Sarah Baartman - Wikipedia

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2024-11-01 18:30:03

Sarah Baartman (Afrikaans: [ˈsɑːra ˈbɑːrtman] ; c. 1789 – 29 December 1815), also spelled Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈsɑːrtʃi] ), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the name Hottentot Venus, a name that was later attributed to at least one other woman similarly exhibited. The women were exhibited for their steatopygic body type uncommon in Western Europe that not only was perceived as a curiosity at that time, but became subject of scientific interest as well as of erotic projection.

"Venus" is sometimes used to designate representations of the female body in arts and cultural anthropology, referring to the Roman goddess of love and fertility. "Hottentot" was a Dutch-colonial era term for the indigenous Khoekhoe people of southwestern Africa, which then became commonly used in English, but which is now usually considered an offensive term. Although it is still unclear how much she was a willing participant, the Sarah Baartman story is often portrayed as the epitome of racist colonial exploitation, and of the commodification and dehumanization of black people.[ 4]

Baartman was born to a Khoekhoe family in the vicinity of the Camdeboo Dutch Cape Colony; a British colony by the time she was an adult. Her birth name is unknown,[ 5] but is thought by some to have been Ssehura,[ 1] supposedly the closest to her given name. Saartjie is the diminutive form of Sarah; in Cape Dutch the use of the diminutive form commonly indicated familiarity, endearment or contempt. Her surname has also been spelt Bartman and Bartmann.[ 2] [ 6] : 184 She was an infant when her mother died[ 7] and her father was later killed by Bushmen (San people) while driving cattle.[ 8]