EP 12 Sarah Baartman - She Was Never Just a Body | Women And Resistance

What does it mean to resist when the whole world has decided your body is a spectacle? 

In this episode Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. and Adesoji Iginla sit with one of the most shattering stories in the long history of Black women’s resistance: the life of Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, who was taken to Europe in 1810, exhibited as a freak show attraction under the racist name “Hottentot Venus,” and whose remains were not returned to her homeland until 2002 nearly 200 years after her death.

This episode explores the life and legacy of Sarah Baartman (played by Aya), a woman whose story highlights the brutal history of racial exploitation, dehumanisation, and resistance. Through her narrative, we reflect on the ongoing fight for human dignity and the importance of remembering and honouring our history.

But Saartjie Baartman’s story is not simply a tragedy. It is a story of a woman who kept her tortoise-shell necklace across oceans, who refused to fully undress for European scientists even when offered money, who spoke five languages, danced her people's traditions, and played music until the end. It is a story of the Khoikhoi people who had already survived centuries of colonial violence before she was born. And it is a story of poets, activists, scholars, lawyers, and heads of state who refused to let her remain dishonoured.

► IN THIS EPISODE:

*The Khoikhoi world Sarah was born into — and what colonialism had already stolen from her people
*How she ended up in London and Paris, and what the historical record does and does not tell us about her consent
*The court case of 1810: abolitionist theatre or genuine advocacy?
*The science of dehumanisation: how Georges Cuvier and European “scientists” weaponised her body
*The long fight to bring her home — from Nelson Mandela’s request to Diana Ferrus’s poem that changed French law
*What her story reveals about the Black female body as a contested political site — then and now
*Contemporary resonances: from the Williams sisters to Kim Kardashian, and why these comparisons matter
*What resistance looked like from inside Saartjie’s own skin

 Takeaways

*The life of Sarah Bateman and her historical context
*The brutal exploitation and dehumanisation of Black bodies in history
*The ongoing fight for racial justice and human dignity
*The importance of remembering and honouring marginalised histories

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Sarah Baartman's Story
01:47 The Early Life of Sarah Baartman
03:18 Colonial Exploitation and the Journey to Europe
04:39 The Exhibition and Objectification of Sarah Baartman
06:32 The Legal Battle and Public Perception
07:49 Life in Europe and the Struggles of Identity
09:32 The Dehumanisation and Racial Science
10:54 The Legacy of Sarah Baartman
14:11 The Struggles of Identity and Humanity
16:44 The Legacy of Exploitation and Misrepresentation
20:17 The Fight for Dignity and Recognition
26:57 A Call to Action Against Racism and Exploitation

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:03.084)
Yes, greetings, greetings and welcome to another episode of Women in Resistance. I am your host, Adesuji Igilla, and with me, before she goes into character, is Aya Fubera Eneli Esquire. Today, I'm...

It's a bit of bittersweet but I mean we've been doing this for a while but this story pulls at so many strings. But let me just give you a brief overview. So through Cape Town, through London, through Paris, through everything they did to her body, her name and her freedom, she kept that small necklace, most likely a gift from her mother.

during her PVT rides.

The mom herself was a victim of colonialism, died when the lady we're about to speak to was an infant. All the way to her own eventual passing in France in 1815 at just the age of 26 years old.

It's, I mean, let's let her tell her story. So today we're speaking to one who would consider not just a body and should never be remembered as just a body. And that's we're talking about Sarah Batman. Welcome.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:43.124)
Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:46.496)
Okay, Ms. Batman, for those who are unaware of what your story is or how you came to this stage of your life, could you just give us a brief overview of how you came into the world's consciousness?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:20.988)
I appreciate the invitation to speak with you today and to share my story.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:46.883)
born.

in an area now partitioned and part of South Africa. My people are the Koi Koi people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:10.016)
by the time I was born.

The Dutch had already made inroads and had taken our land and had enslaved my people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:33.214)
The story as it has been told is that my mother died when I was still fairly young. Some say as an infant, some say I was about two years old, but I was not raised by my mother.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:53.214)
my father forced to work for the Dutch.

was what we would consider a cattle herder.

and he was supposedly killed by the San people who also were the original inhabitants of the land and no doubt fighting for their own lives and their heritage.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:26.697)
you

It is said that at that time...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:37.484)
I like the vast majority of my people were in servitude to the Dutch.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:50.74)
my name.

as recorded in history is Sarah Bartman.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:02.814)
I married and at about the age of 16, my husband who was also Koi Koi and I had a child and that child died in infancy.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:23.644)
and my husband was subsequently killed by the Dutch.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:39.06)
before I ever set foot in Europe. Colonial violence had already shaped my life.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:54.64)
I served in Cape Town, serving the Dutch.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:04.434)
a young woman with a dead baby has a very unique role to play in that time period.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:17.31)
she can be hired as a witness.

