi drummer from her clan, and the two had a child together. Unfortunately, their infant passed away shortly after birth.
Sara’s husband was killed by Dutch colonists when she was sixteen years old. Later, she was sold into slavery by a trader named Pieter Willem Cezar, who took her to Cape Town and employed her as a housekeeper for his brother.
