When you look in the mirror what do you see? You are probably thinking this is a trick question, but it is
not. So, when you look in the mirror what do you see? Look a little closer. Do you see the effects of
colonization of Black women’s bodies? At first it is hard to see because you may not believe that the
colonization of Black women’s bodies has had any effect on you. Doubting that you have not been
affected is related to a phenomenon called the “third person effect” (Miles lecture). The third person
effect essentially says that a person feels that they are not directly affected by something, but other
people around them are. Having the third person effect in relation to the colonization of Black women’s
bodies is problematic because Black women are still at the bottom of the so-called Great Chain of Beings
and if their eyes are not open to what is happening to them, then they will not know how to begin to
address the problem. Throughout this book you will see examples of how Black women’s bodies have
been colonized. Together we can address the problem so that we get rid of the problem.
This book is dedicated to all of those who have asked themselves, “Why Me?” After reading this
book know, it isn’t you.
Peace, love, happiness and many blessings
Always Tiya Ashantia Trent
1
Have you ever heard of “intercultural performance” (Fusco pg 146)? According to artist and
writer, to Coco Fusco, “Since the early days of the Conquest, ‘aboriginal samples’ of people from Africa,
Asia, and the Americas were brought to Europe for aesthetic contemplation, scientific analysis, and
entertainment” (Fusco 146). People were stolen or, at best, coerced into leaving their native countries
to be put on display for other people’s amusement and entertainment. Fusco did an intercultural
performance to show the effects of colonization in the minds of society. In fact, Fusco traced several
instances where people of color were displayed for the amusement of other’s. One of Fusco’s entries
was: “1810-1815: ‘The Hottentot Venus’ (Saartje Benjamin) is exhibited throughout Europe. After her
death, her genitals are dissected by French scientists and remain preserved in Paris’s Museum of Man to
this day” (Fusco pg 146).
2
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see the effects of the colonization of Black women’s bodies; in me.
Saartjie Baartman
For Black women, Saartjie Baartman is the archetype of the colonized Black woman’s body.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1789 of the Khoisan people, Saartjie Baartman was just a young slave
woman when she was “discovered” by the good doctor William Dunlop of London. After speaking with
Dunlop, Saartjie boarded a ship with him bound for London. Maybe Saartjie thought her life would be
3
better in Londo; maybe she thought she would have the autonomy to make money as she saw fit; we
will never know her reasons for stepping onto the ship with Dunlop. What we do know is that soon
after moving to London Saartjie Baartman became known as The Venus Hottentot, put on display for
having what people in London thought were unusually large genitals and a buttock so big it was thought
“freaky”.
Saartjie spent around four years in London before moving on to Paris. It is said that when the
Parisian’s grew tired of the Venus Hottentot show, she was forced to turn to prostitution to support
herself and, as we may all guess, this did not work out for Saartjie. In fact, soon after moving to Paris,
Saartjie died. The colonization of Saartjie’s body caused her to employ any means to stay alive and in
fact this is what killed her. One of the causes attributed to her death is, “…‘inflammatory and eruptive
sickness’, possibly syphilis” (www.southafrica.info).
Even after death, Saartjie’s body suffered from colonization. A doctor by the name of Cuiver,
“…made a plaster cast of her body, then removed her skeleton and, after removing her brain and
genitals, pickled them and displayed them in bottles at the Musee de l’Homme in Paris”
(www.southafrica.info). For over 160 years Saartjie’s remains were displayed. It was not until the year
1974 that they were removed from the public view. In 2002 Saartjie’s remains were returned home,
were she belonged.
4
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see all the trouble that it is to be born a Black lady!
Photograph courtesy of ” Mail and Guardian On-Line, Article Entitled, “Fetching Saartjie.”
5
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see a caricuture of what I am supposed to be.
6
The Venus Hottentot
Died in the year 1815 at the tender age of 25.
7
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see a slave woman looking back at me.
8
“’Don’t let her speak!’ cried a half-dozen men sitting at the Akron convention in 1852. (Krass
160). Even though Sojourner Truth (formerly known as Isabella) was illiterate, she knew every verse in
the Bible and was adamant to show that the words in the Bible coincided with the words of the white
male ministers that she was getting ready to address. Truth ignored the audience’s protests and said,
“Where there is so much racket,” “…there must be something out of kilter. That ‘something’ she added,
was the domination of women and black men by white men” (Krass 17). Sojourner Truth had been in
Ohio attending the Akron Convention for two days before she was given the opportunity to speak. This
is where she delivered her Ain’t I a Woman speech.
