Friday, 6 November 2015

Friday Inspirations: A Story Every Black Woman Or Woman Need To Read...Saratjie Baartman

#FridayInspirations



I was inspired to write about this touching story as our Friday Inspirations topic for this week after watching a video about her life. 

Sometimes as a lady, we want to show the world that we are beautiful, ''sexy'' and attractive that we most times put on semi-naked clothes or go to the extreme by taking nude pictures and sharing them online. Today's Friday Inspirations is not to judge anyone cos trust me, I am far from being perfect. But let's take a moment and go back...back means centuries ago. I hope the short story of this black lady Saratjie Baartman inspires you greatly.

The story you are about to read will shock you, irritate you, make you cry, make you think and above all, inspire you:

The lady above is by name Saratjie Baartman. She was 25 years old when she died. But why is she naked and a skeleton beside her? Good question...
Saratjie Baartman was born in the year 1789 and died in the year 1815. She was 20 years old when she was taken from South Africa to London in the year 1810. She probably hoped the life she was about to face in London is for the better little did she know what was in store for her.

When she came to London, the people especially the men were very much fascinated with her body features...her tiny waist, her big booty, full lips, her big breasts and wide hips (do take note that before this time, the waist trainers/corsets we know now haven't yet been originated. It was actually from the way her body was structured that the idea of waist trainers/corsets on how it will make the woman body to look like after it was worn was originated. Women desired so much to have her body hence they tired so hard to get it through the wearing of corsets).

Because of the fascination of the people and mostly the men, no woman has being seen with that type of body features, she was then forced to become the first ever video vixen. She was forced to dance naked every time to keep the people or mostly men entertained. She was put in a cage against her will, beaten till she began to dance naked for her audience.

Saratjie appeared before the court for 3 hours where she was questioned. She claimed that she moved to London on her own free will and that she wasn't sexually abused. She also stated that she was assured half of every profit gained from her work and she doesn't want to return back to her family. The case was then dismissed. However, there were many suspicions or fowl play from people about her testimony.

She was moved from London to Paris after staying there for 4 years. Many desired to lay with her because she was an amazement to them. As a result of her sleeping with various men, she contacted an infection and died...That didn't end there.


After she died, rather than bury her probably, a plaster cast was made of Saratjie Baartman's body. When the plastic casting of her body was done, her private organ and brain were cut out of her body and preserved in different jars. Her flesh was also removed out of her body leaving just her skeleton. Then her skeleton was placed beside her body cast and was displayed in a museum in Paris let people know that that's the skeleton of the woman standing there.

This remained like this till 1985 when the museum removed the plaster cast of her body, her skeleton, her private organ and also her brain from been displayed. In 2002, Nelson Mandela requested that her remains be sent back to South Africa where she was properly buried.

Till date, people still try to have the way her body was structured at all cost. After reading this story of how a 20 years old lady was treated because of her body features, do you think it is right for a lady to go around naked or half naked or display naked pictures of herself online because of how ''sexy'' she believes her body is?

I leave you with this, ladies please honour and respect your body.

Be Inspired

You might also like: A Letter To The Ladies: Dear Ladies

I hope you were inspired by this post? If you were, please do share with others to inspire them too. 
Please Note-
If you want to take part in the Friday Inspirations Forum or you are in the dark on what it is all about, please kindly find out more details here >>> 

Here is last week's Friday Inspirations >>> Friday Inspirations: Celebrating Talent (Episode 10)- A Hand-Woven Car Made By A Nigerian or you can search this blog for previous Friday Inspirations with the hashtag #FridayInspirations to not feel left out.

To get inspired by more posts about life, please do search this blog on this blog's search engine with the hashtag life e.g #Life or #Inspiration or #FridayInspirations I hope you love and get inspired by what you find.

Yours Truly,
Chidinma

Photo Credit
facebook.com

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2 comments :

  1. Unknown10 November 2015 at 00:53

    I think there's something about the dates that aren't right.
    Such a touching story. She died a poor death.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous23 November 2015 at 15:34

    her shape ain't my kinda of spec tongue out.........but african's suffer from slavery sha

    ReplyDelete

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