Who is Sarah Baartman?

On October 30, 2019, Nigerian rapper and singer, Dice Ailes released his latest single. It is titled, 'Ginika' and it is a follow-up to 'Alakori,' his collaboration single with Falz.

The song is a celebration of the African woman's backside and its artwork was meant to depict that. On the face of it, it might have achieved that, but improper research caught up with the former Chocolate City act.

The artwork is not just any artwork. It is one of Sarah Baartman. She was born Saartjie and nicknamed Hottentot Venus. She is a late 18th century from Eastern Cape (modern-day South Africa) who was used as a spectacle to please white masters across Europe.

She suffered from steatopygia, so she had excess fatty tissue around her hip and backside. She was hypersexualized and mocked and represents a dark time in black history. Many still associate it with the fetishization and hyper-sexualization of curvy black women by white-folk.

Birth, upbringing and move to England

In the 1770s, Saartjie was born in the Camdeboo valley in the eastern part of the Cape Colony, modern day South Africa. After her birth, her family moved to Gamtoos Valley. As she grew, she suffered from steatopygia which made her have excess fatty tissue around her waist and buttocks. While the African woman is usually curvy, her curves were really pronounced.

In 1810, she moved to England with her employer, Hendrik Cesars, and an English doctor William Dunlop. It was during her time in Manchester, England that she was baptized and renamed Sarah.

Exhibition and unfair treatment across Europe

When Baartman left the cape, it was under the pretext of treating her rare condition in Piccadilly. But instead, they started showing her for money across England and Ireland. Her curves were brought out in scanty outfits to satisfy the vain folly and fetish of the white master. This was way before slavery was abolished in 1880.

But when she was getting displayed at exhibition, British abolitionists who were aggressively campaigning against slavery saw her. They also saw the conditions of duress she was made to perform under as well as the indentured servitude she was made to go through. Some parts of history even said white women treated her poorly while white men poked her with sticks.

These British abolitionists then sought a redress of Baartman's unfair treatment in court. However, the court infamously ruled in favour of the derogatory exhibition after William Dunlop produced a contentious document. It was meant to be a contract signed between Dunlop and the illiterate Baartman.

After Dunlop's death, Henry Taylor took Baartman to Paris and made her thrill onlookers. There, a scientist named George Curvier researched and experimented on her as he aimed to find a link between men and animals.

According to Wikipedia sources, Baartman was then sold to Sean Reaux who raped and impregnated her as an experiment. A daughter born and named Okurra Reaux was born, but she died at age 5. Throughout this time, she lived in penury and could barely afford to feed.

Death

In December 1815, she died in Paris, France. Until 2002, when her remains were moved to South Africa, they were on display in France after being dissected by George Curvier.