If life is not a fairy tale but a horror story - Saartjie (Sara) Baartman

Once upon a time there was a little girl who’s mom died at the age of 2 years old.

She grew up on a farm. Her dad was a cattle driver. To her people she was fine the way she was. From head to toe. That might not sound much but since she belonged to the Khoisan Family, nobody was extremely tall.

At young age she got married to a drummer and they had a baby.

Sadly enough it died. It really broke her heart, since at the same period her husband and dad also died.
So this young girl was all on her own now, at the age of only 16 years old (that might not sound young since the princesses we know from all the fairy tales had about the same age as well or were even younger).

Because a farm owner in the neighbourhood wanted to steal the land of her family, he killed and captured as much family members as he could.

He also captured the young girl and sold her to a man named Pieter. Pieter gave her as a present to his brother Hendrik and so the girl became a domestic servant which is a slave.

As doctor William, a surgeon, visited his friend Hendrik he was impressed by the girl.

Not because she was a great servant, not because she was very intelligent and easily learned different languages, but because of her looks.

And to impress people was something doctor William also wanted.

He thought out a plan to became rich and famous. He took the young girl with him to a country far, far away. He told her she would be able to earn money if she came along with him and best of all could go back home after 5 years!
Well that did not sound too bad since she did not get payed one cent for all the work she did plus Hendrik was not such a kind fellow either.
So the young girl left with doctor William and hoped for a better life and dreamed of a great future.

The people of the country far, far away never saw people with the looks of this girl.

Her eyes, lips, large buttocks and the colour of her skin were different. They payed money to have a look at her and even extra for touching her.
The doctor was very happy with all that money but he did not give one single cent to the girl. Her life in the country far, far away only became worse.
The young girl, now a woman of 20 years old, had to sit in a cage half naked and show herself to strange people.

Can you imagine how it feels to be glazed at, being humiliated and scolded by white aliens?

The girl became depressed. She did not know what to do. She just sat there or was standing there and became a circus attraction to weirdos.

Of course doctor William did not keep his promisses.

Hendrik still owned her, she still was his slave and he sold her to Reax in a different country. There she had to sit in a cage again in between other animals, doing the same tricks as they did on command. She died at the age of about 26 years, sick, depressed and alone. They gave her the nickname: Hottentot Venus.

The story above is not a fairy tale.

It is the horror story of Saartjie Baartman (born 1798?). This name was given to her by Dutch colonists.
In 1810 she was taken to London, on false pretences by a British doctor William Dunlop and displayed in a building in Piccadilly.
In 1814 she was transported to France, sold by Hendrik Cezar, to the Frenchman Reax and exhibited as a circus attraction in between animals.

She was studied by French anatomists, zoologists and physiologists.

George Cuvier, a naturalist concluded that she was a link between animals and humans.
She was used to emphasise the stereotype that Africans were oversexed and a lesser race.
Saartjie died on 29 of December 1815. Her body has been cut into pieces and her brains, bones and vagina been studied and exposed in France as well until 1974.

Saartjies remains were returned to the city of Hankey (South Africa) in 2002. She has been buried on August 9th, 2002. It was a traditional ceremony of the Khoisan.
She is buried on a hill near the banks of the Gamtoos river. She belonged to the Khoi people, once called Hottentots. They were the original inhabitants of South Africa.

There are films (documentaries) made about her life like:

• The life and times of Sara Baartman and
• Venus Noire (Black Venus).

Books have been written as well like:

• Venus in the dark by Janell Hobson,
• Exile Child by Suzanne Franco,
  -The strange fruits of Sarah Bartman by Julius Kane,
• I’ve come to take you home by Diana Ferrus and
• Sara Baartman and The Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography by Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully.
  

Like to know more about me? Please read my other posts.

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