September 11, 2010

• "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SARA BAARTMAN" - ON SAARTJIE: HOW ARE WE KEPT BY OUR "BROTHERS"?

  1999

   

  Viewing music videos is supposed to be a recreational act. It is rarely that for me. I love music. So, I do watch them. But, I watch them with my third eye. And, I rarely like what I see.

  What I hate most is the rabid, repulsive, physical exploitation of the black female anatomy. When gay photographer Robert Maplethorpe exploited the black male anatomy in renowned still photos, protests abounded globally. But, when the subjects of such exploitation are black females, and they are lewdly animated and gyrating on film, I hear only silences. Silence is consent.

  I rarely see any faces. These faces are cropped off by the cameras that exclusively prefer shots of buttocks and breasts. These video dancers are scantily clad in tight clothing. They are almost always bouncing and writhing. Increasingly, the song lyrics focus on these bouncing buttocks also: “BACK DAT THANG UP...BOUNCE DAT THANG...BRENDA’S GOT A BIG OL BUTT...MS. FAT BOOTY...”

  Lyrically, this is intended as flattery. Yet, it feels like syncopated rape. It is supposed to be sexy. It is lewd. It is offered as fun. It evokes sadness. It is voluntary casting. It is visual slavery.

  Maybe it is all my own fault. Perhaps this sadness is a peril of my own perception. I am 36. Maybe I am too old to understand. I am a womanist. Maybe I am too jaded to be juvenile. Actually, I think my real problem is that the vision in my third eye is too flawless. It is connected to a muscle in my brain where memory is stored. 

  It is the memory of a sister named Saartjie/"Sara Baartman".  She is a sister who never voluntarily put her buttocks on display. She was a captive star of elder audiences. She is known as “The Hottentot Venus”. Her white male captors charged admission to racist voyeurs who wanted to gawk at African female buttocks and breasts.

  Saartjie was a native of the Khoi San tribe of South Africa. In 1810, she was a 20 year old slave in Cape Town. A friend of her master took her to London and exhibited her as a freak across Britain. She was usually locked inside of a cage and treated like a dancing bear. 

  In 1814, she was taken to France to be used as a guinea pig for racist scientific research. In 1815, she died from these abuses. Her corpse was dissected so that her sexual organs and brains could be placed in jars for display in the Musée de L’homme in Paris, France. These morbid remains were on display until 1985. Legal battles over the repatriation of her remains are ongoing....

  Turn off these lewd music videos for a spell and check out a great new documentary. See a film called “The Life & Times of Sara Baartman”. It is expertly directed by Zola Maseko. 

  It is hauntingly narrated by a sister who vocally channels Saartjie’s pain and humiliation. Many superior scholars are interviewed who expertly relate the historical and ongoing racism and sexism that made the abuses of Saartjie possible. Clay molds from her skeletal remains recreate the physique that cursed her to a life of torturous display.

  Like the film Sankofa, this documentary is much more than a film. Viewing it is a spiritual experience. It features camera shots of the waters that Saartjie sailed to her demise. Watching them flow is akin to sailing along beside her, to her doom. It also features many editorial cartoons which ruthlessly degraded Saartjie and her plight. They remind me of today’s political cartoons, penned by neocons that similarly make jokes about the misery of the masses.

  So when I see these lewd music videos, I see new captors who look like “brothers”. Admission is no longer purchased via tickets. Cable bills suffice now. I see droves of Saartjies who look like video “dancers”...And, I see that we are still on display. And like Saartjie, my soul is still crying... 

  ______________________________________________________________________________

   

  2006

  
  

  SAARTJIE'S BELATED HOMECOMING - SHE RETURNS TO SOUTH AFRICA!!!

  
  

  In a classic and haunting tune entitled "We All...Everyone of Us", Sweet Honey in the Rock sing: "We all, every one of us, have to come home again..."  I am elated to announce that, FINALLY, our eternal sister Saartjie is going home to South Africa! I pray that our sister's soul may now finally rest in peace. Her long and legendary journey has been filled with uniquely brutal sexist savagery and racist inhumanity. Her saga epitomizes eternal injustices and indignities:

  Saartjie was a native of the Khoi San tribe of South Africa. In 1810, she was a 20 year old slave in Cape Town. She was taken to London and exhibited as a freak across Britain. She was usually locked inside of a cage and treated like a dancing bear. In 1814, she was taken to France to be used as a guinea pig for racist scientific research. In 1815, she died from these abuses. Her corpse was dissected so that her sexual organs and brains could be placed in jars for display in the Musée de L'homme in Paris, France. These morbid remains were on display until 1985.

