No final decision had yet been taken on where to bury the remains of Saartje Bartmann, the Khoi woman exhibited in freak shows in Europe in the early 1800s as the ”Hottentot Venus”.
A representative for the Western Cape cultural affairs department, Heinrich Wyngaardt, said two dates had been mooted at a Saartje Bartmann consultative forum meeting in Cape Town last week.
The majority of those at the meeting which included representatives of the Griqua and Khoi communities as well as academics, were in favour of August 9, not only because it is National Women’s Day but also because it is the International Day for Indigenous People.
Earlier this month Deputy Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Bridgitte Mabandla, who last month led a delegation to France to recover Bartmann’s remains from the Musee de l’Homme, mentioned two dates for the burial — August 9 and September 24, Heritage Day.
Wyngaardt emphasised that no firm date had yet been decided on.
Bartmann, born near the Great Fish River in 1789, was 21 when she left Cape Town for London in the company of an English ship’s surgeon. She was displayed in freak shows throughout England, and became somewhat of a celebrity.
She also appeared in freak shows in Paris during 1815 and died there at the end of that year.
Her remains were brought back to South Africa on May 4 and are being kept at a military morgue in Wynberg. – Sapa