And for those of you who are so privileged not to know what that is, let alone to have lived it, I will explain.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:37.056)
A wet nurse takes care of the children, the infants of another, of their owner, of their master and mistress. And they give sustenance to another child from their own body.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:02.192)
I breastfed other people's children to keep them alive.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:12.585)
at that time.

I served, some might say I was owned, by a Peter Willem Cesar.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:27.454)
gave me to his brother Hendrick Cesar to be their wet nurse.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:37.984)
Hendrik Zessar was as many of the Dutchmen.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:49.162)
obsessed with the bodies.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:55.091)
of the koi koi women.

I actually for a moment had a relationship with a Dutch soldier.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:10.762)
but he would soon leave.

and of course left me behind.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:22.42)
during my service to Hendrick Cesar and his family.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:32.116)
giving up my body to nourish their own.

a Dr. William Dunlope.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:46.048)
saw me and took even greater interest in my body parts.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:01.93)
He was a physician.

catering to the Dutch community, but he also traded in animals and other, in their words, exotic items from our land, which he would send back to Europe for profit.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:33.31)
And at some point, he had the brilliant idea on his part.

that given the fascination of Europe and Britain at the time with what they called freak shows, you can look this up. They had in Piccadilly Square, had

a human being who was about 18 inches tall. They had a man who was considered the Irish giant. It actually started in the courts of their royals, who would often find in their terminology freaks to entertain the royals. And these human beings would be

things to occupy and

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:42.858)
titillate the Royals and their guests.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:54.602)
William Dunlap and Hendrik Sazer like to tell the story and that has certainly been reproduced in a number of books and documentaries.

that they approached me.

with the offer.

to go to England, to Britain.

for a five year period to show my body with particular interest in what they would call botox.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:38.205)
because

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:42.752)
According to their scientists, I and many women from my region had what they called stegopia and that was a protruding derriere unlike anything that they encountered amongst their genteel women.

and that supposedly I agreed to this.

with the understanding that I would make half of all the profits and then I would be returned to my homeland as a free woman.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:35.464)
I would ask the indulgence of your.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:41.99)
audience to consider.

If upon getting half of the proceeds, I would then be returned free.

Adesoji Iginla (12:56.652)
What does that mean about you in the first place?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:57.246)
Was I really free to have entered into this so-called contract? Of course, no evidence has ever been presented of any such contract. And although I was a polyglot, I spoke multiple languages, as did and still do many Africans on the continent. I did not read and write.

I suppose it would be like all the treaties and contracts that Africans supposedly signed over the centuries with these colonizers.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:49.181)
nonetheless.

I departed.

on the HMS Diadem.

a three month journey.

to England.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:16.798)
What could have been my thoughts on that voyage?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:23.378)
A life already marked with so much loss.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:38.142)
These ships carried cotton and silver.

and animal hides.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:49.024)
some animals and of course me.

Sarah now called Saraki by the Dutch little Sarah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:09.504)
Could I have known at the time that I would be introduced to the world as the hot and tot Venus?

Adesoji Iginla (15:27.97)
So how did that name?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:28.893)
in England. And there were...

pamphlets that were circulating just arrived from London and by permission, listen to their words and their treachery by whose permission will be exhibited here for a few days. Exhibit it, exhibit it.

Adesoji Iginla (15:57.55)
Exhibited. Yeah.

language.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:01.564)
at Mr. James Sale Rooms, corner of Lord Street.

That most wonderful phenomenon of nature, the Hottentuck Venice, the only one ever exhibited in Europe.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:24.404)
and they went on to advertise, in viewing this wonderful living production of nature, the public have a perfect specimen of that most extraordinary tribe of the human race. The contradictions, are we human or not? Because at the same time,

They said that the koi koi people, the sand people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:01.598)
We made it with orangutans that we were the bridge between apes and human beings.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:21.066)
This is an example of what was put out.

and the people came in droves. Two shillings to see me in a makeshift cage with scenes of Africa in the background.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:49.458)
I was told to dance and to play instruments.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:58.005)
with barely any coverage. I refuse to perform naked though. And they would have a little apron from my people just covering my lady parts. But with my buttocks out for the world to see.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:24.178)
And then there were the private parties.

the ones where wealthy and connected people.

would pay for me to be their entertainment.

and in those settings since they had paid so much more.

