SAARTJIE BAARTMAN:
Reclaiming our dignity and the rights of African Women
Cheryllyn Dudley MP (ACDP)

Thursday, 8 August 2002

Cheryllyn Dudley, MP of the African Christian Democratic Party, and member of the Portfolio Committee on Health, gave the following speech in the National Assembly today:

“Loss of person, place, potential, future and pride…today trafficking in woman is a multi-billion dollar market. But of course, even in Saartjie’s day someone was profiting from her being demeaned, ridiculed, shamed and degraded. Traffickers and pimps, past and present, prey on the dreams and vulnerabilities of women seeking employment and opportunities for the future.

Research shows the most popular destinations for trafficked women, are countries where prostitution is legal, such as the Netherlands and Germany, and now… South Africa…is brazenly, knowingly and wilfully contemplating decriminalising and legalising prostitution and joining their ranks. South Africa will no longer be a “transit” country as it is today but a legalised and official destination.

Legalisation of prostitution, pimping and brothels not only causes an increase in trafficking in women to meet the demand created by a legalised sex industry, but makes it difficult to hold traffickers accountable for their activities, as traffickers and pimps evade prosecution by claiming the women knew what they were getting into. Prosecutors have a hard time establishing the line between voluntary and forced prostitution when it is legal as the prosecution’s case depends on proving that the women did not consent. Women like Saartjie Baartman, will have no more protection in South Africa, once Prostitution is decriminalised, than she had in Europe.

Slavery was a hot topic at the time Saartjie Baartman was being exploited, and a young Jamaican, Robert Wedderburn, pressured the government to intervene in Saartjies situation on the grounds that it amounted to slavery. The attorney general backed him, but the courts ruled that Saartjie had entered into a contract of her own free will and the sexual exploitation went on. To quote Michael Platzer, Head of Operations for the United Nation’s Centre for International Crime Prevention, “The laws help the gangsters. Prostitution” he says “is semi-legal in many places and that makes enforcement tricky. In most cases punishment is light”.

When she was not being paraded for the mob, Saartjie was displayed at society functions not unlike those frequented by Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and her Eugenicist friends. Saartjie, was repeatedly studied by doctors and anthropologists, who invariably concluded that she was evidence of the superiority of the white race.

In addressing issues seriously affecting women and therefore society as a whole, Sweden passed a law in 1998, on violence against women that created a new offence, “gross violation of a woman’s integrity”. Prostitution was included as a type of violence against women and as of 1 January 1999, the “purchase of sexual services” was prohibited and punishable by fines and/or imprisonment. Sweden’s approach recognises the harm done to women under conditions of sexual exploitation and is premised on the belief that women have the right to dignity, integrity and equality. In holding users accountable this new law effectively addresses the demand for women to be trafficked for prostitution and Sweden’s example should be commended and emulated.

South Africa you have rightly judged the actions of those who trafficked, pimped and aided and abetted these heinous inhumane crimes against Saartjie, don’t now condemn yourself by decriminalising these same actions within your very own borders.

“Prostitution, sex tourism, trafficking in women and other practices that reduce women to sexual commodities have had a particularly devastating impact on women in developing countries and oppressed groups of women in so called developed countries. The sexual exploitation of any woman is cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, that establishes the standard of treatment for all women and is incompatible with the inherent dignity and worth of the human person”. (The preamble in a document compiled by the coalition Against Trafficking in Women entitled, “A Proposed United Nations Convention Against Sexual Exploitation”).

Saartie Baartman was born in 1789, the year of the French revolution, with its espoused ideals of equality and liberty. She was from a clan of Quena people who were among those derided by ignorant white settlers as “Hottentots” and today the Quena fall under the collective label of Khoisan. Like the Khoisan, many South Africans during the Apartheid era were classified as “coloured” and today these same people would also like to reclaim their dignity and rights as African women. Sadly affirmative action for black people is seen by them as just as debilitating as white “job reservation” and other apartheid measures were.

Claiming Khoisan identity has been strategic for some in reclaiming their rights but not necessarily their dignity. The return of Saartjie Baartman’s remains to South Africa has undoubtedly facilitated a process of reclaiming that dignity and identity. The ACDP welcomes these developments as significant in the healing process of a people and a nation who have experienced deep hurts.

The state has a responsibility to ensure the protection of its people against such monstrous violation, abuse, insult and degradation. "

Government, as far as I have been able to ascertain, does not fund any work, which helps women who choose to turn from prostitution and made a new life for themselves. In Cape Town BEAUTY FOR ASHES is a home, which helps women do just this. They receive next to no help from anyone, and your contribution would be greatly appreciated. www.givengain.com

Tel: (021) 439 2528. THE HOUSE in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in another.



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For me information please call Cheryllyn Dudley at 082 890 6520