The Story of Sarah (Saartjie) Baartman

 

Image of Sarah Baartman. Photo/ Courtesy

Saartjie Baartman, also known as Sara, endured a tragic fate as one of the earliest documented victims of human sexual trafficking. 

European spectators cruelly dubbed her the "Hottentot Venus," subjecting her to relentless public scrutiny and exploitation throughout her youth. 

This degrading experience only fueled the already deep-seated, derogatory fascination Europeans held towards African women's bodies.

Born in 1789 along the Gamtoos River, now part of South Africa's Eastern Cape, Baartman belonged to the Gonaquasub group of the Khoikhoi people. 

Raised on a colonial farm, likely working as servants, her childhood was marred by tragedy with the loss of both parents at a tender age.

Married in her teenage years to a Khoikhoi drummer, Baartman endured further sorrow with the death of their infant child and the murder of her husband by Dutch colonists. 

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Pieter Willem Cezar sold her into slavery, landing her in Cape Town where she served as a domestic slave to Cezar's brother, Hendrik. 

A supposed contract with a physician, William Dunlop, promised her freedom after a stint in England and Ireland as a domestic servant and exhibition curiosity. However, the contract was a sham, and Baartman remained enslaved for the rest of her days.

Her public exhibition commenced in London in 1810, drawing the ire of British abolitionists who accused Dunlop and the Cezar brothers of holding her against her will. 

Despite Baartman's testimony insisting she was not mistreated, the court sided against her, bolstering her popularity as a spectacle. 

Tours across England and Ireland followed, and in 1814, an exhibitor in France, S. Reaux, bought her, further exploiting her by allowing patrons to sexually abuse her for profit.

Baartman's tragic life ended in Paris in 1815, at the age of 26, under mysterious circumstances. Even in death, her exploitation continued, with her body parts displayed in the Musée de l'Homme to propagate racist ideologies. 

It wasn't until 1994, with Nelson Mandela's formal request, that her remains were repatriated to South Africa and laid to rest in the Eastern Cape in 2002.