Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Sarah Baartman
c. 1789 – 1815
Taken from the Cape and exhibited in Europe; brought home in 2002 and buried with honours
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A Khoikhoi woman taken to London and Paris and put on show. Her remains stayed in a Paris museum until 1974. Mandela asked for her back in 1994; South Africa buried her on Women's Day in 2002, in the ground she came from.
Sarah Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman from the Eastern Cape who was taken to Europe in the early nineteenth century and exhibited in London and Paris as a curiosity. She died in 1815, aged around twenty-six.
After her death French anatomists made a cast of her body and kept her skeleton and remains, which were displayed at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris until 1974 and held in storage after that. Nelson Mandela asked France to return her in 1994. Eight years of negotiation and a vote of the French Senate followed, and her remains came home on 3 May 2002.
She was buried on 9 August 2002 — South Africa's Women's Day — at Hankey in the Eastern Cape. A district municipality now carries her name. She is remembered here not for what was done to her but because a country insisted on bringing her home and giving her back her name.
After her death French anatomists made a cast of her body and kept her skeleton and remains, which were displayed at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris until 1974 and held in storage after that. Nelson Mandela asked France to return her in 1994. Eight years of negotiation and a vote of the French Senate followed, and her remains came home on 3 May 2002.
She was buried on 9 August 2002 — South Africa's Women's Day — at Hankey in the Eastern Cape. A district municipality now carries her name. She is remembered here not for what was done to her but because a country insisted on bringing her home and giving her back her name.
- Mail & Guardian — Saartjie Baartman remains returned to SA
- Art-Law Centre, University of Geneva — Sarah Baartman: France and South Africa
- UNESCO CIPDH — Saartjie Baartman Memorial
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it.