Sarah Baartman
Saartjie Baartman (1789-1815) 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.
Saartjie Baartman was born to a Khoisan family in the vicinity of the Gamtoos River in what is now the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Saartjie, pronounced "Sahr-chee", is the Dutch (and Afrikaans) form of her name; it translates as "Little Sarah". Her original name is unknown.
Baartman was a servant of Dutch farmers near Cape Town when Hendrick Cezar, the brother of Baartman's employer, 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.
She travelled around England showing what Europeans considered her "unusual" bodily features, thought to be typical of Hottentots. Her exhibitors permitted visitors to touch her large buttocks for extra payment. In addition, she had a sinus pudoris, otherwise known as the "tablier," "curtain of shame," or apron, a reference to the elongated labia of some Khoisan. It should be noted, however, that some find the term "sinus pudoris" to be racist because it refers only to the labia of Khoi-San woman when, in reality, 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). Saartje never allowed this latter trait to be exhibited while she was alive (Strother 1999).
Her exhibition in London created a scandal and a benevolent society called the African Association petitioned for her release. Baartman was questioned in Dutch before a court, 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 exibits made by Zachary Macaulay of the African Institution and other eye witnesses (Strother 1999). She later traveled to Paris where an animal trainer exhibited her 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 Roi.
Baartman died December 29, 1815 of an inflammatory ailment. 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 Musee de l'Homme until 1974.
There were sporadic calls for the return of her remains beginning in the 1940s but the case became prominent only after US 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 you away-/ away from the poking eyes..."
Baartman's remains were returned to her land of birth, the Gamtoos Valley, on 3 May 2002.
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.
- Strother, Z.S. (1999). "Display of the Body Hottentot", in Africans on Stage: Studies in Ethnological Show Business, edited by B Lindfors. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press: 1-55.
Trivia
- The science-fiction author Paul Di Filippo used these facts as the basis for the second story of his Steampunk Trilogy.
- Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks fictionalizes Saartjie Baartman's story in her play, Venus.