Introduction
Sara Bartman worked in Europe as a freak show entertainer. She was born in South Africa and shipped to Europe as a slave. Bartman’s “unique” feminine features made her an object of human interest. Therefore, after her death, Europeans preserved some of her body parts for scientific research.
Besides her treatment as an object of racial inferiority and medical research, Bartman’s experience manifested the intersection of various forms of discrimination, such as, gender, race, nationality, and class discrimination. This paper explores how these forms of discrimination intersected in Bartman’s life.
Class and Nationality-based Discrimination
Bartman’s experience represented the class imbalance between colonialists and their subjects. Concisely, Europeans treated Africans as a commodity for European imperialism (Maseko, 2011). Most African colonies were objects of European imperialism because Europeans shipped many resources from Africa to Europe to uplift the economic well-being of the colonial empire. African colonies were therefore inferior to their masters.
Stated differently, South Africa was inferior to Britain. That way, Europeans exported many commodities from Africa to Europe. Bartman’s experience was a manifestation of that imbalance because Europeans treated her as part of a collection of African commodities.
Therefore, Bartman’s arrival in Britain resembled the importation of other commodities, such as, Flora and Sauna (used for the advancement of European imperialism). To that extent, Bartman’s experience manifested a severe form of nationality-based discrimination.
Europeans also treated Bartman as a slave because of her poor status as an immigrant from Africa (Crais, 2009). That form of class discrimination occurred because the Europeans treated Bartman as their servant. Nationality-based discrimination supported Bartman’s class exploitation. Indeed, Britain considered South Africa to be an inferior state that should have supported its imperialistic agendas. Consequently, Britain did not treat its colonies as equal partners. Bartman’s master exploited her on that ground.
Race and Gender
Bartman’s experience embodied racial and gender discrimination because her masters treated her as a racially inferior person (and an object of female sexuality) (Maseko, 2011, p. 1). These two forms of discrimination complemented one another because Bartman’s journey to Britain was part of an ongoing slave trade.
In fact, Bartman was a slave to a Dutch nationalist, Peter Cezar (Crais, 2009). Her relationship with her master represented racial and class discrimination. Furthermore, because Bartman was female, her sexuality exposed her to gender discrimination (since people treated her as an object of amusement and human curiosity). Therefore, by being a woman, she was not only a racially inferior person, but also an object of human research and amusement.
Conclusion
Bartman’s experience manifested the relationship between different forms of discrimination. Somewhat, every form of discrimination experienced by Bartman complemented one another. This paper demonstrates the unfair treatment of Bartman (as a colonial property meant to benefit her masters) because she came from an inferior nationality (South Africa).
To that extent, Britons treated her as an inferior person. That relationship forced her to work for her European masters. Furthermore, since she was a poor, black woman, her masters treated her as a racially inferior person by assigning her to work as a laborer for a white farmer.
That subordination exposed her to gender and class discrimination (which informed her status as a slave in Europe). In addition, since she was a woman with “unique” feminine features, people treated her as an object of human entertainment and scientific research. From these prejudiced relationships, categories of race, nationality, class, and gender discrimination intersected in Bartman’s experience.
References
Crais, C. (2009). Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Maseko, Z. (2011). The Life and Times of Sara Baartman. Retrieved from http://icarusfilms.com/if-sara