Exhibit S: Ode to Saartjie Baartman by a Black South African Woman

2.50 (2)

Exhibit S: Ode to Saartjie Baartman by a Black South African Woman

3 performances between Dec. 15, 2014 and Dec. 17, 2014
Performance Art
Performed by Thola Antamu
30mins
Thola Amatu.jpg
Exhibit-S, 'Ode to Saartjie Baartman by a black South African woman' is a poetic performance piece inspired by misrepresentation, art and the story of a young woman. Born exactly 200 years before Thola Antamu in 1789, Saartjie Baartman was a khoikhoi woman from the Eastern Cape.

"She lived to be only 24 , after a life of seemingly never-ending struggle and lies. Like me she was also orphaned as a child. She was  bought as a showpiece by an Englishman and smuggled to England never to set foot on  her home soil again. She was supposedly well treated, paid, housed and respected by her 'owners.'

"This is her story fused with  mine and told through, speech, skin, and movement."
- Thola Antamu

Following the 30 minute performance there will be a Q & A session in the theatre.


Thola Antamu is a professional dancer, singer and actress specialising in poetry and movement as a mode of creating exhibitionist theatre. After graduating from The Cape Academy of Performing Arts, Antamu subsequently travelled internationally and was comissioned to create and perform her piece "My Confessions" at JW3 in London. She also trained and performed with the Artful Badger immersive theatre company in "Flood" at London's feted The Vaults Festival. In her powerful new solo production, "Exhibit S, Ode to Saartjie Baartman by a Black South African Woman", Antamu uses a culmination of her extensive training and techniques, South African history, everyday news, femininity and blackness to evoke pertinent conversations and empower women.

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Audience Responses

An exploited Khosain women that was a means of profit for an English gentlemen.