The Return of Sara Baartman

[00:00:01.98] [AFRICAN DRUM MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:13.40] Sara Baartman was born in 1789 on the banks of the Gamtoos River in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Her people, the Khoikhoi, Africa's indigenous First Nation, had been slaughtered in colonial hunting raids, decimated by smallpox, and their land stolen by invading Dutch settlers.

[00:00:34.08] Her community destroyed and family separated, the young Sara ended up on a farm in the Cape colony owned by a Dutch farmer called Peter Cezar, from where she was lured to London with the promise of fame and fortune by Cezar's brother Hendrik.

[00:00:52.06] Sara arrived in London in 1810, which at that time was obsessed with human curiosities considered to be freaks and exhibited as fairground attractions. Hendrik Cezar dubbed her "The Hottentot Venus," and exhibited her at Piccadilly Circus, where she was one of the most popular freak show attractions.

[00:01:13.25] The popularity of Sara's exhibition was fueled by the European imagination, and its morbid fascination with the mythical anatomy and genitalia of the Khoi people. Sara Baartman spent five years in England, where her exhibition sparked controversy and outrage.

[00:01:34.39] After a much publicized court case, she left London for Paris in the spring of 1815, where she was again put on public display.

[00:01:44.82] "Just arrived from London is the Hottentot Venus. She is to be seen at Number 15, Rue Neuve des Petits Champs from 11 AM until 9 PM. Admittance-- three francs."

[00:02:04.37] Sara's exhibition in Paris caught the attention of leading French scientists, among them, Georges Cuvier, an eminent scientific scholar, Napoleon's surgeon general, and widely regarded as the father of comparative anatomy. Cuvier observed Sara Baartman, and examined her as a scientific specimen, after which he made the following observations.

[00:02:30.08] "This woman presents a singularly remarkable trait-- the prodigious volume of her buttocks. We notice that when female apes have disorders in their menstrual cycle, this disorder makes them develop buttocks proportional to the ones we notice on the Hottentot woman.

[00:02:48.82] She hid her apron carefully between her thighs. Her movements were brusque and capricious, like those of apes. She had great, pendulous breasts, and the unsightly habit of making her lips protrude like an orangutan. Her thigh bones were heavy and short like an animal's. Her upper thighs were spindly, and delicate like those of apes, dogs, and other carnivores."

[00:03:17.12] Less than a year after her arrival in Paris, Sara Baartman died on New Year's Day 1916. She was 26 years old.

[00:03:26.98] Within 24 hours of her death, her body was given to Cuvier. He made a plaster cast of her body, and carved out her brain and genitals. These were preserved in glass jars.

[00:03:45.10] Cuvier's dissection of Sara Baartman gave shape to scientific racism, and she became the symbol of black women's sexuality in 19th century Europe. Sara's skeleton and plaster cast were on public display at the Musee de l'Homme for almost 160 years, until they were removed in 1974.

[00:04:21.05] Georges Cuvier remains an integral figure in French history and science, and is a symbol of national pride. Cuvier's experiments on Sara Baartman elevated his status as a scientist. And so Sara's remains became part of France's national heritage.

[00:04:40.79] -[SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:06:17.46] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:06:33.07] After the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, Khoikhoi groups began to pressurize the new government to reclaim Sara's remains from the French.

[00:06:49.24] In the spring of 2002, a delegation of South Africans arrived to reclaim her.

[00:06:56.01] I've come to take my sister home. I've come to take her home where she belongs-- in the African-- in the South African air, sand, soil. I've come to restore, to make good what was made bad.

[00:07:24.56] Among the delegation was Diana Ferrus, a poet of Khoi descent. She had been inspired to write a powerful poem dedicated to her long lost ancestor.

[00:07:37.78] I was in Utrecht in 1998. I was doing a course on sexuality in the colonies. Became aware of her story again. It was in June in 1998, and my mother's-- the first anniversary of my mother's death was also in June 1998. And I became aware of Saartjiie.

[00:07:58.53] I longed for my mother. I longed for my country. I was homesick.

[00:08:02.64] I stood outside one evening. I looked at the stars. And I said, I want to touch one. It's so far away, in Africa-- in South Africa-- I'll be able to touch them.