In 1797 Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in Hurley, New York and named Isabella. Her
parents, Betsey and James, had nine children including Isabella; but the eight children before Isabella
had been sold into slavery, a fate that Isabella would not escape. Before being sold; Isabella lived with
ten other slaves in a cellar where they all ate and slept together. For one reason or another Isabella’s
master took a liking to Isabella’s parents and provided them with their own land to grow crops. (Krass
21-22)
Isabella stayed with her parents until the age of eleven before she was sold off. She was sold
because her master died and , “…his heirs decided to auction off his horses, his cattle, and his slaves”
(Krass 27). Isabella was sold to a man named John Nealy. Nealy owned a store and dock in the town of
Kingston, New York. (Krass 27) When Isabella was seperated from her famil, she felt for the first time a
sense of loneliness and, to make matters worse, “…She only spoke Dutch while the Nealys spoke only
9
English” (Krass 27). Because Isabella did not speak English and could not understand what her new
masters were saying to her, “…she was frequently beaten” (Krass 27). One evening she endured a
beating so bad that her father pursuaded a local fisherman to buy her from the Nealys. The fisherman, a
man named Schryver, and his wife treated Isabella well and she eventually learned to speak English.
None of this really much mattered to Isabella because she had lost just about everyone in her family;
they were either dead or sold off into slavery. According to Isabella, “…she had only one thing left to
pray for: her freedom” (Krass 28-29).
After being owned by the Schryver’s for about a year, Isabella was sold one more time to a John
Dumont. (Krass 31) Dumont was nice enough, according to Isabella; it was his wife and the other white
maids around her that she had to watch out for. They would often beat her. Isabella never disobeyed
her owners. Instead she held fast to her spirituality and thought that all of her hard work would be
rewarded one day. (Krass 31) Isabella thought that her reward came when she fell in love with another
slave named Robert, but his master did not approve and he was told not to see Isabella. The two
continued to see each other until one day a trap was set for them and Robert was nearly beaten to
death for disobeying his master. They never saw each other again. (Krass 33)
Isabella was now in her late teens and had proven she was strong and a good worker. But,
“…some of the other slaves believed that she was a little bit strange because all she seemed to do was
work and pray” (Krass 34). In spite of what they said, Isabella actually enjoyed their company and
eventually took another slave on the plantation as her husband. His name was Thomas and, according
to Krass, “Although Isabella and Thomas never became very close, they had a number of children
together” (34). The two of them had a daughter in 1815 and named her Diana. Over the course of
twelve years Isabella had four more children: Elizabeth, Hannah, Peter, and Sophie. When Isabella had
10
her children, she passed on the same lesesons that her mother had given her: “Never steal, never lie,
and always obey your master” (Krass 34).
And now that Isabella had children, she had to balance being a wife, mother and slave. When
she went to work in the fields, she would sometimes, “…strap one of her children to her back while she
hoed a field” (Krass 34). And if that did not work, “…she would tie an old sheet to the branch of a tree
and have one of her older children watch over the younger ones while they played on the makeshift
swing” (Krass 35). The one thing that helped Isabella was her strong faith in God. She prayed adamantly
and she seemed to always get her prayers answered.
Her prayers for freedom were heard in 1824 when news came that stated, “…the New York
legislature had passed an emancipation law requiring that all slaves born before July 4, 1799, be freed
on July 4, 1827. Male slaves born after the 4th of July in 1799 were to be emancipated when they were
28 years old, and femaled slaves were to be freed after their 25th birthday” (Krass 35). This meant that
Isabella would be freed in 1827 and, to add to her blessing, her master promised to free her a year
earlier if she worked extra hard, which she did. Around 1825 Isabella cut her hand in a bad accident. It
became infected and she was unable to work at her usual pace and therefore the year did not turn out
so well. In spite of this, Isabella asked for her freedom in 1826 and her owners, the Dumonts, refused.
Isabella would not take no for an answer and decided that she would run away before she stayed a
slave. She also made the hard decision to leave all of her children behind, except for her baby Sophie.
Isabella decided the best time to leave would be at dawn, “…There would be just enough light to calm
her fears, while the early hour would ensure that the Dumonts and their neighbors would be still be
asleep. She told no one, not even Tom or her children, out of fear that her plans would be discovered”
(Krass 36-37).
11
Isabella was fortunate enough to find a Quaker family that took them in and eventually bought
them from the Dumonts leaving Isabella and her daughter Sophie free; but their freedom came at a
cost. Her son Peter was sold and moved to New York where there were no emancipation laws. It deeply
sadened Isabella to know that her son would never be free but, just as she had done in the past, she
fought. Isabella fought so hard, she was able to get her son back.