I would be prodded.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:00.372)
They would examine my labia. They described.

it as.

hangs from a turkey's neck.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:17.512)
and even their women.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:22.1)
wanted to look under and inside and touch me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:34.76)
in a strange land.

Who would I call who was going to save me?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:53.552)
I arrived.

in England 1810.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:04.032)
Some say I was born in 1789. How do they know?

There are no birth records.

I was not any more special than any of the little koi koi kids. Others say I was born in the 1770s, sometimes, at some point.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:31.55)
Well.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:36.126)
slavery had just, the slave trade had been abolished in 1807 in Britain.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:47.892)
But slavery itself had not been abolished.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:54.794)
but an organization.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:59.86)
who was fighting against slavery.

was so appalled at what was happening to me that they did file a lawsuit.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:18.09)
to try and free me.

and to stop my exploitation because that is indeed what it was.

Adesoji Iginla (21:24.686)
So it's issue.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:39.946)
There are no records for my exact voice. Just what they say I said.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:01.992)
before the judge.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:08.222)
with a translator. They claim that they interviewed me for three hours.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:18.915)
and

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:24.436)
that I said I was being very well taken care of. And it was my choice.

to be paraded around and exhibited in the way that I was.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:01.298)
And so the case was dismissed with one caveat though.

that my almost naked body was offensive to the sensibilities of a civilized society and therefore I needed to be covered.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:29.138)
And so the exhibition started again, but this time I would have on very tight, flesh-toned clothes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:44.158)
And would you believe it?

the same society that supposedly was so offended by my nakedness. We're now no longer interested in paying their two shillings to see me clothed.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:04.922)
and as the crowds dwindled.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:13.086)
William Don Lope.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:17.706)
sold his rights to Hendrik Sazar.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:25.222)
Again, does this make sense if I truly had signed a contract and had free will?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:39.36)
with less money coming in from the exhibits of my body in Piccadilly Square, a very famous place where today

Africans who visit England still flock to in awe.

with no remembrance.

the history.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:14.9)
but by Harrison.

of dehumanization.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:23.676)
So they decided to take me on a tour. They took me to Ireland and Manchester and other places where again I could be exhibited.

scantily clad.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:49.436)
in 1811.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:54.657)
to prove a point that still eludes me. Hendrick Cesar actually had me baptized.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:14.196)
I was exhibited all across.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:23.272)
Great Britain and the surroundings.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:33.268)
Hendrik Sazar decided to sell me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:42.336)
to an animal handler.

Cyr Rue was his stage name.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:54.972)
and he took me to France. For in his words,

French people could not miss out on seeing this specimen.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:16.99)
He claimed I was closer to an animal than a human. And my body during a time when the concept of racial science became the rage, my body became evidence in a lie about racial superiority.

Adesoji Iginla (27:29.976)
John X.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:44.359)
Even then I resisted for they wanted me stark naked just like the animals. And I would often be exhibited in a cage with a baby rhinoceros.

and I was given commands just like the animals were to sit, to bend over.

to the jeers and the howls and the laughter.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:19.284)
and then enters.

Yeah

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:28.192)
Cuvier was a scientist and he claimed his interest in me was merely scientific.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:11.472)
struggle to find the words.

to express my horror.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:22.878)
and yet not to be offensive to you who are listening to this story.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:33.832)
red eagle.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:43.876)
all parts of my genitalia exposed, measured.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:01.066)
it.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:05.086)
wrong.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:09.523)
photographs.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:20.134)
Not once, not twice, more times than I can count.

and I stopped counting.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:37.684)
There are depictions of me.

Smoky.

There are stories of how much alcohol I imbibed, some even saying that my death was the result of alcoholism.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:00.168)
Tell me.

How would you have survived?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:18.272)
What would I call my dead mother? My dead father?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:26.612)
My dead husband, my dead child, my enslaved people, who would I call?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:38.824)
in this foreign land. Who would I call?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:48.254)
And they were those who judged me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:56.554)
They said I was a prostitute.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:02.91)
And would you believe it at the same time?