  Saartjie was known as “The Hottentot Venus”. Her white male captors charged admission to racist voyeurs who wanted to gawk at African female genitalia, buttocks and breasts. It is ironic that many women who are displayed so today are not captives, but eager volunteers. Saartjie's cage has been replaced by droves of cages disguised as porno films, magazines, and music videos. Saartjie's captors have been replaced by video/film directors, magazine editors, strip club owners, toxic diets/drugs, and plastic surgeons. Like Saartjie, women are still perpetually on display. And, we still perish trying to please the gawkers who judge us, mercilessly and endlessly.

  For more information on Saartjie, see a great documentary film called “The Life & Times of Sara Baartman”. It is expertly directed by Zola Maseko. It is hauntingly narrated by a sister who vocally channels Saartjie’s pain and humiliation. Many superior scholars are interviewed who expertly relate the historical and ongoing racism and sexism that made the abuses of Saartjie possible. Clay molds from her skeletal remains recreate the physique that cursed her to a life of torturous display.

  Viewing this documentary is a spiritual experience. It features camera shots of the waters that Saartjie sailed to her demise. Watching them flow is akin to sailing along beside her, to her doom. It also features many editorial cartoons which ruthlessly degrade Saartjie and her plight. They remind me of today’s political cartoons, penned by neocons that similarly make jokes about the misery of the masses.

  Legal battles over the repatriation of Saartjie's remains have spanned decades. They may continue through June 2002. There are many callous and racist fools, devoid of souls, who are more concerned with the legal precedents concerning the property rights of museums than with African humans' rights to the stolen remains of their kin. Their offensive "legal" and political antics may continue to delay Saartjie's homecoming.

  It has taken 200 years for racist French curators to do right. Until 1976, anyone could enter the Musée de L'homme in Paris, France and view Saartjie's brains, breasts, buttocks, and vagina floating in jars. Now, only her skeleton remains. Her flesh has mysteriously disappeared from storage. Certainly, the same ilk of racist freaks, who once displayed Saartjie publicly, may now exploit her stolen flesh privately.  Fortunately and defiantly, Saartjie's spirit soared far beyond her flesh long ago. The return of her bones will give the Khoisan all they need to give Saartjie a proper burial and to celebrate her homecoming.

  There will be no more laughing at Saartjie's tragic torture. We now laugh with Saartjie at her belated victory. There will be no more tears of pain shed over her posthumous exile. We now cry tears of joy as we rejoice over the serenity that this closure will bring to her haunted spirit and restless soul. We have prayed her to rest.

  Kudos to the mighty Khoisan people who fought tirelessly for their sister. Kudos also to a gifted sister poet named Diane Ferrus whose passionate 1998 poem, in tribute to Saartjie, moved politicos to sincere action. Never underestimate the power of a woman with a pen. Never underestimate the will of any people with a mission. Never underestimate the haunting screams of a sister across oceans of time...

  
  

  Dear Sister: Welcome Home Saartjie. We, who have shared some of your pain, embrace your eternal spirit with all of our love. Rest in peace, in African soil...With joy, love, respect, and reverence...Always...

  
  

  { UPDATE: "To the beat of marimbas and the melody of gospel songs, the skeleton and bottled organs of Saartjie Baartman were returned in a white wooden box draped in an African cloth. On Thursday, May 2, 2002, Baartman's remains will be flown back to South Africa almost 200 years after she was taken in 1810... Baartman's remains will be stored in a military hangar before a funeral in August or September..." }

   

  {UPDATE: On Friday, August 9, 2002, Saartjie's remains were buried in a remote valley in the eastern cape of South Africa, where she was born over 200 years ago. She was finally given a proper Khoisan funeral in a formal ceremony hosted by President Thabo Mbeki... }

   

  

   

  A CLAY REPLICA OF SAARTJIE

  • 10:15 PM
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