After getting her son back and the passing of emancipation, Isabella ended up in New York City
where she began attending the Zion African Church. (Krass 48) During her time at the church, Isabella
became known for her passionate sermons. She even took up with a woman’s evangelical group that
walked around giving sermons and singing to the poor. (Krass 48). At 46, Isabella had lived with a deep
committment to religion, but it was not until, “…the summer of 1843 [that] Isabella decided to act on
God’s command that she leave New York City and become a traveling preacher” (Krass 57). And to
make everything complete, Isabella changed her name. After praying to God for guidance, Isabella came
up with the name Sojourner Truth. She thought this name was, “…a very suitable name for one of God’s
pilgrims….” (Krass 59-60).
While this is just a glimpse into the life of Sojourner Truth, we can imagine the myriad ways that
her body was colonized. From the time that she was born, her body did not belong to her or her
parents; it belonged to her masters, and she had to do what they wanted her to do. Her masters were
free to beat her; rape her; and even sell her. Sojourner’s body was also colonized by her master when it
came to her sexuality. Yes, she was able to have sex and get married, but not to whom she chose. She
was forced into marrying an older slave that was on the same plantation as she. The colonization of
Sojourner’s body did not stop there either. An unspoken rule was that she breed babies, so that they too
became slaves. In continuing the cycle that she herself lived, she would not have control over whether
or not her children would be sold to another slave master. Not only was Sojourner’s body colonized, but
12
her mind was colonized as well. She was never taught to read or write, but she still managed to write an
autobiography and she was able to recite all the passages in the Bible. And Sojourner’s strong faith in
God also helped her to overcome the colonization of her mind and body leading to her famous speech
Ain’t I a Woman in which she recounted the many ways that her body had been colonized:
“…That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over
ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mudpuddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have
ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I
could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it-and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I
a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with
my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman” (Daley 11)?
13
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see that enslavement did not kill me.
14
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see Fannie Lou Hamer staring back at me.
“All my life I’ve been sick and tired…Now, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Fannie Lou Hamer is the epitome of the colonization of Black women’s bodies. An essay written
by Chana Kai Lee focuses on three aspects of Hamer’s life: “…the first voter registration attempts, the
eviction from the plantation, and the Winona beating” (Lee 139). Through these three events in
Hamer’s life we will see the colonization that she endured and the spirit she had to overcome them.
15
Fannie Lou Hamer was like most Black folk in the 1960’s, she was poor and a sharecropper. But
in 1962 when the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to her town of Ruleville to
register voters, her whole outlook on life changed. At Hamer’s first meeting she said, “…Until then I’d
never heard of no mass meeting and I didn’t know that a Negro could register and vote” (Lee 141).
From that day forward Hamer was also committed to the fight for voter justice and became a part of the
“Indianola 18” (Lee 141). The Indianola 18 was a group of 18 Black voters who would push and push
until they each got the chance to register and vote.
Becoming a part of the Indianola 18 came at a great cost to Hamer. When she eventually
returned to the farm where she and her family sharecropped, she was met by her daughter Dorothy and
her husband’s cousin. (Lee 144) They ran out to meet her to let her know that her boss, Marlow, was
not happy with her decision to register to vote and in fact, “He demanded that Hamer return to the
courthouse and withdraw her voter registration accplication. If she refused, she had another option:
leave the plantation immediately, without her husband “Pap” and their belongings” (Lee 144-145). The
reason Pap had to stay behind was to fulfill their debt to him.
At this point Hamer was around 42 years old and was ready to fight for herself. She was tired of
her body being colonized by Marlow. She was not a child and was not going to be treated like one. In
fact, she started thinking about how unfair Marlow was being:
“I just thought to myself, ‘What does he really care about us?’ I had been workin’ there for
eighteen years. I had baked cakes and sent them over-seas to him during the war. I had nursed his
family, cleaned his house, stayed with his kids. I had handled his time book and his payroll. Yet he
wanted me out. I made up my mind I was grown, and I was tired” (Lee 145).