[00:08:13.99] And I thought of her. You know, she wanted to go home so much. Longing for home so much. And I thought, if she longed so much for her home, and I long so much for my mother, how much did she long for her mother, and her land?

[00:08:34.00] And I then only packed in one pair of shoes. And my feet were swollen from the journey. And I had to wear those shoes, and it was painful. And for three days I had to walk in those shoes. And I said to myself, "Sister, you've got to feel the pain that your ancestor felt while she was here in Paris."

[00:08:59.14] And you know, I couldn't look at the buildings. I couldn't look at the sky. I couldn't look at anything without thinking it's here her degradation happened. It is here her brutalization happened. And I was-- I think I was angry. I was angry and hostile.

[00:09:25.55] Well, for me, this is about seeing where she's been, you know, and feeling the pain that she has gone through. And what I only understood in my mind, you know, really understanding now on my skin, in my bones, you know, in my heart.

[00:09:56.02] So she must have been very isolated. For her to die of pneumonia here, it just shows that she was exposed to severe winters, severe cold, and she was coming from a region who-- whose weather-- whose climate is a bit mild compared to the severe winters of Europe.

[00:10:19.85] So I'm sure she was very lonely, missing home, missing her family, missing the community, missing the vegetation, missing the mountains, missing the sounds of the animals.

[00:10:34.70] You know, I remember when I was in Germany, in exile, I used to miss the birds singing in the morning. There's a certain type of bird which used to wake us up, all in my family, in [INAUDIBLE]. And we know that now it's 6 o'clock, the mere fact that this bird is singing. And I'm sure she also used to miss that.

[00:10:57.95] Little is known of Sara's impressions of Europe. But from a rare interview with a French journalist, her longing for her homeland and her people is clear.

[00:11:09.69] "Alas, I will not ever see again this sacred land. Poor Sara! Your husband, your father, your family. Everyone is lost."

[00:11:31.41] Sara Baartman's remains were on public display at the Musee de l'Homme, and were seen by thousands of visitors who passed through its doors. Among these was a young boy whose destiny would one day collide with hers.

[00:11:53.36] [SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:12:42.27] Diana's poem to Sara would have far-reaching consequences, and touch the heart of a Frenchwoman on the other side of the globe.

[00:12:51.80] [SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:13:45.04] "I've come to take you home. Remember the veld? The lush green grass beneath the big oak trees? The air is cool there, and the sun doesn't burn. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill. Your blankets are covered in buchu and mint. The proteas stand in yellow and white, and the water in the stream chuckle sing-songs as it hobbles along over little stones."

[00:14:22.94] [SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:15:49.30] "I've come to wrench you away! Away from the poking eyes of the man-made monster who lives in the dark with these racist clutches of imperialism, who dissects your body bit by bit. Who likens your soul to that of Satan, and declares himself the ultimate God!"

[00:16:18.77] [SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:17:10.53] The day when the French Parliament passed legislation to allow the remains to return back to South Africa, it was such a day for me. Very historical. But what was more touching to me in the presence of Minister [INAUDIBLE]-- whom by the way, we invited for the occassion-- was that the French parties, immaterial of their ideological thinking, whether they're right, liberal left, they all unanimously supported the legislation.

[00:17:47.51] [SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:18:16.05] I remember staying late at work, and then her email came through. And I opened it up and I saw it, and I read through it, in which she explained everything that happened. And then she said to me, "Today, I'm very proud to be French." And she ended it up with saying-- it made me very emotional-- she said, "Taking care of Saartjiie until she returns home."

[00:18:41.32] And I-- I was so glad I was alone in the office, because then I turned my chair, and I just started to cry tears of joy and of sadness.

[00:18:51.91] It just means that, you know, if women work together for a common cause-- in this instance for the restoration of dignity of another woman, South African woman, immaterial whether she was black, or yellow, or red, they can achieve a lot. It's also a lesson to all of us that we should work together.

[00:19:21.60] After years of deadlocked negotiations, the French government finally succumbed to South Africa's demands for the return of Sara Baartman's brain, skeleton, and bottled genitalia.

