Sarah Baartman (1789-1815), also known as Saartjie Baartman or the Hottentot Venus, was an African woman who became a sideshow in London and Paris. She was almost completely naked and had a very large behind, even for the part of Africa she came from – near Cape Town in South Africa. Those who paid more were allowed to touch it.
She was promised riches if she came to Europe, but she ended her life in prostitution and drink in the streets of Paris, far from home, dying at age 26 of an “inflammatory and eruptive sickness”.
It gets worse.
After she died her body was cut up and studied by Napoleon’s doctor, Georges Cuvier. He made a cast of her body and put her skeleton, brain and labia in the Museum of Man in Paris where it was seen for more than a hundred years, until the 1970s.
She is well known by her own people, the Khoisans (who used to be called Hottentots). She has come to stand for all the sick injustices they have had to live through under white rule.
Baartman’s parents were killed when she was little. She became a slave of a Dutch farmer who lived near Cape Town. In 1810 a man from England promised her half the profits if she came to London with him to show her off.
She was shown off to Londoners as if she were an animal. She was kept behind bars most of the time, almost completely naked. She was told to act like a wild animal. Sometimes she was let out to do tricks, like sitting, standing and walking on command.
A man from Jamaica saw this and demanded that she be freed. But the judge, after speaking with her, said she was doing it of her own free will.
In 1814 she came to Paris where she became part of the show of an animal trainer. When the French tired of her she was forced into prostitution.
Her labia were large and hung down from her body. That is natural for Khoisans but not for whites. Some took it as physical proof that black women are mad for sex. While she was alive she let no one see them, as it is a private part of a woman’s body, but once she was dead Cuvier had them shown in public.
When Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994 he asked France to return her remains. It took eight years and a special law, but in the end the French gave her back. Her body has now been laid to rest on a hill near where she was born.
Sadly, it is not a huge jump from the Hottentot Venus of the 1810s to the Danse sauvage of Josephine Baker in 1925 to the video vixens of 2008. But there has been progress of a sort: no one thinks of putting Buffie the Body in a museum after she dies.
See also:
This display of Sara Bartmann was sick and evil form of racist sexism the world has ever seen. It was no different from slave auctions of yesteryear and today(yes, slavery is still happening in parts of Africa by Middle Easterners today)which display Black women for inspection to be used for servitude and worse. We also see it in today’s music videos and in the porn industry.
It seems to me that little has changed in world’s treatment of Black women. We see it in Hollywood’s erasure of Black women except as stereotypes, the replacement of Black women by nonblack women, most notably, Angelina Jolie in the 2007 movie, A Mighty Heart.
Read the article regarding Hollywood’s replacement of Black women at “Is White The New Black?” at:
http://www.straight.com/article-96155/is-white-the-new-black
Stephanie B.
“But there has been progress of a sort: no one thinks of putting Buffie the Body in a museum after she dies.”
And she shows her body off, of her own volition. She’s not a slave and she profits from it.
I was going to mention that Buffie is the new Sara Bartmen.
The judge ruled that Baartman was free, not a slave. That was a big issue in Britain in those days, it was not something that was taken lightly.
On the other hand, quite unlike Buffie, she was a young woman alone in a strange land, so it was easy for others to take advantage of her. We do not know what she got paid if anything.
Thanks, Stephanie, for the article. I added a link to it in my post on black actresses here:
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/black-actresses/
Thanks, Abagond. I just invited you to my blog forum. Please accept my invitation. Thanks.
Stephanie B.
I just did. Thanks.
It’s pretty clear that if she were making money, she wouldn’t have been forced into prostitution. That is a part of the story I was not aware of.
Good point.
The crap people put others through is unbelievable. I feel for Sarah Baartman and I hope that all those who ridiculed her are smouldering in hell as I speak.
God will surely judge them
The Hottentots are a subspecies of humans, sort of a breed with lesser cognitive abilities. There is an overlap with individual members of other groups functioning in the lower range. The Hottentots range above Bushmen but below Caucasians and Orientals.
The reasons for exploitation of sub-Saharans is the inability of these folks to function at the level of other groups. There are also other distinguishing characteristics which relegate this group to manifest lower abilities to achieve in areas necessary to maintain a functioning society.
