Did Sarah Baartman have a medical condition?

Sarah Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman who was displayed in 19th-century Europe as a freak show attraction under the moniker Hottentot Venus, a term that was later attributed to at least one other woman who was similarly exhibited.

Baartman died at the age of 26. “Inflammatory and eruptive illness” was given as the cause. It’s been hypothesized that illness, syphilis, or alcoholism was to blame.

After dancing with Baartman at one of Reaux’s gatherings, naturalist Georges Cuvier made a plaster cast of her body before dissecting it.

Her bones were finally returned to South Africa for a befitting burial in 2002, after a protracted legal fight with French authorities.

Baartman has now become a symbol of race and gender politics, with several South African organizations dedicated to women survivors of abuse bearing her name.