Mari Blogga

One of the first black women to be identified as a victim of human sex trafficking was Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman.  She was mockingly dubbed the "Hottentot Venus" by Europeans because, during her brief life, her body was cruelly exposed and subjected to public scrutiny. Additionally, her experience confirmed Europeans' already present, highly harmful sexual obsession with the bodies of African women. At the Gamtoos River, which is now known as the Eastern Cape in South Africa, Sara Baartman was born in 1789. Baartman and her family belonged to the Khoikhoi Gonaquasub tribe. Baartman was raised on a colonial farm, perhaps as a servant with her family. Her father, a cattle driver, passed away when she was still a young girl, and her mother passed away when she was just two. By the time she was a teenager, Baartman had wed a drummer from the Khoikhoi tribe. Together, they had a child who passed very soon after birth. Baartman's spouse was killed by Dutch colon...