Hamer’s outrage was perfectly understandsble. By remaining a sharecropper she would always
in a sense “belong” to Marlow and therefore her body would stay colonized. Keep in mind Hamer is a
person, not an object or animal that can be owned; but Marlow thought that by threatening Mrs. Hamer
16
she would stay in his grips, fearing what was out in the world for her. Boy was he wrong. Mrs. Hamer
did indeed leave the plantation. She paid the cost of leaving her immediate family behind, but gained a
whole new family that would help her when she needed. (Lee 146-147)
Hamer went from having her body colonized by a white man to having her body colonized by
sexualized racial violence. (Lee 151) While traveling from a voter registration workshop, Hamer and
several other activists were arrested. But instead of just being jailed, Hamer was jailed and then
beaten. In her Hamer’s words:
“So, then I had to get over there on the bed flat on my stomach, and that man beat me-that
man beat me until he gave out….quite naturally, being beaten like that, my clothes come up, and I tried
to pull them down, you know…And then he-one of the other white fellows-just taken my clothes and
just snatched them up, and this Negro, when had just beat me until I know he was just [going to] give
out, well, then, this state partolman told the other Negro to take it. So he taken over from there….I had
to hug around the mattress to keep the sound from coming out. Finally they carried me back to my cell”
(Lee 151).
Speechless? I am, but Hamer was not. In fact, “Hamer would live to tell this story, and she
would tell it repeatedly until the day she died” (Lee 151). In that jail cell, Hamer’s body was colonized by
the white officers who can be seen as the newer version of slave master or overseer. They felt like they
could beat her like she was not a human being and tell her not to scream while it was being done. It
reminds me of the stories I have read about slave masters who beat their slaves for disobeying, for
learning how to read and write. In their eyes, Hamer had done the ultimate; not only did she know how
to read and write, but she was helping others to do the same and, to take it a step further, she was
registering Black people to vote, to be looked at as equals. So, to make matters worse, the white
sheriffs made the violence sexual by letting Hamer’s naked body be shown. It is a known fact that the
17
white masters and overseers would rape and even take Black female slaves as their mistresses. Leering
and looking at her naked body being beaten added to their sexual pleasure and, to make matters worse,
they had “Negros” beating Hamer as well. During slavery, the master would sometimes have an
overseer that was Black and did not care much for shiftless Negros and therefore did not mind beating
them into submission from time to time. In this case it is not known whether or not the Black men that
beat Hamer nearly to death voluntarily did it or were forced to do it under threat of being beaten to
death themselves. As I said above, Hamer told the story of her beating until the day she died, especially
when it was to her advantage.
18
1964 Fannie Lou Hamer when
credential committee decided not to fully recognize Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates
19
20
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see a Black woman’s body crying to be freed.
21
If there is a woman familiar with the colonization of Black women’s bodies, it Angela Davis. A
victim of colonization, Davis lived to tell her story and is still telling her story. One instance of the
colonization of Davis’s body comes from her identification as a Communist. Even though Davis was a
studious student who finished her Ph.D and acquired a job at UCLA, her affliation led to what she said
was the fight, “…for my right as a Black woman, as a Communist, as a revolutionary, to hold on to my
job” (Davis 255). Clearly, if Davis had let the colonization of her body go on, she would have been able
to keep her job at UCLA, but because she chose to fight for the right to choose whatever political party
she wanted to be a part of, she was shunned and told that her kind was not welcome there. But her
kind also had another dimension to it: she was not only a communist, but also a Black woman who was
thought to be revolutionary; and revolutionary meant trouble. Davis went on to fight for her job at
UCLA and even though she did not win that battle, she won the battle over her body’s colonization and
over being told what she was going to do instead of what she wanted to do.
Another way that Davis sought to fight the colonization of her mind and body was to write. In a
letter she addressed how Black women should fight back.
“Frustrations, aggressions cannot be repressed indefintely. Eventual explosion must be expected. But if
the revolutionary path is buried beneath an avalanche of containment mechanisms, we Black women,
aim our bullets in the wrong direction and moreover, we don’t even understand the weapon.
For the Black female, the solution is not to become less aggressive, not to lay down the gun, but to learn
how to set the sights correctly, aim accurately, squeeze rather than jerk and not be overcome by the
damage. We have to learn how to rejoice when pigs’ blood is spilled” (Davis 374).
Can you feel the frustrations of a Black woman whose body has been colonized by the white
man? And eventually Black men? Davis is not advocating violence; no she is advocating that we as Black
women educate ourselves, so that we can educate our children and those around us.
22
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see a revolutionary Black woman in me.
23
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see that white men still think they own me.
24
“Who gave you permission to rearrange me? Certainly not me” (Badu)! In Dorothy Robert’s
Killing the Black Body, she reiterates how Black women’s reproductive rights are still being colonized by
a system that is run primarily by white men. What would you do if this was you? What if you had
authority over the case?