What are the IQs? A chimpanzees is 12, a Bushman’s is 57, and that of a Hottentot is not much higher.
With portended Chinese full exploitation of Africa’s mineral and agricultural resources, the survival of “Africans” is problematical at best unless they are identified as endangered species, and provided protection by the world at large. Their deficiencies are lamentable, but they do exist.
Phlogiston:
In the 1800s Paul Broca, a French scientist, collected human skeletons from all parts of the world. He wanted to find some measurement by which he could tell which part of mankind was the most evolved from the apes.
He noticed that apes had long forearms when compared to their upper arms. So he compared blacks to whites: sure enough, while blacks had shorter forearms than apes, they were longer than whites! For blacks the ratio of the lower arm to the upper arm was 0.794. For whites it was 0.739. Proof that blacks are more apelike!
Then he measured the bones of Sarah Baartman. Her ratio was 0.703. Which, by his line of reasoning, meant she was even further from the apes than white people. But instead of being led by facts and reason, Broca let himself be led by his own racism and gave up measuring people that way.
The moral of the story: racists will find whatever measure fits their own foregone conclusions. They are not seeing the world as it is but in a way that suits their own false pride.
“While she was alive she let no one see them, as it is a private part of a woman’s body, but once she was dead Cuvier had them shown in public.”
that is so so sad…
It’s disgusting how she was degraded during her life well into her death. She deserved better than that.
I put phlogiston’s I.Q. at about 18, which coincidently is the exact same as that of a retarded parrot, who’s been taught to repeat a rote line of stupidity for the reward of a peanut per try.
Baartman’s faith was really sad. I suppose you could compare her with the Elephant Man, who probably was treated better becouse he was a Caucasian male.
Phlogiston’s attitude dates back to the origin of the scientific concept of his username.
By the by, Alan Moore used phlogiston delightfully in his Tom Strong comic, that actually portrays the hero (WM) in an IR relationship with a BW (Dahlua Strong)! Cool!
What are the IQs? A chimpanzees is 12
How do you know this? does the chimpanzee go “whwhoahahahahawhowh”, in response to the questions? You appear to be as intelligent as the chimpanzee, whose intelligence you question.
There are also other distinguishing characteristics which relegate this group to manifest lower abilities to achieve in areas necessary to maintain a functioning society.
They have been doing it for thousands of years before the advent of the European. So-called primitiveness does not equal simplicity. Many of these cultures are anything but uncomplicated.
unless they are identified as endangered species, and provided protection by the world at large.
They should declare you a an oxygen thief, or if they are being politically correct, the protection of people suffering hallucinations rooted in delusions of superiority. If nothing else you and your lot provide hilarity and fodder for jokes.
Funny how this woman name Sara Baartman was called everything under the sun except a child of god. Her body type was said to be unhuman, unnatural, just plain hideous by a bunch of horny uncivilzed racist who dissected her like and animal. SMH. Someone said “god will judge them”…you got that right! They will be judge and explain why they did what they did when they knew for a fact that this woman was undoubtebly human. In fact she was more human then they were.
Now back to the funny part (well, its not really funny. just sad and racist).
I look at how in todays society how women like J-Lo, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Biel, Coco, and more NON-BLACK women get the praise for having the same assets as black women had since the beginning of time but looked at as sexy, diesirable, worthy, and beautiful. Yet this same body type was seen as unattractive on black women. There is no other way but to look at this as plain RACIST to the fullest. It was just their way of making black women feel bad about themselves because white women were (and still is) so insercure about thier bodies. Typical racist.
I don’t know whether to be sad or angry about the treatment of this woman.
As LJackson and others have said before, women like Kim Kardishian, J-Lo and others are thought of sexy for their shape.
What strikes me is that her body shape was a coveted look for white women long before modern media and cosmetic surgery, influencing European and American fashion after her death in the form of the bustle:
And, to this day, a bustle is one way to get just that romantic, fairy-tale look, too, for a wedding day:
2nd video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hyt-cDwrKk&feature=related
I found the 2010 french film of Sarah Baartman Venus noire online and have emotional prepared myself to watch it.
Just watched the first five minutes and I don’t feel well at all.