AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY Profile picture
Aug 29, 2023 10 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Sarah Saartjie Baartman was cruelly exploited in Europe by being exhibited as a freak show attraction because of her protruding butt. After her death, her body was displayed in a Paris museum for over 100yrs.

The exploitation of Sarah Baartman.

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SARAH "Saarjte" Baartman of the khoikhoi people of South Africa was born in 1789 and was one of 2 women put on display as a "FREAK SHOW" act in England and then later France. Image
The men who promised her a life of pride in sharing her culture with the World tricked her, and though she was given pay she often was at the expense of verbal, sexual, and physical abuse. Image
You see the HOTTENTOT VENUS (Hottentot is very derogatory) had a very distinct look, because the women of her people had extremely large buttocks, and an abnormally elongated labia.
Nude photos of khoikhoi women with steatopygia were collected by white colonialists. Steatopygia is the accumulation of large amounts of fat on the buttocks, especially as a normal condition in the Khoikhoi of Southern Africa. Image
She was made to wear a coloured skin tight outfit revealing what was to be a naked black woman for the paying public to inspect, view, and allegedly at times for extra coin... have a "Private Showing".
When sold to another manager, she was taken to France where she was forced to perform at private parties in homes of the most affluent and wealthy, with the final act being an invitation to the party attendees to approach, touch, feel, and inspect a laid down SARAH'S GENITALS
She was to be later handed off to medical professionals who drew the details of her body. She died penniless from diseases in Paris, as a sex slave in 1815.
Her body had a molded cast made, her brain & pelvic bone put in PRESERVING JARS with her flesh & corpse being discarded. Image
Her remains were finally reclaimed by South Africa, and was given a ceremonial burial in 2002 (187 years later after her death). SARAH never saw her homeland again... Only parts of her body in death Image
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More from @AfricanArchives

Apr 1
41 years ago today, singer, songwriter and Motown legend, Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father, a day before his birthday.

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On April 1, 1984, Marvin was fatally shot by his father in their Los Angeles home. On the day of the murder, Marvin and Marvin Senior were arguing about a misplaced insurance policy document.
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Mar 21
A sundown or sunset town was a town, city, or neighborhood in the US that excluded non-whites after dark.

The term sundown came from the signs that were posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown.

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In most cases, signs were placed at the town's borders which read: “Stranger/Negro, Don't Let the Sun Set On You Here." The exclusion was official town policy or through restrictive covenants agreed to by the real estate agents of the community. Image
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Mar 21
Today we honour the memories of all the lives lost on this day in 1960, when white police in apartheid South Africa killed over 80 black people and wounded 186 on what is known as the Sharpville Massacre.

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The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21st March, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa. It resulted in the largest number of South African deaths(up to that point) in a protest against apartheid.
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Mar 19
“fuck it, i’ll do it!” —black women

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Mar 16
35 years ago today, Latasha Harlins, 15, was fatally shot by a Korean shop owner, Soon Ja Du, over a bottle of orange juice, it became a major spark for the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

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Mar 14
"I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake." —Leopold II of Belgium

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King Leopold II set out for the Congo and declared it his territory proclaiming it his property, the people and the land, quickly turning the land into a money-making enterprise.
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