“On February 2, 1992, twenty-eight-year old Cornelia Whitner gave birth to a healthy baby boy
named Kevin at Easely Baptist Medical Center in Pickens County, South Carolina. When the hospital
staff discovered traces of cocaine in the baby’s urine, they notified child welfare authorities. Two
months later, Whitner was arrested for ‘endangering the life of her unborn child’ by smoking crack while
pregnant” (Roberts 150).
In this particular case, the mother was told by her lawyer to accept the charge of child neglect.
She did just that and what happened next came to a complete surprise to both the mother and the
lawyer. “The April 20 hearing before Judge Frank Eppes started abruptly” and ended rather badly. The
judge sentenced the mother to eight years in prison. (Roberts 150-151) Another similar case involved a
woman who was pregnant for a second time and receiving welfare benefits. The judge took one look at
her record and the fact that she was receiving welfare and gave her this choice: “…a choice between a
seven-year prison sentence or only one year in prison and three years on probation, with the condition
that she be implanted with Norplant” (Roberts 151).
Just to give a little background on Norplant. Norplant was introduced in the early 1990’s and
was looked at as the new wave of birth control. In the beginning, Norplant was successful. It was not
until the early 2000’s that Norplant started having problems. For one, there was not enough progestin
being produced by Norplant to prevent pregnancy. The final problem with Norplant caused it to be
pulled off of shelves immediately. According to a Dr. Wyeth, “Norplant could cause irregular and
25
excessive bleeding, infection at the insertion site, capsule expulsion, migraine, and breast abnormalities”
(ADRUGRECALL.com).
With the little bit of knowledge that you now have on Norplant, is it surprising that a judge
would order a Black woman, on welfare to be implanted with it? It was just another way to colonize a
Black woman’s body. If this particular woman had been implanted with Norplant she could have had
side effects that caused her to suffer because of the preexisting condition of, “…diabetes, high blood
pressure and other health problems…” (Roberts 151). What Roberts is attempting to show us in these
different stories is, “…These criminal cases, which have multiplied over the past decade, have two things
in common: both punish women, in effect, for having babies and both unduly involve poor Black
women” (Roberts 152).
Bringing us back to Erykah’s question: Who gave you permission to rearrange me? Certainly
not me! Black women never asked for the legacy of slavery to follow them and that is exactly what is
happening to poor Black women. When Black women were enslaved they were not fit to be parents-that is until the white man invented chattel slavery. Black women were forced to breed little Negro
slaves and go work in the fields. Another aspect that this policing of the Black woman’s body brings up
is the aspect of beatings. During times of slavery, the master would first strip a slave woman of her
clothing and then beat her mercilessly. And these beatings did not stop if a slave woman was pregnant.
It is said that a slave master would dig a hole in the ground so the pregnant slaves belly could fit in it
while he beat her. This parallels Norplant and the threat of jail time in the fact that poor Black women
are being punished for, first off, being Black; secondly for choosing to bear children; and thirdly for being
poor. Of course these are no reasons to stop a woman from having children, especially a Black woman.
26
When I spoke to some close friends about the problem of the colonization of Black women’s
bodies, they had some interesting things to say. First off I did not tell them what the interview was
about, so that they could not prepare so-called sophisticated answers. Both of the Black women that I
interviewed went to high school with me and we are still very close to this day. During my interview
with Kween Shantay, I felt like I was making her relive some of our childhood and, in the end, she
revealed what I was secretly thinking. I asked Kween what her current occupation was because I thought
her occupation added to the perpetuation of the colonization of Black women’s bodies. Kween
explained her occupation as: “I do entertainment. I am a playwright/ poet. Because I have a great
personality. But overall a writer, I write” (Shantay interview). The following are a series of questions
that I asked Kween and her responses follow:
1. What do you think of when you hear the word colonization?
I think of a whole bunch of people being together, like a village. I think about it being very confined, one
way of thinking, doing government or a large system, like a church. That’s what I think about.
2. What do you identify as?
I identify as firstly I was going to say a Black woman, a queen and a warrior. Those are the words that I
think of when you say identify as. I think this because I am a part of the best and I take pride in being
well rounded. I want to be the best and therefore my spirit is high.
3. Do you think that your body can be colonized?
Umm…..I think that the body, oh gosh. I think that it can be I don’t think my can be per say because
when I think about the body being colonized, I also think that the mind is not saying reject this way. But
you can do that (colonize the body) because of being able to robotize a physical state because their (a
woman’s) mind is someone where else; those are all choices, colonization and all that. I haven’t (had my
body colonized) because my mind is strong.
