Peripheral Visions: Heterography and Writing the Transnational Life of Sara Baartman

Abstract

Sara Baartman became famous in 1810 when she appeared on stage in London as the ‘Hottentot Venus’. Yet Baartman’s life is relatively difficult to document: she speaks rarely in the historical record; her words are always translated and paraphrased; she left no diaries nor letters, so often the staple of biography. On the other hand, the record literally overflows with other sorts of information. World famous scientists studied Baartman, writing articles about the supposed abnormality of the black female body that resonated in literature, science and politics from Dickens to Freud. Cartoonists and satirists left behind many images of the ‘Hottentot Venus’. However, we argue that we should not conflate those writings and pictures with the person of Sara Baartman.2