In the documentary, “The Life and Times of Sara Baartman”, Dodd (1998) has explored the racial, gender and class exploitation endured by Sara Baartman, a young Khoi Khoi woman from South Africa who was being paraded in Europe as a freak. Baartman was captured as a slave when the Khoi Khoi society was attacked by a commando.
Her master, a Dutch farmer, moved with her to Cape Town while she was only 15 years old. A brother to the Dutch farmer was well aware that the European society was extremely fascinated with the genitalia of the Khoi women and as such, persuaded his brother to let him move with Baartman to London.
During this time, freak shows were very popular in Europe and Sara was treated in a cruel manner on account of her race. One of Sara’s body features that prompted the Europeans to declare her a freak was her unusually large buttocks.
They also drew comparisons with some of her body features with apes, as opposed to humans, and this goes to show the extent to which racial prejudice against the Black race in general and African women in particular had gone. For example, her lips were likened to those of a chimpanzee (Tomaselli, 1988). This is a mockery not just to her race, but also class exploitation as she was from a race considered inferior to the White race.
In the last three decades, we have witnessed the emergence of a vast body of literature that has endeavored to evaluate the Hottentot Venus. This is a derogatory term used by the Europeans in reference to Baartman and her ilk. Gould (1985) has explored the history of the Hottentot Venus while Scully and Crais (2008) have endeavored to examine the display of Baartman in London, along with the resultant racial and gendered stereotypes that marked the rise of scientific racism in Europe.
Baartman was captured as a slave at the tender age of 15 years and as such, she lost her freedom early in life. Her story is therefore an example of what Abrahams (1996) refers to as a classic noble savage who happens to be the victim of racial exploitation by Europeans. She was not only objectified on account of her savage looks, but also humiliated in public. For example, men attending the parades were even allowed to poke her with their sticks.
By comparing her to apes, the European society tries to depict that she Sara, along with her society, were closely related to apes than to the rest of the human race. Sara was racially discriminated against both in life and in death. For example, her death remained one big mystery, and the details of the post mortem were never made public.
In addition, her last master also donated her body for experimentation to the Museum of Natural History, although she had not consented to such an arrangement while alive. This is a further indication of the racial and, and gender exploitation that she had to endure. Worst still, Baartman’s genitalia were cut off and sent to the Academy of Science so that they could prove that indeed, she was sub-human.
The story of Sarah embodies humiliation and subjugation of the highest order. Her story is both moving and tearful, not least because she is treated in the most grotesque of ways. By doing so, the Europeans wanted to prove “European white superiority” over the Black race. The story also reveals the more widespread political, scientific, philosophical and social suppositions that changed a young African woman into a symbol of racial inferiority and savage sexuality.
Reference List
Abrahams, Y. (1996). Disempowered to consent: Sara Bartman and Khoisan slavery in the nineteenth century Cape Colony and Britain. South African Historical Journal, 35, 94.
Dodd, V. (1998). The life and times of Sarah Baartman. Web.
Gould, S. J. (1985). “The Hottentot Venus”. In The Flamingo’s Smile, 291-305. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Scully, P., & Crais, C. (2008). Race and Erasure: Sara Baartman and Hendrik Cesars in Cape Town and London. Journal of British Studies, 47(2), 301-323.
Tomaselli, K. (1988). The cinema of apartheid: Race and class in South African film. New York / Chicago: Smyrna / Lake View Press.