4. How have you experienced colonization of your body?
Hmmm……not as a whole and not everything. Also not as far as doing anything physical to myself,
except for regurgitating food, to look like something else, but now my mind power is so strong that no.
5. How do you deal with colonization of your body?
27
Well, to really deal with it to get my mind prepared to make it look the way it should look and get
motivated and put my mind to other things. I keep my mind set on not being like that.
6. Do you have any examples of colonization that has happened to your body?
The only thing that comes to mind is just probably more self inflected really, harming one’s self. Maybe
self colonization other than that not so much than just knowing the memory of it and just seeing and the
emotion that I hear about it because I was connected those types of people.
At this point she asked me if I had any examples. I told her about Saartjie Baartman and slave
women. In return she said that her friend does a workshop about the Hottentot. Apparently he took
different butts and compared them to the planets. Kween and another poet by the name of Georgia Me
performed at his show. Then I asked her one final question: Is there anything else that you would like to
add?
I would like to add thank you for taking time out interview me for your project. And it is beautiful to
know yourself and be able to make decision that is not just forced upon you. You come a long way to
have independence and be able to know how to live in the world with colonization, naturalization, and
separatization. You have to learn to live with all of these things and glad she knows herself and is glad
she gets to live in her birth right.
28
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I do not see how video vixens have anything to do with the colonization of Black women’s bodies.
29
30
31
32
33
34
My second interview was with my friend named Leotha. Leotha is a dental assistant and now lives
in Florida with her husband and three children. As I mentioned above, we went to high school together.
My interview with Leotha was more relaxed. In fact we laughed a lot and some of her answers contained
jokes in them. I do not know if she was joking because she was uncomfortable or because she did not
have a chance to formulate answers before she spoke to me. This is how our interview went:
1. What do you think of when you hear the word colonization?
A group of people. What, do you want more; I just think of colonies of people.
2. What do you identify as?
I identify myself as a Black woman, a wife, a daughter and a sister.
3. Do you think that your body can be colonized?
No, I don’t know. No, I don’t think so.
4. How have you experienced colonization of your body?
Of my body, no I don’t think so, no.
5. How do you deal with colonization of your body?
Since she answered the above question with a no, there is no answer for this question, as of now.
Instead I asked her did she think anyone around her was colonized.
She answered: Maybe models, but they aren’t around me (laughing) they are away from me far
away (laughing) because they have to look a certain way. Then she went on to say: I might be the
wrong one to be asking these questions because I am into my body, what I don’t like I fix. I told her
that there was no right or wrong answer.
6. Do you have any examples of the colonization that have happened to your body?
Umm…. Sigh, I don’t know I guess. Do I know…I guess if someone doesn’t look a certain way people tell
them. Let’s say a teenager; a female is watching television they want to look that way even though it is
not reality. I guess that’s how some girls feel they see these models or video girls and want to be like
them.
7. Anything else that you would like to add?
No ma’am.
35
36
After I had officially finished my interview with Leotha, she asked me what I was interviewing
her for. I told her I was doing a project on the colonization of the Black woman’s body. While she was
contemplating answering, I could hear the hesitation in her voice. And when she did answer she said
she doesn’t think that it, meaning the colonization of Black women’s bodies, is as pertinent today. She
went on to say that maybe it was because of where she is living now, in Florida. She says that she sees
women every day that seem to embrace their bodies. Keep in mind Leotha and I have known each other
for over fourteen years now and have gone through a lot, including our teenage years where we both
had children. The reason why I am bringing this up is because Leotha went on to say, “I never really had
an issue with my body when I looked at t.v. and now that I am older…. I just don’t know.” (Leotha
interview) She then told me to come to Florida to see how much different it is from Colorado Springs.
The reason why Leotha’s interview is right after the pictures of the video vixens is because
during her interview she kept referring to video vixens, even though she said she is not influenced by
them. I would beg to differ and the reason being is because I have seen Leotha shake her booty like the
women do in the videos and the more and more we spoke, the more she started to say on her own
about how video vixen’s bodies were in fact being colonized. She may not have known that Black
women’s bodies can be colonized before the interview, but now she is well aware and I am sure she is
speaking with her husband about it. Video vixens are being treated very similarly to Saartjie Baartman,
and most of them do not even know it. They are being paraded around in music videos just for their
breasts and butts. Saartjie Baartman was paraded around in a cage and on a stage for her breasts and
butts as well.
