Plight of Sara Baartman During Colonial Era

Sara 'Saartjie' Baartman was an African, naturally endowed with the physical beauty of the African woman. Born at the Gamtoos river in what is known today as Eastern Cape, she belonged to the cattle herding Gonaquasub group of Khoikhoi. She grew up during the

colonial period with her family where they worked as servants. After her parents died at her adolescent age, she got married to a Khoikhoi man who was a drummer, they had a child who died shortly after birth.
As a result of colonial expansion, the Dutch had conflict with the Khoikhoi which resulted to slave trading.
Sara was sold into slavery to a trader Peter Willem Cezar shortly after her husband was murdered by the Dutch. Peter took Sara to Cape town where she became a domestic servant to his brother. It was at this time that she got the name Saartjie a Dutch diminutive for Sara. 
On 29th October 1810, Sara allegedly signed a contract with an English ship surgeon William Dunlop who was also a friend of Peter and his brother Hendrik. The contract which she signed without knowing it's content as she was an illiterate stated that she was to travel with William and Hendrik to England and Ireland and work as a domestic servant and be exhibited for entertainment purposes, also she was to receive a portion of the earning from her entertainment and will be allowed to return to South Africa after five years.
Sara's natural endowment (large buttocks) and unusual coloring became a thing of fascination for the Europeans who saw themselves as superior beings. Sara was taken to London on Hendrik's demand, where she was displayed in a building in a

Piccadilly, a street full of oddity, where Englishmen and women paid to see Sara's half naked body displayed in a cage that is a meter and half high.

At this period the campaign against slave trade was in full swing in Britain, the case of Sara was brought up and her employers were brought in for trial, they suffered no consequences as Sara's signed document was brought stating that she concurred with how she was treated. Her terms of the agreement was later amended giving her more share of what was made from her shows and was also entitled to warm clothing.  
Hendrik later transported her from England to France in September 1814 where he sold her to Reaux, a man who showcased animals.
Reaux made a fortune out of Sara by displaying her in a cage alongside baby rhinoceros, she would be ordered to sit, stand the same manner the circus animals were ordered. She was sometimes displayed almost naked that was because Sara insisted that what was culturally sacred should be kept sacred.

Her constant display got the attention of George Cuvier a naturalist who pleaded with Reaux to allow him study Sara as a science spicemen to which Reaux agreed. From March 1815 Sara was studied by French anatomist, zoologist and physiologist. Cuvier finally concluded that Sara was a link between animals and human.

She later died in 1816 at the age of 26, though the cause of death was unknown but her death was suspected to be a result of alcohol, smallpox or pneumonia. After her death Cuvier obtained her body from local police and dissected her body, he prickled her brain and genitals and placed them into jar that was displayed on the Musse de I'Homme (Museum of man) until 1974.
The remains of Sara was returned to South Africa on 6th March 2002 following Nelson Mandela's request after Africa National Congress (ANC)'s victory in the South African election. The process took eight years as the French carefully drafted out worded bill that won't allow other countries take treasures taken by the French.
She was buried on 9th August 2002, women's day, a public holiday in South Africa. She was buried at Hankey in the Eastern Cape province.


Reference: South African History Online.