Was Sarah Baartman a Khoi?

Sarah Baartman died two centuries ago after spending years in European “freak shows.” Rumors regarding a potential Hollywood film based on Baartman’s life have aroused debate.

Sarah Baartman died on December 29, 1815, but her exhibition lasted until the end of the year.

Until 1974, her brain, skeleton, and sexual organs were on display in a Paris museum. It took until 2002 for her remains to be repatriated and interred.

She was paraded around “freak shows” in London and Paris, with people asked to look at her big buttocks. She was brought to Europe presumably under false pretenses by a British doctor, stage-named the “Hottentot Venus.”

Was Sarah Baartman a Khoi?

Sarah Baartman, also known as Sara or Saartjie, was a Khoisan woman from the Western Cape of South Africa who was born around 1789.