Representation and Black Womanhood

Sarah Baartman's iconic status as the "Hottentot Venus" - as "victimized" African woman, "Mother" of the new South Africa, and ancestral spirit to countless women of the African Diaspora - has led to an outpouring of essays, biographies, films, interviews, art installations, and centers, comprising a virtual archive that seeks to find some meaning in her persona. Yet even those with the best intentions, fighting to give Baartman agency, a voice, a personhood, continue to service the general narratives of European documentation of her life without asking "What if we looked at Baartman through another lens?" This collection is the first of its kind to offer a space for international scholars, cultural activists, and visual artists to examine the legacy of Baartman's life anew, specifically finding an alternative Africanist rendering of a person whose life has left a profound impact on the ways in which Black women are displayed and represented the world over.

As the "Hottentot Venus," Baartman remains a perpetual object of fascination for scholars examining race and colonialism GordonChipembere has brought together historians, gender theorists, literary scholars, anthropologists, artists, and others to explore Baartman's legacy The book offers important insights into changes in the discursive practices of the academy, and the varied interpretive lenses that reflect contemporary identity politics

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Natasha Gordon-Chipembere is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York.

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