Fans of Beyonce are thrilled that the singer is planning to write and star in her movie about a South African slave. However, this doesn’t sit well with a South African chief.
Earlier last week, British publication The Sun newspaper claimed that the 34-year-old hitmaker is on a film project that will feature the troubled life of Saartjie ‘Sarah’ Baartman, a South African woman who was enslaved from the late 1700s to the early 1800s against her will.
In the history of South Africa, Baartman was a Khoikhoi woman exhibited in freak shows because of the Europeans’ fascination with her large buttocks and unusual color.
Khoikhoi is a Dutch term to describe the people during Baartman’s time who are living in what is now South Africa. The term is now derogatory.
She was taken to London where people paid to see her half-naked body on display. In September 1814, she was sold to one Reaux, taken to France, and exhibited in a cage alongside a baby rhino.
Baartman’s life serves a reminder of extreme degradation, exploitation, and violence against black women’s bodies throughout history.
MTV News reports that in the centuries following her death, feminists and activists have worked to instill dignity and respect to her body.
Baartman died in 1816 and a plaster cast was made of her body. Her brain and genitals were placed in jars that were left in display at the Musee de I’Homme in Paris until 1974.
It wasn’t until the democracy of the late Nelson Mandela, who asked the French government to return her remains, was she provided a proper burial in her hometown in South Africa which did not happen until August 2002.
A Center for Women and Children under Saartjie’s name serves as a shelter for domestic abuse victims in South Africa.
Color Lines reports that the case of Baartman, who was known as the Hottentot Venus, has since been invoked in descriptions of the worst of Black women’s exploitation.
The Sun reported that Beyonce has already assembled a team of acting coaches and writers to help her with the project.
However, Jean Burgess, chief of Ghonaqua, First Indigenous Peoples says that the former Destiny’s Child member should forget the project and just continue to make music.
Speaking to News 24, Burgess claims that the “Irreplaceable” singer is just doing this to display arrogance. Burgess says that Ms. Knowles lacks the basic human dignity to be worthy of writing Sarah’s story, let alone playing the part of the exploited woman.
The chief of Ghonaqua adds that the life story or biopic of Baartman is not for Beyonce to tell and says that consultation, respect, and acknowledging the existence of First Indigenous Peoples were fundamental to the story.
Burgess asks why does Beyonce have to choose Baartman to be the subject of her film and not just a simple indigenous American woman?
Gamtkwa Khoisan council member Kobus Reichert however, said that they do not see any problem with a movie on Baartman’s life or Beyonce starring on it. That is as long as the community in the Eastern Cape, where Bartman was born, will not be sidelined.
Reichert adds that the movie has to be done with utmost respect to Baartman’s humanity and with the right cultural understanding.
Reichert says that he was only informed of Beyonce’s plans to make a movie on Baartman’s life when she was approached for a comment last week.
Queen Bey is not new to movies. In fact, she has appeared in several films including “Dreamgirls” where she earned a Golden Globe nomination, “Cadillac Records,” and “Obsessed.” Her latest films include “Life is But a Dream” and “Epic” both released in 2013.