Sideshow Attractions

Ota Benga k

Sarah Baartman

Ota Benga was a Congolese Pygmy brought to the United States by a missionary named Samuel Phillips Verner to be put on display like a carnival oddity at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.  In 1906 Ota was placed on display with an orangutan in a primate house cage at the Bronx Zoo.  He was housed and displayed along with other native indigenous "specimens" of the world, including the Apache prisoner of war Geronimo. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2183271.stm

The remains of an indigenous South African, who was paraded around Europe in the early 19th century, have been laid to rest. The burial ceremony for Sarah (Saartje) Baartman - who was dubbed the "Hottentot Venus" in Europe - took place in a remote valley in the eastern Cape where she was born more than two centuries ago.

Her remains were brought back to South Africa from France where they had been on display at the Museum of Mankind.  South African President Thabo Mbeki has declared her grave a national monument and said a second monument will be erected in her honour in Cape Town.

Sarah Baartman - a Khoisan, or indigenous woman - was taken from her homeland in 1810 after a ship's doctor told her that she could earn a fortune by allowing foreigners to look at her body.  Instead, she became a freak-show attraction investigated by supposed scientists and put under the voyeuristic eye of the general public.

She was forced to show off her large buttocks and her outsized genitalia at circus sideshows, museums, bars and universities. She died in 1816 aged 26, a penniless prostitute.

When President Mbeki addressed the ceremony he said:  "The story of Sarah Baartman is the story of the African people."

"It is the story of the loss of our ancient freedom... It is the story of our reduction to the state of objects who could be owned, used and discarded by others." Mr Mbeki said scientists of the day had used Sarah to promote grotesque racial stereotypes.

He quoted Baron Georges Couvier, who dissected Sarah's body after her death, as saying: "Her moves had something that reminded one of the monkey and her external genitalia recalled those of the orang-utan."