Eroticism, Spirituality, and Resistance in Black Women's Writings

Epilogue

Epilogue A Poem for Sara Baartman I’ve come to take you home— home, remember the veld? the lush green grass beneath the big oak trees the air is cool there and the sun does not burn. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill, your blankets are covered in buchu and mint, the proteas stand in yellow and white and the water in the stream chuckle sing-songs as it hobbles along over little stones. I have come to wrench you away— away from the poking eyes of the man-made monster who lives in the dark with his clutches of imperialism who dissects your body bit by bit who likens your soul to that of Satan and declares himself the ultimate god! I have come to soothe your heavy heart I offer my bosom to your weary soul I will cover your face with the palms of my hands I will run my lips over lines in your neck I will feast my eyes on the beauty of you and I will sing for you for I have come to bring you peace. I have come to take you home where the ancient mountains shout your name. I have made your bed at the foot of the hill, your blankets are covered in buchu and mint, the proteas stand in yellow and white— I have come to take you home where I will sing for you for you have brought me peace. Diana Ferrus It is up to us as black women to take our historically beleagured bodies and images back from the clutches of capitalistic and patriarchal hegemo- 224 / Eroticism, Spirituality, and Resistance in Black Women’s Writings nies. Diana Ferrus, who is of Khoisan descent like Sara Baartman, wrote the above poem while studying in Utrecht, Holland, in 1998. Many believe that it was this poem that catalyzed Nelson Mandela into action to reclaim the remains of his countrywoman from France in 2002. One hundred and ninety-two years after she was taken to Europe under false pretenses, Sara Baartman was brought home and given a proper burial in South Africa. In the words of Dr. Willa Boezak, “It took the power of a woman, through a simple loving poem, to move hard politicians into action.”1 It was through another poet that I came to know of Sara Baartman. Years before this research was even conceived of, on my way from New York to Boston, I borrowed a book from a friend to read on the airplane. It was Elizabeth Alexander’s first collection of poems, The Venus Hottentot. I had heard the story before in some undergraduate class, but it had never inhabited any space in my psyche except as an extreme example of the horrors of slavery and colonialism. The reality of Sara’s tragic life began to take shape after reading Alexander’s poem, “the Venus Hottentot.” The poem haunted me for more than a decade. It brought to life this woman—black like me— separated from her family and everything that was familiar to her, suffering untold humiliation and degradation daily from people who saw her only as a scientific curiosity and freak of nature unworthy of human dignity. I stumbled upon Ferrus’s poem while doing research on Sara Baartman for this study. Upon reading Ferrus’s poem and the news clippings about the return of Sara’s body to her people in South Africa, I felt that I—like Sara and the Khoisan people—had come full circle. One poet’s work had compelled me to inhabit Sara’s story for more than a decade and contemplate the historical and contemporary ramifications of black women’s sexual history in the New World, while another poet’s work had allowed me to put the issue to rest. It was my preoccupation with Sara Baartman that led me to begin interrogating how black women were portrayed in literature and popular culture. Like Candice Jenkins, I understand the impetus behind the “salvific wish”: the desire to save black women from such a dishonorable fate. However, the suppression of black female sexuality can never be the answer. In denying our sexuality, we deny our very humanity. In the end, our detractors win. We collude with them in denying ourselves full subjectivity. Our sexuality is God-given to be celebrated, enjoyed, and controlled by us and no one else. When Sara Baartman agreed to go to Europe, it was with the...