The story of sara baartman, the socalled hottentot venus, who was exhibited in both london and paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century, is part of the long narrative of scientific racism. Contemporary accounts usually refer to baartman as the hottentot venus or saartjie little sara in dutch. Sarah baartman qualified as an aberration on account of her prominent backside steatopygia and her small elongated labia macronympha. Project muse sara baartman and the hottentot venus. Sara baartman hottentot venus pdf in 1995 a campaign began to bring back the hottentot venus.
Return of sara baartman and the riveting and informing books african queen. Sarah baartman also known as saartjie or the hottentot venus was born in the late 18th century in the eastern cape part of modernday south. Sara baartman and the hottentot venus project muse. Scully and others published sara baartman and the hottentot venus. I have long wanted to talk about sarah baartman, known as the hottentot venus or the black venus. She made great scientists like george cuvier seem like a horny perverted obsessed man. Sara grew up on a colonial farm where her family most probably worked as servants. The venal hottentot venus and the great chain of being article pdf available in african studies 512. Sara saartjie baartman was born in 1789 at the gamtoos river in what is now known as the eastern cape. While crais and scully do uncover much that was previously unknown about sara baartmanthe task they ostensibly set out to dothey also. Mu and song of the andoumboulou are two ongoing sequences beaded with his insights on cosmology, grief. A quena woman who was shown in europe as a circus freak last century is to be the subject of a documentary reviving the memory of south africas aboriginal people, writes eddie koch. Below her, the audience shouts insults and pornographic obscenities.
Search for sara baartman and the hottentot venus books in the search form now, download or read books for free, just by creating an account to enter our library. It argues that these analyses of the construction of black women as other, which borrow heavily from poststructuralism, make race and gender transhistorical and metaphysical constructs. Venus hottentot 2000s intertextual relationship with that of the colonial objecti. Hottentot venus hottentot venus was the moniker given to a series of women exhibited in sexually suggestive, ethnic curiosity shows in england and france in the early nineteenth century. Baartmans promoters nicknamed her the hottentot venus, with hottentot now seen as derogatory then being used in dutch to describe the khoikhoi and. View the article pdf and any associated supplements and figures for a period of 48 hours. More than 1 million books in pdf, epub, mobi, tuebl and audiobook formats.
Hottentot venus conjures the pain of some of the most sensitive and hurtful relations between the powerful and the powerless whatever their color, whatever their gender. Sara baartman and the hottentot venus is a book as much about the impossibility of uncovering historical truth as it is the story of a khoekhoe woman brought from south africa to europe in the 1800s. Read book pdf online 06915800pdf download sara baartman and the hottentot venus. The venus hottentot by elizabeth alexander about this poet elizabeth alexander was born in harlem, new york, but grew up in washington, dc, the daughter of former united states secretary of the army and equal employment opportunity commission chairman, clifford alexander jr. Hottentot, to be exhibited as the hottentot venus at a fair of curiosities and aberrations in london. Sarah baartmans iconic standing as a result of the hottentot venus as victimized african woman, mother of the model new south africa, and ancestral spirit to quite a few women of the african diaspora has led to an outpouring of essays, biographies, films, interviews, paintings installations, and amenities, comprising a digital archive that seeks to hunt out some which suggests. Black venus 2010 traces baartmans memory in our collective histories, as well as her symbolic history in the construction and identity of black women as artists, performers, and icons. The venus hottentot by elizabeth alexander poetry foundation. The hottentot venus can be read as a neoslave narrative situated in the context of the neovictorian. Pdf the iconography of the hottentot venus roxanne desforges. Indeed, the specterthe omnipresent negationof the hottentot venus continues to haunt us.
The hottentot venus in context some recollections and a dialogue, 19982004 126 kellie jones 12 little sarah 144 linda susan jackson part iii. Pdf what is distinctive about the fascist version of the old idea of the noble savage is its contempt for all that is reflective, critical, and. Y ou might not know sarah baartmans face, but you know her body. Sarah baartmans iconic status as the hottentot venus as victimized african woman, mother of the new south africa, and ancestral spirit to countless women of the african diaspora has led. In 1815 george cuvier, surgeon general to napoleon bonaparte, was given the body of a quena, or hottentot, woman.
This article critiques dominant feminist analyses of the hottentot venus. These characters include a robust chorus and four property, a medical treatise on gonorrhea, a few lines about a whores life, an asterisk in the grand narrative of history hartman 2008. Sara baartman and the hottentot venus wiley online library. John stafford anderson sarah bartmann this paper is about the woman who would become the hottentot venus, a title that presents a conundrum. Feminism, poststructuralism, race, and the curious theoretical odyssey of the hottentot venus zine ma gubane university ofillinois, urbana this article critiques dominantfeminist analyses of the hottentot venus. Baartman, who was also called sarah or sara, was a native of south africa. The tragic story of sarah baartman and the enduring.