French women got so concerned about their men's fascination with the black woman's body that in their vaudeville shows, they started to put on blackface and wear outfits padded.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:26.592)
to extend their botox.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:43.056)
Now the scene wasn't even any attempt at presenting me as a human being. I was a circus animal like all the other animals.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:03.006)
And even then, I refused to be completely exposed. They offered me money.

and write about my gall in refusing even after their offers.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:29.18)
everything can be for sale.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:42.432)
Who knew when I made that voyage from Great Britain to France?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:53.406)
that in a mere 18 months I would be dead.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:02.686)
Perhaps they had told me I was boarding a ship to go back home.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:13.642)
I did not belong to myself.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:19.388)
I died in 1815.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:26.088)
depending on when you decide I was born. Some say I died at 26, for those who had my birth as 1789, but for others, I was a little older. I was still a young woman.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:44.286)
They blamed me for my death.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:49.514)
Some said I contracted syphilis or gonorrhea from being a prostitute.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:59.858)
And if I wear, who wear my patrons?

Adesoji Iginla (35:06.653)
Question.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:12.362)
Some say I died from pneumonia, that I lived in such squalor and hunger.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:25.46)
and that in one of the later shows they were trying to get me to dance and I pointed to my throat and to my knees and I could not do the movements.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:43.882)
Some say I died of alcoholism.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:51.122)
You know what? died up.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:00.703)
I die to free myself.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:06.472)
I died of a broken heart.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:13.138)
I died of great deep despair.

What would be my fate?

for the rest of my life? What was I staying alive for? Could I ever be free?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:33.408)
Do you know?

the demons that come to live in your head when you have experienced what I've experienced. Do you know? I hope you never get to know.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:52.744)
And so today I'm on the other side, but I am not at peace.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:03.784)
I'm not at peace as long as...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:09.756)
My daughters and my sons are being exploited just like I was and there are so many. Maybe not in a cage in Piccadilly Square.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:28.48)
But there are shores of Africa.

where Europeans and Arabs come to play with our bodies.

As I speak with you today, there is a woman, there is a man somewhere locked up, a different kind of cage that's still being exploited. How can I be at peace? I hear their cries.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:07.988)
But even death was to give me no respite.

Do you know what they did?

Adesoji Iginla (38:19.278)
No, I have no idea.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:32.992)
under the guise of science.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:40.468)
He made a cast of my body.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:47.092)
He preserved my skeleton.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:53.534)
He cut out my genitalia and pickled it and put it in a jar.

and they cut out my brain and did the same. And it was displayed in the museum in France.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:19.2)
My brain and my genitalia were on display until 1974.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:32.478)
My cast and my skeleton stayed up even longer.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:40.628)
for science.

I was still being exhibited. They were still making money off of me, even in my death.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:00.491)
Books were written and a poem was written and you have the likes of what is that horrible man?

Gout maybe? Do you remember the picture?

First of Carolina Beaumont naked with her derriere sticking out and the champagne glass. And then Kim Kardashian reproduced it with the same degenerate photographer and they think this is entertainment.

Adesoji Iginla (40:24.024)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (40:28.546)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (40:41.154)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:48.414)
and a poem was written which drew attention again to a crime that was in clear view of everybody. A museum and a country benefiting from the ongoing exhibition of my body for no other reason than I was an African woman.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:16.732)
and Nelson Mandela.

When he became president, he asked for my remains to be returned to South Africa.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:33.724)
It took eight years.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:39.646)
And even then, it was the cast of my body and my skeleton, for they claimed they no longer knew where my genitalia and my brain were.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:57.985)
But the irony doesn't end there.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:08.768)
Today is what date?

Adesoji Iginla (42:11.576)
Today is the 6th of May, 2026.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:18.792)
on the 6th of May, 2002.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:25.864)
My remains, my skeleton.

was returned to self.

the sixth of May.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:40.628)
I was buried on August 9th, which is considered Women's Day.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:54.132)
But the story doesn't end.

I was buried, I am buried on a hilltop.

on a land that is still owned by the descendants of those who enslaved my people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:25.712)
around my grave.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:30.898)
is a fence that looks like a cage.

Nobody goes there to visit me. Even in death, I am still in a cage.

And even now, my grave site gets vandalized.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:06.718)
I did not come to tell this story for you to come and gape at me. Will I show my derriere to you today? Will I be topless as in my years of exhibition and the cast that stayed in the public view?

everything exposed. I did not come here for that, although that may have been your interest to see the hot and tot Venus, a very derogatory term by the way for my people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:54.73)
I came.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:59.434)
to share this story.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:04.554)
my life.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:10.066)
as a warning and as a cry.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:18.986)
for help.

