London:
Pop star Beyonce has been attacked by a South African chief for her rumoured decision to make a film about a woman enslaved in the country and forced to work in a freak show. (Also Read:
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The grapevine had been abuzz with the rumours that the 34-year-old singer would be writing and acting in a project about Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman, a South African woman.
She was taken to Europe in 1810 and objectified by those who would pay to see her half-naked body, under the stage name of Hottentot Venus, reported
The Guardian.
"She lacks the basic human dignity to be worthy of writing Sarah's story, let alone playing the part," Chief Jean Burgess of the Ghonaqua First Peoples said.
"Why Sarah Baartman? Why not a story about an Indigenous American woman? I can only see arrogance in her attempt to tell a story that is not hers to tell," she added.
Earlier, it was reported that Beyonce hired a team of acting coaches and writers to assist with the 19th-century-set biopic.
The film is said to follow the woman's enslavement and a failed court case after it was argued that she was being made to perform against her will.