For many fans, Beyonce Knowles is an inspirational individual they would die for. Not to mention, agree to everything she says and demands. It seems Chief Jean Burgess is not one of those fans as she slammed down her attempts to write Sarah's story and playing the part.
"Sarah Baartman's story is not American megastar Beyonce's to tell,” said the Chief of the Ghonaqua First Peoples.
"She lacks the basic human dignity to be worthy of writing Sarah's story, let alone playing the part," the Chief said in reaction to news US singer, songwriter and actress Beyonce Knowles was working on a film to portray and commemorate the life of the Khoikhoi woman Sarah Baartman, who was forced to perform in freak shows in London due to her gigantic buttocks.
"Ignoring the fact that the Khoikhoi is alive and that Sarah's story would have an impact on how we are portrayed, is a mistake of great magnitude," Burgess said.
Burgess, who represents the First Indigenous Peoples of South Africa, feels that Knowles had no right to tell the story.
Why Sarah Baartman? Why not a story about an Indigenous American woman? I can only see arrogance in her attempt to tell a story that is not hers to tell." She said constation, respect and acknowledging the existence of the Peoples were key to the story.
Just an insight to Sarah's story, she was born around 1789 in the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape, into the Gonaquasub clan, part of the Khoikhoi.
According to some history books, her large buttocks and "unusual coloring" made her a victim of slavery for colonial Europians who assumed they were racially superior.
She was taken to London where she was put on display in piccadilly. Englishmen and Women paid to see her half naked body displayed in a cage that was about a metre and half high.
In September 1814, she was sold to one Reaux, taken to France and exhibited in a cage alongside a baby Rhinoceros. Baartman mostly wore nothing and was exposed to various scientific studies.
She died in 1816 and instead of dignifying her, a plaster caster was made of her body and even more, her brain and genitals were put on display at the Musèe del'Homme (Museum of Man) in Paris until 197.
Well let's gossip more dear readers as to whether Beyonce took the right decision, or it is a slap right on the People's face?
Picture credit: abcnews.go.com
Entertainment SA | Celebrity and Gossip News
Article by: Tebogo Nkabinde
