Upon landing in London ,Cezar and Dunlop immediately tried to sell Baartman to the Art and Natural History Museum. The museum declined the human, but did buy the giraffe pelt that Cezar and Dunlop had offered. Dunlop feared he had made a huge mistake,but Cezar was unfazed, confident he could make money off Baartman as one of the many freak shows popular around London at the time. And he wasn’t wrong. Cezar had almost immediate success with his exhibition.
London
Paris Cezar and Baartman appeared in Paris three years later when she was about 24 years old. Cezar promptly sold Baartman to an animal trainer by the name of Reaux and they never saw each other again. Once again, Baartman, now the first Khoikhoi in France, drew excited audiences. It was during this time that Baartman caught the eye of biologist George Cuvier. Cuvier wished to sketch every inch of Baartman in order to use her as proof there was some missing link between apes and humans. In the winter of 1815 Baartman died of an unknown disease.
Saartjie was toured, sold and displayed around Europe As the
Hottentot venus
Barely a month after Baartman died, Cuvier finally got his way. He obtained her body and set to work. Cuvier made a plaster cast of her corpse before dissecting her. Cuvier removed her brain and genitals, preserving them and her skeleton. What remained of Baartman was then displayed at the Musee de l’Homme until 1974, when public outcry forced the remains to be placed in storage, to be forgotten. It wasn’t until 2002, 192 years after Baartman left South Africa, that her remains were returned home and buried. She was buried in the Eastern Cape. And that is the story of Saartjie Baartman, we honor her today as a human woman, and so much more than an Iconic Corpse.
S baa At Rest
