The Life and Times of Sara Baartman

In the long, vile history of European colonial transgression and racism, Sara Baartman's story must certainly stand out as one of the most tragic and ignominious chapters. Born in the 1790s in the eastern cape of South Africa, Sara belonged to the Khoi Khoi, a nomadic people who had inhabited the region for centuries. Sara's birth unfortunately corresponded precisely with the a) arrival of the Dutch and the ensuing violent enslavement and decimation of the Khoi Khoi, and b) the rise of a general morbid "scientific" and public fascination throughout Europe with the physical and sexual nature of various indigenous peoples. We are told how, with few options open to her, Sara was persuaded into traveling to Europe as the object of this cultural obsession--an exotic object, a sexual fetish known as "The Hottentot Venus," to be displayed for the delight and titillation of the paying public in London and Paris. The final insult of Sara's life, however, was her death: dead at 25 (of causes the video never reveals), her body was dissected, subjected to racist derision by the likes of naturalist Georges Cuvier, and preserved in the Musee de l'Homme, along with other exotic animal specimens. Despite occasional lapses into melodrama and a somewhat static visual style, this poignant, fascinating video is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (G. Handman)