Saarjite
Baartman, a young Khosian woman from Southern Africa
whose body was the main attraction at
public spectacles
in both England and France for
over five years
Exhibiting "Others" in the
West
By Krista A. Thompson
Spring 1998
The
tradition of exhibiting people of color in Western societies has
existed since the earliest encounters between Europeans and
indigenous populations in the New World and in Africa. Indeed,
on his return to Spain after his first voyage to the New World
in 1492, Columbus brought several Arawaks to Queen Isabella's
court, where one of them remained on display for two years.
Exhibiting non-white bodies as a popular practice reached its
apogee in the nineteenth century in both Europe and in USA when
freak shows--the exhibition of native peoples for public
entertainment in circuses, zoos, and museums--became fairly
common.
In USA, in particular, the spectacle of
"freaks," "natives," and "savages"
became a profitable industry at this time, as epitomized in
popular traveling shows like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and
Barnum and Bailey's Circus. World Expositions were also popular
for the display of native bodies. During the expositions
"natives" performed various ceremonies, rites, dances,
and otherwise went about their (supposed) daily routines (even
though they were on the exposition grounds). In other words,
cultural "others" were employed to perform their
"cultural otherness" for an Anglo-American and
European audience. Up to the mid-twentieth century displays of
this sort continued.
Live exhibitions were not the only forms of
human spectacle; often the dissected and embalmed remains of the
"native" body, particularly the skulls, and sexual
organs, were also publicly exhibited. Trophy heads, body parts,
and other skeletal remains still reside in the collections of
many Western museums, like The British Museum and La Musée de
l'Homme, France. As recently as 1997, a small natural history
museum just outside of Barcelona finally removed a stuffed
Bushman from its permanent display cases, after sustained
international pressure to do so. The incident strongly suggests
that European fascination with exhibiting non-white bodies is
not a phenomenon of the distant past.
Saarjite
Baartman/ The Hottentot Venus
Saarjite
Baartman, a young Khosian woman from Southern Africa whose body
was the main attraction at public spectacles in both England and
France for over five years, is perhaps the most infamous case of
a Khosian body on display. Baartman, who became known as the
Hottentot Venus, was brought to Europe from Cape Town in 1810 by
an English ship's surgeon who wished to publicly exhibit the
woman's steatopygia, her enlarged buttocks. Her physique,
particularly her steatopygic appendage, became the object of
popular fascination when Baartman was exhibited naked in a cage
at Piccadilly, England. When abolitionists mobilized to put an
end Baartman's public display, she informed them that she
participated in the spectacles of her own volition. She even
shared in profits with her exhibitor.
The spectacle of Baartman's body, however,
continued even after her death at the age of twenty-six.
Pseudo-scientists interested in investigating "primitive
sexuality" dissected and cast her genitals in wax. Baartman,
as far as we know, was the first person of Khosian-descent to be
dismembered and displayed in this manner. Anatomist Georges
Curvier presented Baartman's dissected labia before the Academie
Royale de Medecine, in order to allow them "to see the
nature of the labia" (Gilman 235). Curvier and his
contemporaries concluded that Baartman's oversized primitive
genitalia was physical proof of the African women's
"primitive sexual appetite." Baartman's genitalia
continued to be exhibited at La Musée de l'Homme, the
institution to which Curvier belonged, long after her death.
This introduction to the history of human
displays of people of color demonstrates that cultural
difference and "otherness" were visually observed on
the "native" body, whether in live human exhibitions
or in dissected body parts on public display. Both forms of
spectacle often served to promote Western colonial domination by
configuring non-white cultures as being in need of discipline,
civilization, and industry.
Bibliography
Gilman, Sander L. "Black Bodies, White Bodies:
Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality in Late
Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and Literature." Race,
Writing and Difference. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Chicago,
1986:
A
classic of cultural criticism, "Race," Writing, and Difference
provides a broad introduction to the idea of "race" as a
meaningful category in the study of literature and the shaping
of critical theory. This collection demonstrates the variety of
critical approaches through which one may discuss the
complexities of racial "otherness" in various modes of
discourse.
Hinsley, Curtis. "The World as Marketplace:
Commodification of the Exotic at the World's Colombian
Exposition, Chicago, 1893."
Exhibiting Cultures.
Eds. Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine. Washington and London:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
Hottentot Venusis the story of
Ssehura, a young Khoisan girl orphaned in 1700s South
Africa. Ssehura is renamed Saartjie (which means “little
Sarah” in Dutch) by a Dutch Afrikaner who becomes her
master. As is Khoisan custom, Sarah is groomed to be more
sexually desirable for marriage. Her buttocks are massaged
with special ointments to make them swell and her genitalia
are stretched to produce the legendary “Hottentot apron,”
exaggerated folds of skin. Thus, Sarah is a physical
curiosity and a sexual fetish to her white master. He is
persuaded by an Englishman to send her to London where she
becomes a sideshow sensation. The English gentry is
fascinated by her exotic African ethnicity and sexually
charged presence making her stuff of legend and myth. Sarah
enters the world of circus freak shows and becomes a popular
exhibit. . The “Hottentot Venus,” as she has become
known, is the rage of Europe. Yet, beyond the parade of
curiosity seekers and perverts, the very real loneliness of
this young woman comes through.CopperfieldReview
A celebrated "human
curiosity," exhibited in 1810 in London and Paris for her
larger-than-average posterior, the so-called Hottentot
Venus, Saartjie Baartmen, is delivered once and for all by
Holmes (Scanty Particulars) from the forces of sentimental
primitivism, imperialism and scientific racism that so
determined her life. Academics will recognize Holmes as one
of their own (she is a former professor of English at the
universities of London and Sussex); this book is liberally
salted with the language of feminist, psychoanalytic and
postcolonial theory (here is how Holmes explains Saartjie's
susceptibility to exploitation at the hands of men: "[her]
relationship with paternalistic figures was shadowed by her
unresolved attachment to an idealized father, snatched from
her at the point she most needed and respected him, and
before she had cause to rebel against him"). But the book is
propelled along by the inherent interest of Saartjie's story
and Holmes's clear affection for her subject. Particularly
close attention is given to Saartjie's declining years and
her gruesome posthumous treatment at the hands of French
scientist Cuvier, whose macabre fascination with Saartjie
inspires some of the book's most engaging prose.— Publishers Weekly
Saartjie Baartman, a young South African woman, was brought to London in
1810 and displayed seminude as she danced suggestively to show off to
best effect her ample bottom, earning her the name Hottentot Venus. Her
public display and ultimate study by scientists long ago gained her
iconic status as a symbol of European fascination with African
sexuality. Holmes, author of Scanty Particulars (2003), explores the
zeitgeist of Britain in the early 1800s, when Europeans were fascinated
with the human behind and grappling with notions about race, sex, and
colonialism. Holmes draws on press reports, ballads, and advertisements
of the day that ridiculed Baartman as well as prominent politician Lord
Grenville, who was similarly endowed. Baartman, abused by her manager
and the public, attracted the attention of abolitionists, who saw in her
a cause celebre to challenge provisions of the British constitution
regarding slavery. Using fresh archival research, Holmes offers a
definitive portrait of a woman whose remains--on museum display for
generations--were only recently returned to South Africa for final
burial. This is a probing look at historical racism and sexual
exploitation presented through the life of an extraordinary woman.—Vanessa
Bush, Booklist
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