[00:19:42.82] [AFRICAN DRUMS PLAYING]

[00:20:01.02] On the 29th of April 2002, Sara Baartman's remains left the Musee de l'Homme, where her body and spirit had been imprisoned for nearly two centuries.

[00:20:53.69] At an emotionally charged ceremony at the South African Embassy in Paris, Sara Baartman was officially handed back to her people.

[00:21:08.52] "I've come to take you home. Remember the veld, the lush green grass beneath the big oak trees. The air is cool there, and the sun doesn't burn. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill. Your blankets are covered in buchu and mint. The proteas stand in yellow and white, and the water in the stream chuckle sing- songs as it hobbles along over little stones.

[00:21:45.73] I've come to wrench you away, away from the poking eyes of the man-made monster who lives in the dark with his racist clutches of imperialism, who dissects your body bit by bit, who likens your soul to that of Satan and declares himself the ultimate God. I've come to soothe your heavy heart."

[00:22:14.59] -[SPEAKING FRENCH]

[00:22:47.67] We are gathered here today to pay tribute and restore dignity to the remains of a woman and a South African who's tragic life has come to symbolize the injustices that accompanied colonialism on the African continent, and the harshness of oppression which accompanied it. I am deeply honored, both as a woman and an African, that I'm here today to receive the remains of Miss Baartman, to take them to where they belong-- on the African soil.

[00:23:24.49] [AFRICAN MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:24:29.04] When Sara Baartman left Cape Town in 1810, she was little more than a slave. But she returned with the honors reserved for national heroes.

[00:24:47.41] [CHOIR SINGING]

[00:24:51.92] Her coffin, draped in the South African flag, was received by descendants of her people, the Khoikhoi, who had been stripped of their land, their language, and culture; and under apartheid, were squashed into an ill-fitting ethnic label called "colored."

[00:25:21.45] Also present to welcome Sara was Professor Phillip Tobias, one of South Africa's leading scientists, and a man who had spent years negotiating with French scientists for her return.

[00:25:34.12] Saartjiie was unique. She wasn't dug up from the ground like an archaeological specimen. She was a person. She was a personality. She had a name. We know where she was born-- in the Gamtoos River Valley. We know when she was born. We know a great deal about her sad and tragic life. Saartjiie is an emblem-- a symbol-- of that era.

[00:26:16.73] [MARCHING BAND MUSIC]

[00:26:39.11] Before Sara Baartman could be given a dignified burial, a reference group consisting of historians, scientists and Khoi representatives, was convened to negotiate the details of her final resting place.

[00:26:58.35] In death, as in life, Sara Baartman remained controversial and contested.

[00:27:07.57] I'm truly pleased that we are meeting at last, and thank you very, very much for responding to the invitation from the Minister to be part of this reference group.

[00:27:25.24] If we're going to stick to the baptismal certificate, we are already accepting a colonial slant on her name, which I find a little-- I'm not very, at first blush-- I'm not very in favor of that.

[00:27:41.85] The reason why we use the baptismal certificate is because it is conceivably one of the few times that Sara Baartman herself would have seen and approved the writing of her name. It, in fact, she kept it until the day. It's something she treasured, it's something she had. It's something she knew.

[00:28:00.37] Um, so what would she have called herself? There is no other document in existence that we could-- we don't even know she ever saw the spelling "Saartjiie."

[00:28:10.21] We also discussed this issue in our communities, and we felt that in our culture we would have-- when we speak about what we would call her "Saartjiie," because it would be an expression of compassion. But for the purpose of officialdom, we prefer the spelling on the baptismal certificate, because we feel that the term "Saartjiie" was used as a form of undermining who she was, and undermining her gender, per se. So we don't support the name "Saartjiie" for official purposes.

[00:28:45.26] What has happened is that Sara Baartman has become bigger than any one person or any one group. I wrote a thesis. I have been-- I use the word advisedly-- obsessed by Sara Baartman. You have to be a little bit obsessed to spend six years digging away in dusty archives on the life of one person.

