Sara Baartman discussion

Lest We Forget

Carina Ray

Caster Semenya 21st century 'Hottentot Venus'? The disgraceful treatment of Caster Semenya is eerily familiar to that of another South African woman: Saartjie Baartman. In this case, we must not allow history to repeat itself!

I n March 1815, a group of French scientists, Georges Cuvier among them, examined the living body of a young South Afri- can woman named Saartjie Baartman at the Jardin du Roi in Paris. Cuvier and his colleagues were particularly fascinated

with the size and shape of Baartman's genitalia and buttocks. as were the hordes of people who paid to see her exhibited in London and Paris between 1810 and 1815. Derisively known as the "Hottentot Venus". Baartman's death in December 1819 did not end her degradation. After dissecting her body, Baartman's excised genitals and brain were preserved in formaldehyde and displayed at the Musée rie l'Homme in Paris, along with her skeleton, until 1974. Her remains were then unceremoniously removed from public view and stored in a dusty cabinet where they remained until 2002. That year, after decades of protest including a plea from Nelson Mandela, France reluctantly repatriated Baartman's surviving body parts to South Africa, where she was given a proper burial. Fast-forward nearly 200 years and the genitals of another young South African woman, runner Caster Semenya. have once again become the target of Western scientists' prodding and poking. Hours before the 18-year-old was scheduled to compete in the 800m final of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August 2009, the International Association of Athletics Federations (lAAF) confirmed leaked press reports that Semenya was being made to undergo gender verification testing.

While athletes are regularly subjected to various forms of test- ing to ensure that their performances are fraud-free, including at times "gender-proofing". Caster Semenya's case is characterised by an utter disregard for her humanity, not to mention medical confidentiality. This is the crux of the matter. Even athletes sus- pected of doping are considered innocent until proven guilty. Not so with Miss Semenya, who entered Berlin's Olympic Stadium on I9 August with the weight of the world's gaze upon her body. In less

"If Semenya outperformed her

Western competitors^ imagine

what she and countless Biack

South Africans could achieve if

the piaying field was level."

than a month a second media leak refocused the world's attention on the intimate interior of Semenya's young body, even before she had the time to contemplate what may well be information she never knew about her own physique.

Semenya's story is further complicated by the unfortunate but inextricable link between national prestige and international sports competitions. One need only look at the intense pressure that South Africa is currently under to "get it right" for the 2010 FIFA World Cup or the elation that swept Brazil when Rio de Janeiro won the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics to figure out that nationalism is deeply tied to sports. This is especially the case for "newly industrialised countries" (NICs), like South Africa and

Brazil, because their bana fides are being put to the test on the international stage. This argument extends to athletes, who are a measure of their nations' wealth and human capital. While many developed countries can boast of top-notch training facilities that produce elite athletes, others, especially developing countries, take pride In athletes who shine against all odds.

In the case of Caster Semenya, her triumph over rural underde- velopment and poverty, which still characterise so much of today's South Africa, even though it is technically an NIC. means ihat her fate is linked to South Africa's potential glory in ways that are far more charged than the nearly all-white Springboks. After all, if Semenya managed to outperform her Western competitors, who have the benefit of the best athletic training in the world, imagine what she and countless other Black South Africans could achieve if the playing field was level? No wonder Athletics South Africa (ASA) was in such a rush to have Miss Semenya compete in Berlin. The question, however, is whether they did so knowing that her gender was being questioned and that gender verification tests were being requested.

The most recent evidence, in the form of emails exchanged between ASA officials, suggests that testing was already under

IS I NEW AFRICAN November 2009

009

way in South Africa prior to Semenya's arrival in Berlin and that ASA officials were aware that the issue might come up again in Berlin. Nonetheless they let her compete. ASA clearly failed Caster Semenya. Even if at the conclusion of the testing undertaken in South Africa, ASA was genuinely satisfied that Semenya should compete as a woman, their decision to thrust her into the interna- tional spotlight when the lAAF raised concerns about her gender suggests that they prized the gold medal they knew Semenya would win over her emotional wellbelng.

Yet what happened in Berlin could still have been averted had t h e lAAF possessed a shred of ethical decency. Instead they waited until shortly before Semenya's gold medal final to launch their own independent investigation of her gender. The very nature of such tests, under normal circumstances, would already be emotionally traumatic for the person undergoing thein. let alone a young woman who was on the verge of the run ot her life. As if all of this was not horrific enough, the lAAF failed to keep the tests a private matter between Semenya, the lAAF. and health care professionals. As Semenya stepped on the track, media outlets the world over were busy debating her legitimacy to run asa woman.

The Immediate effect of the news was evident in the nasty statements her competitors made about her: Italy's Elisa Cusma Piccione called Semenya a man. while Russia's Marlya Savinova admonished journalists to "just look at her". Perhaps they hoped with all eyes on Seinenya, nobody would notice how poorly they performed. Good sportsmanship is often in short supply in the upper echelons of world athletics, but the disgust that accompa- nied Piccione and Savinova's comments is even more indicative of the hostile climate that the lAAF's mishandling of the situation created for Semenya. That she was able to perform well enough to win the gold medal is a testament not only to her athletic ability, but also to her grace under fire.

But let us not kid ourselves, Semenya is an 18-year-old young woman who, despite her brave face and taking-it-all-in-her-stride demeanour, has been made to endure a hellish bodily invasion in

We must not allow Caster Semenya (above) to become the 2l5t century's "Hottentot Venus"

front of the worid. May her family. South Africa, and all people of conscience continue to love and support this courageous and talented young woman.

Two centuries separate Baartman and Semenya, yet they are inextricably linked by the same fraught history that surrounds the West's fascination with and disregard for the Black body. Broadly characterised by an absence of ethics, this history includes the infamous Tuskegee Experiment in which the US Public Health Service (PHS) intentionally allowed 399 African-American men to be ravaged by tertiary syphilis because PHS scientists were only interested in collecting biological data on the disease from the men after they were dead. It also includes the different ethical standards that National Geograpíiícapparently uses when deciding which nude bodies it will display. If in doubt, ask yourself when you last saw a bare-breasted white woman splashed across the pages of National Geographic? Now ask yourself, when was the last time tbe "masculine" body of an elite white female athlete was pried open in full view of the world to determine her eligibility to compete as a woman?

For those who dismiss the idea that Baartman and Semenya can be viewed within the same analytic lens, I would simply say that their obvious differences as historical subjects do not negate the shared ways in which their Black bodies have become public spectacles and (inis)treated as anatomic curiosities that deserve neither respect nor dignity. It is precisely the fact that nearly 200 years separate them and that Semenya is in so many ways categori- cally different than Baartman that underscores the powerfully consistent way in which the Black body has heen dehumanised and viewed with a dangerous mix of fear and fascination across time and space. Saartjie Baartman"s short life came to a tragic end, in part, because her body was not strong enough to withstand the weight of the world's gaze. We must not allow Caster Semenya to become the 2ist century's "Hottentot Venus". BNA

November 2009NEW AFRICAN 119

Copyright of New African is the property of IC Publications Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed

to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However,

users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.