Poet Lebo Mashile is working on a Sara Baartman play and fans are excited

09 May 2019 - 07:00 By CHRIZELDA KEKANA
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Lebo Mashile is working on a play about Sara Baartman.
Lebo Mashile is working on a play about Sara Baartman.
Image: Instagram/Lebo Mashile

The ongoing slander and criticism towards Caster Semenya has reminded South African creatives of the similar treatment that was given to Sara "Saartjie" Baartman. One of them was poet Lebo Mashile who revealed that she's working on a play in Sara's honour.

Taking to her Twitter page, as part of the conversations that were ignited by Caster Semenya's case against the IAAF about her testosterone levels, the actress-cum-scriptwriter explained why it was important for Africans to stand up and defend Caster.

"Sara Baartman. They took her from Africa, made a mockery of her buttocks. She became a white person's show, centuries later the very same white people are in surgery to look like her. History will not forgive Africa if we allow them to turn Caster's God's design into a mockery."

Lebo explained that it was important for black women to look at how the world saw them through Sara's eyes and said it was a huge part of the reason she was working on the play.

"I’ve been working on a piece about the life of Saartjie Baartman for the past 3 years. It will be on at the Market Theatre in September. It’s called Venus vs. Modernity. Saartjie’s life is the lens through which every single black woman must pass to understand how we are seen."

She gave more details about how far the project was and how they were moulding it to share Sara's life brilliantly.

Tweeps were excited at the prospect of the theatre play and also got to talking about how great it would be to have the icon honoured with a narrative that gives her the dignity she deserves!



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