[00:29:04.22] So for me, personally, it was quite a shock to realize that we'll actually-- lots of other people take an interest in Sara Baartman and her fate. Many different kinds of incidents. But yes, you know, she's no longer something that you can say is the property of an individual-- not that she ever was-- or even other people. People are claiming her for their own. And to my mind, that is also respect.

[00:29:31.19] We need to know whether the bottled specimens that have been returned do indeed belong to Sara Baartman. When I did my research for the memorandum, I was constantly fobbed-off in the museum with different stories as to what had happened with the bottle of her genitalia, and what had happened to the bottle of her brain.

[00:30:03.88] Well, just to say anything that savors of using Sara Baartman's body for purposes of scientific research-- even when it comes to research about herself and her life-- to my mind should be avoided, because it's exactly what we just spent 10 minutes saying was wrong for the French to do. In particular, any form of invasive testing. I myself would not be prepared to commit with that extensive consultation amongst the Khoikhoi.

[00:30:34.12] However, I believe that we are living in a technologically driven world, and we do have the capability. We feel that we do have a chance, perhaps, if we were given a sample, to try to, one, verify the various types of tissue available to see if there is an identity.

[00:30:56.91] -That in the era in which we are, and these are possibilities, and these possibilities will lead us to writing a much better story about Sara than, for instance, we get from the countries where she was.

[00:31:11.04] -I'd also like to suggest that you consult your legal advisors. Freedom of person and security demands informed consent, which Sara Baartman is not in a position to give. It may well be that you are not able to do any invasive testing of her body.

[00:31:28.12] In a lot of ways, the same kinds of battles that I was waging in my thesis-- issues about race and gender, issues about racism and sexism, and, fundamentally, issues of power. Who has the right to make decisions about this black woman? Who has the right to speak for her? Who has the right to speak about her?

[00:31:46.44] Those were the kind of issues that, to my mind, got slugged out in the reference group. And much better-- so much better in the reference group than nationalists, so to speak

[00:32:00.63] Sara Baartman died a lonely death in Paris, and Cuvier's dissection and preservation of her body had denied her spirit the last rites of passage.

[00:32:18.28] An enrollment ceremony held in Cape Town shortly after her return gave South Africans an opportunity to pay their respects, and to observe these sacred rights.

[00:32:45.63] The whole act of symbolically tracing Sara Baartman, it, I was amazed at what it meant to the women. In fact, you could almost call it a collective process of, as we are able to honor the dead, we're also able to honor ourselves as the living. And that became very real to me during the enrollment.

[00:33:11.12] Unite her spirit in peace. And the spirit of our brethren is Sara. Of all the great brothers of the Khoi nation, and all the mothers of our country South Africa, let your peace fall on us [INAUDIBLE]. Let the great spirit of our mother [INAUDIBLE] once and for all-- unitedness.

[00:33:47.22] -Because of the pain that Sara went through. Because of the abuse that she was exposed to, to us, she was somebody that needed to be restored. We needed to restore our ancestors as we are restoring ourselves now.

[00:34:03.18] And Sara was to us a symbol of restoring-- you know, restoring our peoples, restoring the pain that we went through as a nation, restoring the pain that women goes through generally. And it became an obsession, because we felt that we will never be restored until all our ancestors are put in the grave.

[00:34:28.59] Did I think I'd live to see the day? Well, let me put it this way. As a black woman, when something goes well, at least for somebody of my generation and background, it's a huge surprise.

[00:34:40.59] Frankly, when the French said, we're sending her home within three months, I didn't believe them. I thought, well, I'll believe it when I see them. Then she actually came home. And I've been running around ever since trying to emotionally catch up with, look at it. This is real. This is happening. This is not a general rehearsal. This is what is otherwise known as life, in all its glorious beauty.

[00:35:03.00] [PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:35:34.12] And get that oppression out of my bones. Be a flightless bird.

[00:35:42.69] No, no I didn't. You fight for something for almost a decade, but you don't actually believe you're going to succeed. And I think you do that because you need to-- how do you get the courage to continue fighting? You get the courage to continue fighting by thinking, this will probably take the rest of my life. It hasn't. I am overjoyed. I am very happy. I want to bury her, have a beautiful funeral, cry my eyes out, and then, well, now I've got the rest of my life for some other struggle.

