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Sara (aka 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.
The spectacle of Baartman’s body, however, continued even after her death at the age of twenty-six. Pseudo-scientists interested in investigating “primitive s*xuality” 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.
White “Scientists” presented Baartman’s dissected labia before the Academie Royale de Medecine and concluded that Baartman’s oversized primitive genitalia was physical proof of the African women’s “primitive s*xual appetite.” Baartman’s genitalia continued to be exhibited at La Musée de l’Homme long after her death.
Saturday, August 27th 2011 at 7:07PM
Siebra Muhammad
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Man...I think that is pretty horrifying. What an awful way to treat someone.
No, I am not surprised. The brutality toward Africans by Europeans and Americans was beyond cruel and pathological. It was pure evil.
Saturday, August 27th 2011 at 7:31PM
Richard Kigel
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I actually blogged this with Jen's female circumcision blog in mind...
Saturday, August 27th 2011 at 7:45PM
Siebra Muhammad
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"I" so regret learning her name under this history, but I chant (pray) we remember her with the respect she is due. And, may she have found the peace and comfort as well as contentment now that she could not find in her life time.
REST IN PEACE SISTER SARA BAARTMAN. (SMILE)
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA
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