Sarah Baartman Facts & Worksheets

Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman was an African woman who became an international sensation for objectification in the early 1800s. She was paraded around Europe, with onlookers mocking her large buttocks.

See the fact file below for more information on Sarah Baartman, or you can download our 23-page Sarah Baartman worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

• Sarah Baartman was born around 1789 in South Africa In the area of Gamtoos River, which is now known as the Eastern Cape. Her African name was unknown, and she was given the name Sarah after being sold into slavery.
• Baartman and her family were members of the Khoikhoi tribe of Gonaquasub. She grew up on a colonial farm, where she and her relatives most likely did domestic work. Her mother died when she was two years old, and her father, a cattle driver, died when she was a baby.
• Sarah Baartman married a Khoikhoi man when she was only a teenager.

ON DISPLAY IN EUROPE

• At the home of the entertainer Hendrik Cezar in Cape Town, Baartman performed housekeeping duties. Cezar started giving her rides to the city’s hospital, where physician Alexander Dunlop was employed. 
• He also recognized Baartman’s ability to generate revenue.
• When Saartjie Baartman was in her early twenties in 1810, an English ship’s doctor named William Dunlop convinced her to go to England in order to make her fortune. 
• However, because she was a Khoikhoi lady, she was viewed as an anthropological oddity in England, where she was exposed to the public as a sexual curiosity. 
• Known as “The Hottentot Venus,” she became a cultural phenomenon in Britain.
• Baartman may have suffered steatopygia because of her unusually big buttocks. Despite her inability to read, Baartman agreed to sign a doctor-written document requiring her to travel to England and Ireland as an “indentured servant.” 
• However, the contract’s stipulations were fictitious, and Baartman remained a lifelong enslaved person. On November 24, 1810, she appeared in London at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly Circus. However, British abolitionists were quick to notice her public treatment and accused Dunlop and the Cezars of holding Baartman against her will. 
• The doctor organized displays of Baartman’s body in England. Baartman was forced to appear wearing barely any clothes. Although many people paid to see her, Baartman only received a small amount of money. 
• In an attempt to block the displays, some sympathetic English citizens sued, but they were defeated when the contract Baartman had signed was produced.
• In 1814, Saartjie Baartman was sent to Paris, where she remained on display as a freak. She became the focus of scientific and medical study, which helped shape European conceptions of black female sexuality.

DEATH

• Baartman was sold to S. Réaux in 1814, a trader in Paris, France, where the open displays persisted. Réaux made a sizable profit from his cruel treatment of Baartman by allowing customers to sexually assault her. Scientists also studied her. In 1815, Baartman passed away in Paris, roughly aged 26. 
• It was reported that “inflammatory and eruptive disease” was the cause of Sarah Baartman’s passing. Since then, it has been hypothesized that either drunkenness, syphilis, or pneumonia caused this. 
• Georges Cuvier, a naturalist who had danced with Baartman at one of Reaux’s events, cast her body in plaster before dissecting her.
• A plaster cast of Baartman’s naked body was on exhibit in the Paris Museum of Man until the 1970s. Following the establishment of democracy in South Africa, activists petitioned for the return of Baartman’s remains, which were interred on August 1, 2002, South African National Women’s Day, as part of a nationally televised ceremony. Hankey, Eastern Cape, is home to her burial place.

SYMBOLISM

• Baartman was among the first black women to be identified as a victim of human sexual trafficking. She was mockingly referred to by the Europeans as the “Hottentot Venus” because, throughout her entire brief existence, her body was cruelly exposed and subjected to public scrutiny. 
• Moreover, her experiences confirmed the Europeans’ already present, harmful sexual aversion to the bodies of African women.

COLONIALISM AND ABUSE

• Because the British colonizers paraded Sarah Baartman’s naked body, England and France classified her as a subhuman based on race. 
• Her black body was seen as a resource that could be exploited, destroyed, penetrated, and subjected to a variety of cruel treatments.
• The colonial and imperial systems’ use of violence against Sarah Baartman and other Black people is said to have its roots in slavery and colonialism. 
• Baartman’s name, social standing, depiction and performance as the “Hottentot Venus,” despite the word being exceedingly unpleasant, and the negotiations to return her body to her native country have all been linked to imperialist influence. 
• Activists and theorists have utilized these elements and occurrences in Baartman’s life to analyze how 19th-century European colonists ruled over the Khoikhoi people and developed sexist and racist cultural notions at the same time. 
• Additionally, current academics have started to examine the circumstances behind Baartman’s departure from her own country and concluded that it was done in order to advance contemporary postcolonial goals.

SEXISM

• Sarah Baartman represents the degree to which White supremacists have encroached on Black territory in South Africa. 
• This may be seen in the ways that she was used unfairly as a Black woman and in how she was displayed, discarded, objectified, and abused. 
• Her trapped Black body was reduced to a thing to be examined through pornotroping and discursive representational practices. Even after she passed away, her genitals were exposed. 
• Travel writing and visuals that portrayed Black women as “sexually primitive” and “savage“ helped to reinforce the idea that it was best for Africa to be colonized by European invaders.

• Conversion of culture and religion was seen as an imperialist act with altruistic overtones by colonizers, who thought they were reforming and rectifying Khoisan civilization in the service of the Christian faith and empire. 
• Scholarly theories describe how Baartman’s body had a major role in colonizing areas of Africa and forming narratives by becoming a symbol of “all African women” as “fierce, savage, naked, and untamable.”
• While Baartman’s figure may be remembered by some as a stereotype and the perfect thing to contrast with, Black women find strength and inspiration in her story. It is critical to acknowledge that Black women view their bodies as resilient and good, as opposed to unsatisfactory.

Sarah Baartman Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Sarah Baartman across 23 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Sarah Baartman. Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman was an African woman who became an international sensation for objectification in the early 1800s.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Sarah Baartman Facts
2. The African Continent
3. Impressions of Color
4. Definition of Terms
5. Life of Sarah
6. Protected by Law
7. Virtue of Kindness
8. Women and Right
9. Featuring Sarah
10. Advocates of Human Rights
11. Reflection of the Past

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Sarah Baartman?

Sarah Baartman was a South African woman who was taken to Europe in 1810 and exhibited in shows as a “freak” because of her physical features. She had a steatopygous figure, which meant that she had enlarged buttocks and hips, and was also known as the “Hottentot Venus.”

Why was Sarah Baartman brought to Europe?

Sarah Baartman was brought to Europe by a British doctor named William Dunlop and an entrepreneur named Hendrik Cesars. They convinced her to come with them by promising her a better life and the opportunity to make money by exhibiting her body.

What happened to Sarah Baartman in Europe?

Sarah Baartman was exhibited in shows in London and Paris, where people paid to see her because of her physical features. She was often ridiculed and made fun of, and was forced to wear revealing clothing that emphasized her buttocks and hips. After her death in 1815, her body was dissected and her remains were put on display in a Paris museum until 1974.

Why is Sarah Baartman important?

Sarah Baartman is important because her treatment and exploitation as a “freak” in Europe was a clear example of the racist and colonial attitudes of the time. Her story has become a symbol of the oppression of Black women and a reminder of the ongoing struggles against racism and sexism.

What has been done to honor Sarah Baartman?

In recent years, there have been efforts to honor Sarah Baartman and acknowledge the injustices that were done to her. In 2002, South Africa successfully lobbied for her remains to be repatriated from France and she was buried in her hometown of Hankey. In addition, there have been calls for her story to be included in school curricula and for monuments to be erected in her memory.

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