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Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: a ghost story and a biography, by Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009. xiv, 232pp. ISBN 978-0-691-13580-9. ?21.95, $29.95
Do we really need another book on the phenomenon of the 'Hottentot Venus', the woman variously known by the names of Sara or Saartjie, Baartman or Barthman (and once by a Khoekoe name long lost)? Brought to Europe in 1810, she was exhibited in London, the provinces and then in Paris, where she died, amid much titillating showmanship of and supposedly scientific interest in her body in general and buttocks in particular. Zachary Macaulay saw her as a victim and a slave and brought a lawsuit against her handlers to clarify her situation and make a point. Speculation before and after her death swirled around whether this intelligent woman, a baptised Christian, who could speak several languages was really fully human or represented a missing link between humanity and the great apes. A campaign to "bring Sara home" began in 1995 and involved Mandela, Mbeki and the French authorities. Her remains were finally returned to South Africa, only after a special bill had been passed in the French National Assembly, and reburied with daylong ceremonies in 2002.
Google "Hottentot Venus" and you will come up with 5,070 links beginning with a substantial and acceptable Wikipedia...