Since the problem of the colonization of the Black woman’s body did not develop over night, it is
not going to go away over night. The colonization of Black women’s bodies also makes me think of the
37
singer Melba Moore on whom I wrote a paper. Moore herself has also been subjected to the
colonization of her body, by her husband Charles Huggins. The two were married long enough to have a
daughter, Charlie, but the marriage did not last because Charles was abusive. And when Melba decided
that she would not let her body be colonized by an abusive husband, they separated. According to
Melba, when she and her husband separated he failed to pay her spousal support and this left her and
her daughter in a bad position. Melba’s situation was so bad that she had to file for welfare and food
stamps (Jet). Here we have race, gender and class intersections and dynamics creeping in again. You
have a Black woman who according to Jet, “…went from Tony Award-winning Broadway star to welfare
recipient.” (Trent)
Just from the research that I did on Moore, I think that she would be very unhappy with the
current situation in which Black women’s bodies are still being colonized. Although she was able to
escape the clutches of colonization, not every woman is able. So, I think that Moore would say
education is an important piece to a person understanding themselves and the situations that they end
up in. And ultimately, I think that Moore would write us a song about the various ways we can all go
about educating folk on the problem of the colonization of Black women’s bodies.
I also think that the concept of shifting is a unique way to combat the colonization of Black
women’s bodies. The idea of shifting actually comes from the book entitled Shifting. By shifting I am
referring to the way Black women move about to conform to what society has rendered normal. In
other words, for a Black woman to be able to shift, she has to be polyvocal, meaning she needs to have
more than one voice with which to speak. Black woman have always had to find ways to express
themselves and language has been at the forefront. According to author Kumea Shorter-Gooden, “Black
women have many means of self-expression, each with its own cadence and power-the reveille of words
that pours forth from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters as she takes Republican leaders to task, the verbal
38
whoop shared by members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority at a weekend sep show, a mournful Bessie
Smith blues scratched out of an old 78” (Gooden 99). I also think that by providing young folk with the
knowledge that will lead them to thinking critically about their surroundings will help bring the problem
of colonization of Black women’s bodies into perspective. And if you explain the problem to them and in
relation to them, then their understanding will be far greater.
Take me for instance. I did not think about the colonization of Black women’s bodies as a
problem until I looked at it through a herstorical context. I realized that we as Black women are holding
onto a legacy that is keeping up at the bottom of the Great Chain of Beings, when in fact, given our
unique living experiences, we belong at the top. Everyone has something to learn when a Black woman
is speaking, so we need to speak up and speak out, and let everyone know that we are not going to let
our bodies be colonized anymore. Then and only then, when we look in the mirror we will be able to
see the true essence of thee.
39
When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see a beautiful Black woman looking back at me.
Melba Moore and daughter Charlie
40
41
42
43
44
45
Works Cited Page
Adams V, M. (8/15/07). The Sable Venus on the Middle Passage: Images of the Transatlantic Slave
Trade.
Collier-Thomas, B. &Franklin, V.P. Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil RightsBlack Power Movement. New York & London: New York University Press.
Daley, J. (2006). Great Speeches by African Americans. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Davie, L. Sarah Baartman, at rest at last.
Davis, A. (1974). Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York: International Publishers.
Fusco, C. (1988). The Other History of Intercultural Performance. The MIT Press. http://www.jstor.org
John-Davis, J. Theater Foundations. University of Colorado, Boulder. Theater and Dance Department,
Boulder, Colorado. 8/24/09.
Jones, C & Shorter-Gooden. (2003). Shifting. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Krass, P. (1988). Sojourner Truth: Antislavery Activist. United States: Chelsea House.
Miles, M. Historical and Contemporary Issues of Black Women course. University of Colorado, Boulder.
Women and Gender Studies. Boulder, Colorado. 9/3/09.
