200 Years Before Nicki Minaj And Strippers Exploited Themselves, There Lived Sarah Baartman.

Her Story Is Neither Sexy Or Funny

Sarah Baartman was a black house servant who became popular  became popular in the 19th Century because of the size of her behind that would cause total mayhem when she was forcefully made to appear in private shows, which were the equivalent of modern day “strip clubs”

“Saartjie” which was her nickname, was an indigenous Khoisan from the rural areas of Southern Africa.

Born around 1790, Baartman’s home area was then being ravaged by a series of frontier wars and skirmishes, sometimes within the local African tribes, on other occasions involving white adventurers pushing out from Cape Town.

When Sarah Baartman was in her early 20s, she was sold to London by a Scottish doctor named Alexander Dunlop, accompanied by a showman named Hendrik Cesars.

Although just 4ft 7in tall, Baartman’s bottom was particularly well-developed, something that led to her being taken to London in 1810 as ‘property’ part-owned by a British military doctor, Alexander Dunlop, to be shown-off on stage as a freak.