[00:36:23.80] Which undoubtedly I shall also win. You know, this has really given me confidence in our capacity to be able to change the world in the way we want to. It's a beautiful millennium to be alive in. Beautiful.

[00:36:36.42] [CHOIR SINGING]

[00:37:25.30] I don't think people realize the magnitude of the presence of the spirit. And like this morning, when we were in the private ceremony, you could actually feel the presence of the spirit. And ever since Sara Baartman returned to South African soil, many things has happened. And many spiritual things have happened amongst the Khoisin people. And I believe that Sara Baartman's spirit definitely contributed to it.

[00:38:01.08] "I've come to take you home, where the ancient mountains shout your name. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill. Your blankets are covered in buchu and mint. The proteas stand in yellow and white. I have come to take you home, where I will sing for you. For you have brought me peace."

[00:38:31.47] When we were motivating to have Sara buried in the Eastern Cape, we just knew that we wanted her next on the banks of the Gamtoos River. We had no idea which town we wanted to bury her.

[00:38:47.77] We knew about Hankey, but we were not sure whether Hankey was the right place, because other places were also proposed by the municipality, and also by the Khoisin people. So Hankey turned out to be geographically the best spot, because the spot was above the flat area of the Gamtoos, and also Hankey has a very beautiful and rich Khoisin history.

[00:39:50.42] [CROWD SINGING]

[00:39:58.85] The last leg of Sara's return was the journey from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape where she was born. Her body was met at Port Elizabeth Airport by a jubilant crowd singing,

[00:40:09.70] [CROWD SINGING NON ENGLISH LYRICS]

[00:40:12.39] "Let us praise the name of women. Let us praise Sara Baartman."

[00:40:59.82] The day chosen for Sara's burial was the 9th of August 2002. Fittingly, she would be laid to rest on South African Women's Day, and the International Day of Indigenous People. Almost two centuries after her death, the eyes of the nation turned to the small town of Hankey, as preparations got under way for the burial of a woman who had become a powerful symbol of unity and reconciliation.

[00:41:25.65] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:41:53.48] [CROWD SINGING]

[00:42:17.93] [CHOIR SINGING]

[00:42:40.47] When Sara was finally lifted out of the container that her remains were in into the coffin, it took in a whole new dimension to me. I don't even know if I have the ability to express it in words, the experience that I had. It was as if total, total peace is rested on us.

[00:43:11.13] [CHOIR SINGING]

[00:43:21.50] [AFRICAN TRIBAL DRUM MUSIC]

[00:43:52.21] Sara Baartman's funeral was a celebration of South Africa's ethnic diversity, and marked a historic reconciliation between black and brown Africans wrenched apart by colonialism.

[00:44:25.88] The President of the Republic of South Africa!

[00:44:39.32] The story of Sara Baartman is a story of the African people of our country in all their excellence. It is a story of the loss of our ancient freedom. It is a story of fighting for possession of the land, and the means that gave us an independent life afterwards. It is a story of our reduction to the status of objects that could be hold, used, or disposed of by others who claim for themselves a manifest destiny to run the empire of the globe.

[00:45:18.48] It is an account of how it came about that we ended up being defined as a people without a past-- except a past of barbarism-- who had no capacity to think, who had no culture, no value system to speak of, and nothing to contribute to human civilization. People with no names and no identity.

[00:45:42.35] [CHOIR SINGING]

[00:46:19.71] (SINGING) Return on the day that the Lord set up, you'll return on the day to your motherland. You'll return on the day that the Lord set up to your motherland. You'll return. Rest in peace little one, it's a [INAUDIBLE] rest in peace, little one, under South African skies. Rest in peace, little one, in the soil of your birth. You'll believe one day, you'll return.

[00:47:26.57] [SINGING - NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[00:48:07.84] [CHOIR SINGING]

[00:48:56.29] Her dignity restored, she was finely laid to rest on a hilltop overlooking the Gamtoos River Valley. Sara Baartman-- daughter, sister, mother, ancestor, black woman, home at last.

[00:49:18.97] [CHURCH CHOIR SINGING]