Not for me any longer, but for the living.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:36.188)
if you had lived during the time of my exploitation.

What would you have done?

Would you have shunned me? Would you castigate and judge me? Would you fight for my humanity? Which, by the way, is an extension of your humanity.

would you have called to task the real barbarians, the real ones who acted worse than animals?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:23.358)
Whatever your response is, what are you doing today for all the sex trafficking victims?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:38.004)
Are you looking the other way? Hoping someone else takes action?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:46.282)
for my sisters.

We must, it is our divine right to celebrate our bodies as we were made by our creator.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:02.57)
But I do have a question.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:10.312)
Let's say indeed that I had signed a contract, that I did know the contents of this contract. Let's say indeed that I was getting paid half of the proceeds. Again, two men trafficked me and they were going to only split 50 % themselves and give me 50%. We know these are lies. You should know these are lies. But

just say that that was indeed the case. Let's suspend all reality, all common sense.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:52.562)
if I participate in my own exploitation.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:58.367)
And I ask that because today that Botox is still a thing of fascination, isn't it? So much so that some of my daughters are going to get their surgically enhanced.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:21.79)
Maybe it helps you get a husband. Maybe it helps you sell more clothes or sell more record albums. Maybe it makes you more famous.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:39.804)
Is the exploitation really any different if you participate in it yourself?

Or does that not continue to feed into a system that sees us only as objects of some depraved person's desire?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:03.592)
And what lessons, what message would you give to our sons and our daughters today?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:21.204)
Black women's bodies.

The judgment of black women's bodies didn't stop with me. Obviously didn't stop at my death.

still ongoing today. Now people don't have to pay the two shillings or go to the museum. They can pull it up on their screens.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:50.977)
But the harm I contend is just as deep when you strip the humanity of a person or when you strip your own humanity in pursuit of what? And those demons.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:19.582)
today.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:24.188)
In the area where I once lived and grew up, there is a Sarah Bartman Center.

for girls and women. A place of refuge open 24 hours, 365 days of the year. And for that I am grateful.

In 2015, 13 years after, my remains were finally given some measure of rest. Some measure of rest.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:07.85)
the students at the University of Cape Town.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:17.072)
in a demonstration against Cecil Rhodes and Jameson who had a hall named after him at the University of Cape Town.

They petitioned and the name of that colonizer, Jameson, was taken down from that hall and it was renamed the Sarah Bartman Hall. I am grateful for that because though I was silenced while I was on top of the earth.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:58.195)
Some have heard my voice and my cries from the other side have been felt in the hearts of enough people that there are some changes being made. But we must not stop.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:22.418)
understand that there are still

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:31.488)
I can call them the remains. That's what they will call them.

that the bodies, the entrails, the skeletons of so many of our people are still in drawers and closets and cupboards all across Europe. How can I be at peace? We all have to go home. We deserve the dignity of a

real burial. That is, that is part of who we are as an African people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:18.656)
Who will continue this fight? Not just for me.

and the parts of me that they still have. But for all the others, nameless, faceless, their stories untold.

Africa, have much work to do still.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:43.826)
and even as I speak.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:52.235)
There are young men and women risking their lives to go to the quote unquote Western world and to the Arab nations where their bodies are defiled, their spirits broken because we have not provided safety for our own on our own land.

So don't hear my story and just shed tears for me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:28.478)
You must come against this racism wherever it exists, whether it is couched in science, in philosophy, in anthropology, in literature, in politics, in religion.

Adesoji Iginla (54:35.31)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:50.772)
You must fight it wherever it exists because it is merely a guise.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:59.218)
strip us of our humanity. Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (55:03.448)
Thank you, thank you. I mean, it's hard to follow that without a deep sense of history, understanding what pain is. I mean, it just goes to show that the sort of barbarism that was meted out to black people across the world was uniform.

The only difference is the location. And so yes, we spent an hour with Sarah Batman. We're not going to refer her by the racist term she was called. Her story remains a cautionary tale for us to understand history, embrace history. And as we'll see over here, on women and resistance, it's important to resist, reclaim.

and also remember. And that remembering is what we do here and we continue to do. So next week, this is the 12th of this series. So which means we're going to have a review of the 12 that has gone before. so I'm going to thank Ms. Batman again.

for coming through. Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (56:36.524)
So my name remains Adesuji Gengla until next week when we come to you with a review of the 12 previous episodes. It's a good night and God bless.