Saartjie (Sara) Baartman [1789-1815]

One of the first Black Women enthralled in to human sex trafficking. The beginnings of sexualizing Black Women's bodies.

She never received her flowers while she was alive. Even in death her body cast was put on display for onlookers, along with intimate body parts which would go on to be displayed at the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Man). In her short life, she was placed on exhibition and used for entertainment, due to the animalistic fascination with her body. She had a condition called steatopygia, which is an accumulation of fat in the buttocks and thighs, causing them to become substantially large, which is known to be a prevalent condition in the KhoiKhoi which were Sara's roots, and in other people of dry parts of Southern Africa. Her body was seen as grotesque, obscene, fascinating to those that saw her and treated her like a circus animal, while at the same time being used by perverted European male audience. She was poked, probed, studied and dissected by scientists and doctors. She was also raped and used for sexual gratification. It has been documented that she coped through alcoholism.

After the murder of her husband, a KhoiKhoi drummer, by a Dutch colonist, she was sold into slavery. She was still a teenager. It is said that she signed a contract, without even knowing how to read, with physician William Dunlop, to work as a domestic servant. This contract thrusted her into an enslaved life of degrading entertainment and lead her to her demise. Though she was given some earnings for her "work", this contract was supposed to have given her, her freedom to return to South Africa after 5 years. The contract was full of lies. The fact that the men behind it, knew Sara could not read, they used that to their advantage. This would be her life until the day she died, at the age of 26.

(For more coverage of Sara's story, click on the link: https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/baartman-sara-saartjie-1789-1815/#:~:text=Saartjie%20(Sara)%20Baartman%20was%20one,duration%20of%20her%20young%20life. )

Saartjie's story, would become one of many starting points of the oversexualization of Black female bodies. When Sara was given a trial over the unlawful contract that she signed, without knowing how to read; by that point, she was so trained with manipulation, maltreatment and lies, that she allegedly took the side of her abusers, and denied mistreatment. She never returned to South Africa alive. In fact, it was not until Nelson Mandela got involved, that her remains were returned back to her home. There have been two different fights within the female black community, over the years; one side has given in, to body degradation and use their bodies for attention, while the other half knows we are worth more than just our bodies and that we are not sexual objects.

Rae Nicole`