In this chilling and mournful novel, chaseriboud brings back to life a woman whose existence as a symbol has obscured her essence. The flamingos smile this essay presents three examples of animals that have evolved to live upside down, and discusses the morphological and behavioral changes that natural selection has produced as a result. Pdf download sara baartman and the hottentot venus. An extraordinarily shaped south african girl known as the hottentot venus, dressed only in feathers and beads, swings from a crystal chandelier in the duchess of berrys ballroom. She holds degrees from yale, boston university, and the university of. Which bodies matter feminism, poststructuralism, race. Sarah baartman also known as saartjie or the hottentot venus was born in the late 18th century in the eastern cape part of. She belonged to the cattleherding gonaquasub group of the khoikhoi. Underpinning this is the ontological conceptualisation of. According to this hierarchy, human life is valuable, while black life is valueless. A ghost story and a biography by clifton crais and pamela scully. Modernism, censorship, and the racial limits of female sexuality 112 charmaine nelson 11 a.
Sara baartman and the hottentot venus have had mysterious careers. Pdf the venal hottentot venus and the great chain of being. Saartjie sara baartman also known as the hottentot venus was a famous khoikhoi woman exhibited as a freak show attraction in europe during the 19th century. In the england of the early nineteenth century saartjie became known as the hottentot venus, a stereotype and caricature of the hottentot 3 female, and in 1816 scientists in paris came to the conclusion that she is the living missing link separating beast from man crais and scully 2009. The story line of hottentot venus was very good and an interesting read. Born to khoisan family neat the gambtos river, she was orphaned during a commando raid after which.
The iconography of hottentot venus roxanne desforges concordia university 2008 pseudo disgraced the names of various scientific methods of justification. Saartjie sara baartman was one of the first black women known to be subjugated to human sexual trafficking. I began to create artwork about her and the notion of beauty in an effort to find a way to. The hottentot venus, with buttocks of enormous size and with genitalia fabled to be equally disproportionate, was part of this human menagerie. However, to identify it as such would be to miss their larger point. Life of the hottentot venus by rachel holmes and venus in the dark. Clifton crais and pamela scully have investigated baartman from a different angle by pursuing a biographical approach. Displaying sara baartman, the hottentot venus sadiah. However i did not care for the way in which barbara chaseriboud used historical figures.
How does their reaction differ from that of the french intelligentsia. What kind of relationship does sarah have with alice unicorn. Parties of twelve and upwards, may be accommodated with a private exhibition of the hottentot, at no. Read book pdf online pdf download sara baartman and the hottentot venus. She also would randomly throw in napoleon bonaparte, jane austin, and charles darwin. This black woman was promised a life of fortune, taken to europe as a slave to be exhibited naked to men and women around europe just because of her physique, the physique of a black woman. In an era when poetry is increasingly compressed to fit our iphone screens, nathaniel mackey has been writing two astonishing long poemsmu and song of the andoumboulouacross multiple books for the past thirtyfive years. Clifton crais is professor of history at emory university. The result, sara baartman and the hottentot venus, is a remarkable achievement. Vol remembering sara baartman, venus, and aphrodite. A novel by barbara chaseriboud about the book it is paris, 1815. She was derisively named the hottentot venus by europeans as her body would be publicly examined and exposed inhumanly throughout the duration of her young life. Sara saartjie baartman south african history online. The life of the hottentot venus still feels familiar for those used to being gawked at.
When she arrived in london in 1810, this young woman. However, because of the link with slavery, as discussed later in the article, the adult form sara is used in preference throughout whilst saartjie. How do the working class people of england react to the hottentot venus. A novel 2003, rachel holmess biographical narrative, the hottentot venus. The woman who is most linked with the icon, saartjie baartman, was the first to take the role. The wideranging essays, poems, and images in black venus 2010 represent some of the most compelling responses to baartman. Gilman uses sarah baartman, the socalled hottentot venus, as a protagonist in showing how medical, literary, and scientific discourses work to construct images of racial and sexual difference. They are descendants of huntergatherers who had become pastoralists and a historical division of the khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern africa. Hottentots were a colonial comfort to english and dutch settlers in south africa, singly justifying expansion, subjugation of those peoples impervious to. Born to khoisan family neat the gambtos river, she was orphaned during a commando raid after which she was ensalved by a dutch farmer near cape town. The life and death of saartjie baartman, born 1789 buried 2002 2007, and another biographical narrative, clifton craiss and pamela scullys sara baartman and the hottentot venus. Sara baartman and the hottentot venus offers the authoritative account of one womans life and reinstates her to the full complexity of her history.