South Africa restores dignity to woman treated like circus freak

WITH a solemn burial ceremony, South Africa yesterday sought to restore dignity to an indigenous woman who was displayed like a circus freak in Europe two centuries ago.

Saartjie Baartman, also know as Sarah, died a penniless prostitute and had her skeleton and bottled organs stored in a French museum until South Africa negotiated their return this year.

Baartman became a symbol of the humiliation and subjugation experienced by both the indigenous Khoisan and blacks under colonialism and then apartheid. “The story of Sarah Baartman is the story of the African people,” President Thabo Mbeki said at the funeral.