"venus Hottenhot" Sara Baartman

The life of Sara Baartman was one filled with degradation, loneliness, and exploitation. Born in 1789 of the Khoi Khoi tribe in South Africa, Sara Baartman was considered on the most beautiful women of her tribe. She was the woman that all men wanted. In 1810, she chose to board a ship heading to Europe looking for stardom. There is no documentation as to if she was kidnapped or if she boarded willingly.T What people do know is that the living conditions in Europe during that time were rough and rigid. Baartman set out for fame and her talent was her oversized buttocks and genitalia. At 20 year old Sara Baartman got on a boat that was to take her from Cape Town to London in 1810, she could not have known that she would never see her home again. Nor, as she stood on the deck and saw her homeland disappear behind her could she have known that she would become the icon of racial inferiority and black female sexuality for the next 100 years. Baartman joined the Piccadilly Circus, which was famous for showcasing ìfreaksî, people who were not normal in physical features. During her new occupation, she inherited the name Venus Hottentot. Hottentot has been said to mean ëcurly hairí for the Khoi Khoi tribe. However within the Khoisan tribe, it means people who own cattle. The people of Khoi have since disregarded that name, as it had turned derogatory. Today, it refers to abnormal buttocks (tot) that are hot. She lived with people who would count her money and issue it out to her, she did not live in a good place and clothes were scarce. She was famous in all the negative forms. Baartman died in 1816, at the age of 25. The cause was unknown, though it has been said in reports that it could have been syphilis. After her death, Dr. Georges Curvier, a scientist took her body and removed her genitalia and her brain. After careful study of her parts, they came up with theories and concepts that started some of the first scientific studies on women of African lineage as well as the advancement into Western science. Curvier, studied her body and used evaluations where she was compared to an orangutan or an ape. However Curvier had never seen an ape or an orangutan! Yet, her body was one that scientists used as a link between animals and humans. The description of her body is one that is to be said to look like an ape or some type of jungle animal, without the hair. On the flipside of Sara Baartmansí story is the exploitation that she endured. She was an African woman in a lost land, looking for fame, without love. This story is one that is familiar today to many women. The stereotype that a woman has to have a large backside to make it or has to be sexually active with men for a price that is valued more than money is becoming true. As Baartman, many women are in situations that they are put on display to be sexually exploited and when the issue of using her intelligence arises one is flabbergasted as she is not supposed to have a brain, she has all that physical apperances going for her. In the play ìVenusî that is now playing at the Cleveland Public Theater, Baartman is portrayed as a women who may have wanted to use her intelligence along with her body to make money, yet her overseer replies to her that its her tot thatís hot not her intelligence.TTThe story of Sara Baartman shows how the conditioning of male domination or patriarchy has gone on for hundreds of years, from the exclusion of the book of Judith from the Bible, to Venus Hottentot, becoming a common name for a woman who has large buttocks. Researchers who have looked her up and studied her life are not for sure if she willingly wanted to keep showing her body off or is she was made too, yet there is one thing for sure, she was humiliated and lost her quality of being a regal warrior like woman. There has been documentation that she only wanted to be loved. Sometimes women may find love in all the wrong places and accept it. Baartmanís remains were placed in a Museum in Paris until 1994, when President Nelson Mandela demanded that it be returned home. Her body was returned in 2002, where she received a proper burial. THE RETURN OF SARA BAARTMAN offered some closure on a tragic episode of racism and imperialism. Speaking at her funeral, South African president Thabo Mbeki said Baartman's story "is the story of the loss of our ancient freedom... It is the story of our reduction to the status of objects that could be owned, used and disposed of by others." This information was sponsored by a lecture given through the Office of Minority Affairs and Community Relations on Tuesday February 15, 2005 in Drinko Hall. TCast and crew from the above-mentioned play were available for questions and comments as were professors and students of

Cleveland State University. For more information on the play ìVenusî, check out the website: www.cptonline.org. To contact the Office of Minority Affairs and Community Relations on other informative events they may have contact: 216.687.9394, RT 1227.