Look for this...

Saw this documentary on PBS last night (channel 13 here in New York) which is being rerun on Saturday morning at 7:30am. Even if you can’t get up it’s worth taping (or Tivo-ing as I imagine I’m dating myself).

By collecting blood samples from thousands of men living in isolated tribes around the world and analyzing their DNA, 34-year-old geneticist Spencer Wells and his colleagues discovered that all humans alive today can be traced back to a small tribe of hunter-gatherers who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago.

Well, as I said the documentary was fascinating and it sparked a great story idea for me which I spent some time last night doing some research online for. During my browsing, I came across a something which struck me as so horrific in scope, it was sickening. If you ever wonder why there are problems in regard to race relations take a look at this jewel of history and make your own decision:

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SARA BAARTMAN is the fascinating story of this Khoi Khoi woman who was taken from South Africa, and then exhibited as a freak across Britain. The image and idea of “The Hottentot Venus” swept through British popular culture. A court battle waged by abolitionists to free her from her exhibitors failed.

In 1814 she was taken to France, and became the object of scientific and medical research that formed the bedrock of European ideas about black female sexuality. She died the next year. But even after her death, Sara Baartman remained an object of imperialist scientific investigation. In the name of Science, her sexual organs and brain were displayed in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris until as recently as 1985.