Answer to Question #190106 in History for Sbonelo

Question

Briefly discuss why Sarah Baartman was symbolic of gender and racial discrimination against African women in the 19th century.

Answer 1

Brought to Europe seemingly on false pretences by a British doctor, stage-named the "Hottentot Venus", Sarah Baartman was paraded around "freak shows" in London and Paris, with crowds invited to look at her large buttocks.

Today she is seen by many as the epitome of colonial exploitation and racism, of the ridicule and commodification of black people.