How Slavery and Colonization led to the Racial Fetishization of Black Women.
Tomisin Ijegun had always identified as a Nigerian girl of Yoruba origin, but everything changed the moment her family migrated to the US, she went from being a Nigerian to being aÂ
'Black girl'.Â
To watch the full story on YouTube, click on the image above đđż or continue to read.
At the young age of 11, Tomi's parents who were seasoned journalists whisked away their children from Nigeria to save their lives from the harsh military regime that saw the arrest of human rights activists and journalists.Â
When they first arrived in the US, they settled in a small white-dominated town in DC and within a few years, they got acclimatized with their environment and went on to live a successful life.Â
But nothing prepared the Ijegun girls for the hard reality of dating in America.Â
At any point in their various lives, they were the only Black girls in their class, but reality did not fully set in until they got into the university. Tomi's experience was the most unsettling, it all started when she began dating a white boy named Karl.Â
Karl was the 'it boy' of his set and also her dream guy. He was popular, charismatic, breathtakingly handsome, had good grades, was ambitious, went to church weekly and was romantic.Â
Tomi didn't care about Karl's race or skin colour, she had no racial dating preference and 'never saw colour'
But there was something off about Karl that Tomi couldn't place her hands on, she started having that feeling on their first date, just two months after they became friends.Â
She had been told a lot by friends and family members that she overreacted a lot, so she was quick to dismiss her initial feelings and premonitions about Karl and their relationship
But It didn't take long into her relationship with Karl before she understood that she wasn't overreacting.Â
On their first date, Karl had told her that he hadn't been with a Black girl before, and was desperate to know what it 'felt like' dating one, Tomi could not forget how odd she felt on hearing that, the situation felt like a form, with her being a checkbox and him being a pen that was ready to tick her off as good or bad.Â
What Tomi thought would be a loving relationship, after all, Karl was all she had ever wanted in a man, ended badly.Â
She was lucky to get out of the relationship without any emotional scars.Â
It turned out that Karl was infatuated with the idea of dating Black women whom he collectively referred to as Rihanna or Beyonce.Â
He was also obsessed with her body features which he obsessively described as tempting, somewhat different and sumptuous.Â
Tomi shared her experience with her friends and sisters who told her she had been fetishized.Â
So what is Fetishization?Â
According to Forbes,Â
"Fetishization can be thought of as the act of making someone an object of sexual desire based on some aspect of their identity"
Let's not mistake fetishization for preference, having a preference isn't bad but it's not uncommon for choice and dating preferences to reinforce dangerous stereotypes about race.Â
For a long time, there have been stories and arguments on the fetishization and hypersexualization of Black women by men of other races and the media.Â
But what many people are unaware of is that this kind of behaviour began and is deeply rooted in slavery and colonialism. During this era, Black people especially Black women were seen as objects of sexual gratification and exploitation.Â
Black women with 'bold features' like wide hips, protruding buttocks and big breasts were perceived as undesirable and described as grotesque but in secret, they were desired even up to the point of being coveted and raped.Â
The first recorded case of maltreatment, fetishization and rape of Black women based on race was during the Arab-Muslim slave trade.Â
Not much is said about Arab - Muslim slavery which many historians have described as the most dehumanizing slave trade of all times.Â
In the Arab-Muslim slave trade, Black men were castrated and made Eunuchs while Black women were acquired and kept in harems as sexual slavesÂ
After the spread of Islam in the 8th century, there was a high demand for slaves; this led to Arabs and Berbers capturing and buying  11 to 17 million Africans for an uninterrupted period of 13 centuries.Â
Not every Black man ended up as Eunuchs or on farms, some were granted access to good education while some rose to positions of power and became members of the ruling class.Â
Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Black women.Â
In fact, at some point, the major reason for the Arab Muslim slave trade was to capture African women whom they saw as 'exotic' for sexual slavery.Â
So high was the demand for African women that the merchants would double the price of female slaves with the ratio of captured women to men being three to one.
The most remarkable case of hypersexualization and fetishization of Black women during the transatlantic slave trade is the case of Sarah Baartman.Â
Sarah wasn't her real name, but a name given to her by her owners, she was a Khoisan woman born in the year 1789.Â
Due to a condition called Steatopygia, Baartman had unusually large buttocks and wide hips, unsurprisingly, an English doctor who visited the cape took notice of her; together with the brother of her owner, they decided to make money off of Sarah.Â
Knowing she could not read, they made her sign a contract written by the doctor that required her to travel to England and Ireland as an âindentured servant.â Sarah was unaware that the false contract she signed would keep her enslaved for life.Â
She was made to appear at exhibitions set up by the doctor with little or no clothes and out of curiosity, people paid money to see her.Â
It was only a matter of time before what started as mere curiosity progressed to perversion and sexual abuse.Â
In the year 1814, Sarah was later sold off to S. RĂ©aux, a French exhibitor, who showcased animals.
He made a huge profit off her by allowing men to sexually abuse Sarah.Â
Sarah died a year later; it was not until 8 years (2002) after Nelson Mandela's request for France to return Sarah's remains that they agreed to return her to South Africa; she was buried near her birthplace in the Xhosa Kingdom now in Eastern Cape province.
Before her remains were returned, Saint-Hilaire applied on behalf of the MusĂ©um d' Histoire Naturelle to retain her remains.Â
A naturalist, Georges Cuvier, who had danced with Baartman at one of Reaux's parties, made a plaster cast of her body before dissecting it. He preserved her skeleton and pickled her brain and genitals, and placed and displayed them in jars at Paris's Museum of Man. They remained on public display until 1974.
The third significant case of Fetishization and hypersexualization of Black women was during the Colonial Era.Â
During the Colonial era, many photographers took unclad photos of African women, one such collection was named 'Fetish and Gold Coast
It was taken by a photographer Federick Grant, these collections are held in British national archives till this day.
Little reason is known as to why Grant chose to describe the photos as Fetish, there were no shrines in the background of these photos, nor were the girls/women wearing any fetish object or ornament on their bodyÂ
The photographer didn't deem it necessary to describe these women by their names, titles or the position they held in their families or the communities they belonged to, it didn't matter that even though they agreed to pose for a photo, they did not appear relaxed or at ease; the most logical reason for their uneasiness could be that they were aware of the male gaze on their bare chest.Â
By giving them the name "fetish girlâ he reduced them to the status of an object, depersonalized and robbed of identity, reduced solely to their physical appearance.Â
There are so many photos of unclad Africans in museums, and national archives,Â
of what use are these photos to society?
Black people experience racism, but for Black women, it's a combination of racism and misogyny.Â
Slavery and colonialism are frowned upon but the damage it has done still lingers and has helped to strengthen dangerous stereotypes about Black women.Â
Fetishization has not ended, rather it has been strengthened by stereotypes and under the guise of having a preference and choice
How can we change this narrative?Â
Please drop your opinions and ideas in the comment below, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter.
See you đ
Credit:
The Colonial Roots of the Racial Fetishization of Black Women CM Holmes (https://openworks.wooster.edu)
Fairplanet
Slaveandremembrance.orgÂ
BBCÂ
Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts. (https://www.hampshire.edu)
By RAA EngmannÂ