Clifton C. Crais, Pamela Scully. Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A
Ghost Story and a Biography. Princeton Princeton University Press, 2009.
xiv + 232 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-13580-9.
Reviewed by Joyce M. Youmans (independent scholar)
>From Biography to Ghost Story: The Search for Sara Baartman
When historians Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully began research for “Sara
Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography”, they
intended to uncover details about Baartman in the years before she became
known as the Hottentot Venus. Aware that most scholarship has focused on
her pre- and post-mortem display as a scientific oddity, exotic curiosity,
and freak of nature, the authors wondered: "What if we looked at the
totality of her life and resisted the temptation of reading her history
backward as a story of inevitable victimization?" (p. 4) This question led
them to five countries on three continents where they conducted research
in more than a dozen archives and libraries and interviewed possible
relatives of Baartman. Unfortunately, they discovered only fragmentary
scraps of enticing information that offered little real insight into their
elusive subject.
Crais and Scully's frustration over this lack of evidence is palpable
throughout the text. They note, for example, that Baartman gave only three
interviews; of those, two are probably fiction. The third, which took
place in London, was conducted in Dutch (Baartman's second language) under
the scrutiny of court officers "and then translated and handed down to
history as a paraphrase" (p. 5). The authors also outline some of the more
disheartening logistical aspects of their research experience: a Parisian
archivist denied them access to a centuries-old document for fear of
causing a "diplomatic incident," according to an archivist quoted by the
authors (p.183), and dealing with the South African government proved
challenging. (One important document was said to have disappeared.) At the
beginning of the book, the authors openly admit the defeat of their
original goal: "We will always know more about the phantom that haunts the
Western imagination [the Hottentot Venus] ... than we do about the life of
Sara Baartman" (p. 6).
Nevertheless, Crais and Scully breathe life into Baartman as thoroughly as
they can, frequently situating her story within historical events and
physical geography to compensate for the gaping absences in the archival
record. Throughout the book, they correct a few misconceptions and provide
some thoughtful analysis. For example, they emphasize that Baartman was
born in South Africa in the 1770s and not in 1789 as is generally thought.
Her earlier birth is significant because it means she witnessed the shift
from an African to a colonial way of life. By the time Baartman crossed
the sea to London in 1810, she had lived and worked in Cape Town and its
environs for more than a decade. When her feet touched European soil, she
was "a worldly woman in her thirties, not an innocent child recently
brought from Africa's interior" (p. 57).
Even so, Baartman never was a free woman, and males hoping to profit from
her otherness largely dictated her life. One of her owners, Hendrik Cesars
(a Free Black), first displayed her in 1808 to medical patients in Cape
Town to pay off his debts. About this situation, Crais and Scully note:
"In all likelihood Sara became something of an early nineteenth-century
exotic dancer and may have provided sex as well" (p. 51). Later, during
Baartman's time in London, the authors "can well imagine that the
relationship between Cesars and Sara moved, if it had not been so
previously, to one of sexual intimacy" (p. 81). While this type of
conjecture, which appears throughout the text, adds detail to the authors'
historical analysis, it opposes their stated intention for this project.
Since Crais and Scully chose to exclude such educated guesswork from the
footnotes (perhaps in an effort to lengthen a relatively short book),
parts of the text reinforce Baartman's status as a victim, a blank
signifier (or "ghost," as the title states) who, throughout history, has
been molded to fit others' agendas.
Baartman herself may have attempted to fulfill others' expectations, and
Crais and Scully argue that an astute comprehension of European desires
coupled with an impressive acting talent made her a convincing performer.
She also may have altered her life story--leaving out certain details and
embellishing others--to suit various interviewers. Ironically, assuming
that Baartman was a savvy strategist in terms of her image, the same
tactics that benefited her while alive probably contributed to the erasure
of her true self from history.
Although the authors make repeated efforts to grant their subject agency,
the enticing tidbits of information that suggest Baartman may have
exercised her own will seem forced. The authors interpret Baartman's
refusal to allow Georges Cuvier to examine her genitals, even while
artists rendered and scientists measured the rest of her body, as "a
profound statement of self" (p. 135). But, only five pages later, the
dramatic way in which they describe the fate of Baartman's body after her
1815 death seems to undermine her act of defiance: "Now she could no
longer resist their entreaties. Spreading her legs open, the men examined
Sara's genitals, to their delight discovering her 'apron.' Science as
rape, institutionalized" (p. 140).
Another way in which Crais and Scully emphasize Baartman's agency is by
stressing that she was a multilingual businesswoman who, at least to some
degree, controlled her image as the Hottentot Venus. In a move unusual for
the time, Baartman held the copyright and was the official publisher of
two famous Frederick Christian Lewis aquatints (dated September 1810 and
March 1811) that represent her in indigenous dress; both were converted
into broadsheet advertisements for her performances. Since Baartman was
the only person in London who had knowledge of Khoekhoe clothing, body
paint, and accoutrements, the authors "think that Baartman sought to
render her depictions with verisimilitude, even if the overall design of
the poster was out of her control" (p. 75). Further revealing the absence
of her power (after suggesting its presence), however, they deem it
unlikely that Baartman saw royalties from her own image. They also argue
that Alexander Dunlop, Baartman's owner at that time and the originator of
the Hottentot Venus idea, may have made her the publisher in an attempt to
allay Londoners' fears that she was being exploited. Supporting this
theory, Crais and Scully emphasize that the second aquatint, which
appeared in the wake of the London court case that questioned Baartman's
liberty, presents a more conservative rendering of its subject than the
first.