www.southafrica.info
46
Images Cited
Image 1: page one: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://brixton50.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/gallery/bag/31-mirror-reflecting-darkly-blackwomens/031.jpg&imgrefurl=http://brixton50.co.uk/mirror-reflecting-darkly/&usg=__hGCEbRJmv1WJ_rvwpondmsjtnM=&h=763&w=575&sz=177&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=0hxHrUVTzKsdSM:&tbnh=142
&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblack%2Bwomen%2Bin%2Bmirrors%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26u
m%3D1
Image 2: page three:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mywretchedconsciousness.files.wordpress.com/2008/
09/hottentotvenus.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mywretchedconsciousness.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/beaut
y-godesses-andsuperfreaks/&usg=__iTDWH82vJXnTS5ClG3IElyyTN8A=&h=500&w=327&sz=16&hl=en&start=4&um=1&t
bnid=gbVsXf4c3EHOtM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsaartjie%2Bbaartman%26hl%3De
n%26um%3D1
Image 3: page five: http://eilab.fa.uno.edu/~thamilton/Images/saartjie-baartman3.jpg
Image 4: page six: http://cordiebw.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Baartleton.jpg
Image 5: page six:
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:YHbJK9RhXq0ikM:http://blackhistoryjohnmoore.bravehost.com/sa
artjie-baartman2.jpg
Image 5: page seven:
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:YPBfEv1gir1JPM:http://www.discussanything.com/forums/attachm
ent.php%3Fattachmentid%3D10847%26stc%3D1%26d%3D1150235524
Image 6: page eight: http://www.zar.co.za/images/bio/baartman/saartjie.jpg
Image 7: page eight:
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:nDgTJuCleO4WVM:http://ablogofourown.files.wordpress.com/200
9/01/truth_sojourner.jpg
Image 8: page thirteen: http://www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/slavetrade/images/prevs/imw0118944.jpg
Image 9: page fourteen:
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/11/14/375fannylouhamer_081114041647710_wideweb__300
x375.jpg
47
Image 10: page sixteen:
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Uw8hBHnsBYAPZM:http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q247/wi
ckedwican/FannieLouHamer.jpg
Image 11: page eighteen: http://www.ancient-knowledgebreakthrough.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/FannieLouHamer.jpg
Image 12: page eighteen: http://www.sunmt.org/50yrsfanniehip72sep.jpg
Image 13: page nineteen: http://www.northeastern.edu/crrj/remediation/images/mhflhhburg.jpg
Image 14: page 20:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:_qKSYpaa6RwSRM:http://www.ilkahartmann.com/jbrave/phototex
t.nsf/images/8596673FB4252B1588256E5E001096DC/%24FILE/Free_Angela_Button.jpg
Image 15: page 20:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i11/saturna76/AngelaDa
vis1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://bouquetofparentheses.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/naturalbeauty/&usg=__uPPmtq7oqPOU1vFOL0TWI6eRfs=&h=332&w=333&sz=15&hl=en&start=23&um=1&tbnid=BKOiopNNCOU8qM:&tbnh=11
9&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dangela%2Bdavis%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26star
t%3D18%26um%3D1
Image 16: page 20:
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:HalINBT_xhaGdM:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qzd9HIsRWeA/SYpjBl
P_nZI/AAAAAAAAUOY/fz0c6id0pIs/s400/Angela%2BDavis.jpg
Image 17: page 22: http://web.utah.edu/news/news_images/010201_davis_big.jpg
Image 18: page 23: http://www.scenicreflections.com/ithumbs/Erykah%20Badu%20Wallpaper%20%203.jpg
Image 19: page 23: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/2210974593_ac2b861d51.jpg
Image 20: page 27: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
Image 21: page 28: http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/oo126/theybf/January%2009/668decca.jpg
Image 22: page 29: http://www.sohh.com/img/candy-girls-300x300-2009-01-09.jpg
Image 23: page 29:
http://elledub08.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/500x_amber_cage_014.jpg?w=300&h=220
Image 24: page 30: http://hiphopvideomodels.net/ki%20toy/aquare_ani_kitoy.jpg
Image 25: page 31: http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm157/THESPREADIT/weee.jpg
Image 26: page 32: http://hiphopvideomodels.net/ki%20toy/images/ki_toy_johnson_14.jpg
Image 27: page 33: http://obambi.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/michelle-obamaplayboy.jpg?w=653&h=834
Image 28: page 35: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
48
Image 29: page 35: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
Image 30: page 39: http://images.broadwayworld.com/photoops/hotfeetwalter/prev91.jpg
Image 31: page 40:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.polichicksonline.com/michelle_obamaPeople%2520most%2520beau.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.polichicksonline.com/michelleobama/&usg=__zdHbVb6IjWKztuUfi3HveiWYNbc=&h=400&w=300&sz=28&hl=en&start=108&um=1&tb
nid=4de7b-lMVWFSM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmichelle%2Bobama%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3
Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D90%26um%3D1
Image 32: page 40:
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Fj5N5Hu398LWrM:http://www.topnews.in/files/MichelleObama104.jpg
Image 33: page 41: http://www.dailystab.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/michelle-obamamom-essence-may-2009.jpg
Image 34: page 42: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
Image 35: page 42: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
Image 36: page 43: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
Image 37: page 44: picture from Tiya Trent’s collection.
49