Sara Baartman Oddity

As recently as January, 2016 the name of Saartjie Baartman has moved from 19th century curiosity, into popular 21st century culture, and this reason for her notoriety stems from the sexualization of her body. Baartman was born before 1790 in the area now known as the Eastern Cape of Africa, and was a member of the cattle herding Gonaquasub group of the Khoikhoi. Growing up on the colonial farm where her parents worked, Sara was orphaned in adolescence. At age sixteen, she married a Khoikhoi drummer and later gave birth to one child, who died shortly after birth.
As a result of Dutch colonial expansion, the Khoikhoi people were absorbed into the colonial labor system. While still in her sixteenth year, Sara’s husband was murdered by Dutch colonists.
Dunlop wanted Sara to come to London and become an oddity for display. She was taken to London where she was displayed in a building in Piccadilly, a street that was full of various oddities like “the world’s most hideousness” and “the greatest deformity in the world.” Englishmen and women paid to see Sara’s half naked body displayed in a four-foot tall cage that was about a metre and half high. She became an attraction for people from various parts of
What is known about her death is that Cuvier obtained her remains and dissected her body. He made a plaster cast of her body, pickled her brain and genitals and placed them into jars which were placed on display at the Musée de l'Homme (Museum of Man) until 1974. The story of Sara Baartman resurfaced in 1981 when palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould, author of The Mismeasure of Man, used her story as a part of his argument and critique of racial science. In January, 2016, it was rumored that pop diva, Beyoncé, in her quest for an Oscar was interested in writing, directing, and starring in a Sara Baartman biopic. The rumors of the film and its production died quickly in the face of harshly critical social and media disdain, and Baartman’s story has been laid to rest.
Following the African National Congress (ANC)’s victory in the South African elections, President Nelson Mandela requested that the French government return the remains of Sara Baartman so that she could be laid to rest. The process took eight years, as the French had to draft a carefully worded bill that would not allow other countries to claim treasures taken by the French. Finally on the sixth of March 2002, Sara Baartman was brought back home to South Africa where she was buried. On 9 August 2002, Women’s