Confusing to the reader, however, is that Dunlop "“got rid” [reviewer's
emphasis] of the tight body stocking that suggested a nude Hottentot
Venus" in October 1810 to make Baartman's performance more conservative
(p. 91). This apparently was an attempt to forestall additional criticism
about Baartman's possible slave status. However, according to Crais and
Scully, the second, less conservative aquatint presented Baartman “in” a
body stocking: "Lewis produced a second aquatint in March 1811, depicting
Sara closer to how she was then being exhibited" (p. 75). The authors
state that the depiction is not an exact replication of Baartman's costume
and note that the second image is less revealing since it presents her
from the side rather than the front. Nevertheless, the contradiction in
the body stocking discussion needs acknowledgement and explication.
Another point of confusion is Crais and Scully's conflation of the
Khoekhoe and the Gonaqua peoples. While they state in a footnote that
"[r]econstructing Khoekhoe culture and society is notoriously vexing" (p.
186), in the text they merely note that the mostly pastoral Khoekhoe lived
among the Gonaqua. They then repeatedly speak of these two peoples as one,
as in the following passage: "Strokes somewhat bolder than one would
usually have found among the early Gonaqua of the Eastern lands paint her
[Baartman's] face. She holds a staff, smokes a pipe, and wears shoes--the
latter clearly not part of original Khoekhoe dress" (p. 75). Is the reader
supposed to gather that the two peoples' material cultures are
interchangeable? This lack of clarity weakens research findings the
authors present as straightforward fact. For example, Crais and Scully
note: "There is always a tension within European reportage.
Seventeenth-century observers typically portrayed Khoekhoe as a dirty,
even vile people. In the more romantic imagination in the second half of
the eighteenth century, Gonaqua often earned the reputation for being kind
and generous, and their women fair and beautiful" (p. 15). Are the
Khoekhoe and Gonaqua here being discussed as two distinct peoples?
Two particularly strong aspects of the book are the authors' contrast of
the cultural climates in London and Paris and their discussion of
Baartman's significance to South African nation-building in the 1990s. The
London public and the city's legal system were critical of Baartman's
display and concerned about her status as a possible slave. (In 1810, “The
Case of the Hottentot Venus” was brought before the King's Bench; the
ruling declared Baartman free.) By the time Baartman performed in Paris,
however, her reputation as the Hottentot Venus preceded her; she had a
predetermined role to fill. Moreover, Parisians were seeking entertainment
during a particularly stressful time in French history. Public outcry was
nonexistent when S. Reaux, who purchased Baartman from Taylor in 1815, and
displayed her for ten hours a day at the Palais-Royal, placed a collar
around her neck: "Here the pubic mark of slavery, the collar, elicited no
complaints" (p. 128). Even when Parisian journalists were sympathetic to
Baartman's plight, "[t]he public understood Sara Baartman in the context
of a wider cultural enthusiasm of the exotic" (p. 130).
In South Africa, Baartman's post-mortem treatment also was less than
desirable as various groups attempted to "claim" her and take possession
of her remains, which were repatriated from the Museé de l'Homme in August
2002. After much controversy and outcry, she was buried in the outskirts
of Hankey (near Port Elizabeth) simply because one primary source
suggested she was born in that area. Although Baartman had become a symbol
for South Africa and for women everywhere, her gravesite fell into
disrepair within months and was even vandalized. Metal bars now surround
her grave: "Returned to South Africa, Sara Baartman remains behind bars,
imprisoned still" (p. 168).
Throughout “Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a
Biography”, Crais and Scully stress the difficulties of attempting to draw
conclusions from piecemeal secondary sources. They also examine the power
dynamics that problematize seemingly straightforward facts. Unfortunately,
large gaps in the archival record thwarted their attempts to write a
straightforward biography (thus the wise placement of "A Ghost Story"
before "a Biography" in the subtitle). As a result, they use a fair amount
speculation to construct a plausible portrait of Baartman--they bestow her
with hopes, desires, and fears. This approach, which is more creative
writing exercise than factual analysis, is flawed as scholarship. Since
the authors criticize others who have spoken for Baartman throughout
history, it is also contradictory. Nevertheless, “Sara Baartman and the
Hottentot Venus” may be a necessary addition to scholarship about
Baartman. The product of an exhaustive research mission, it indicates that
the search for details about Baartman's life can now end, for "her story
... also is a cautionary tale about silence and the limits of history, and
about what happens when someone, or something, comes to stand for too
much, when the past can bear no more" (p. 6).
Citation: Joyce M. Youmans. Review of Crais, Clifton C.; Scully, Pamela,
“Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography”.
H-AfrArts, H-Net Reviews. September, 2010.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=29642
H-AfrArts
H-Net Network for African Expressive Culture
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