This piece delves into an 1810 artwork by William Heath, titled 'A Pair of Broad Bottoms.' It unveils the story of Saartjie Baartman, a South African Khoisan woman conned into a voyage to England by Alexander Dunlop. Promised riches, she became an 'exotic specimen' due to her African heritage and distinctive figure. This article explores how Saartjie Baartman, a famous ethnological exhibit in 1800s Britain, sheds light on body politics, race, and colonial empire dynamics through this artwork.

The issue with the Eurocentric definition is its simplistic view of agency as either present or absent. It paints a picture of winners and losers in the realm of agency, like a measuring contest where having more agency means less coercion. In Zimbabwe's sex industry, sex workers find themselves in a complex space between agency and coercion due to various factors. This post delves into these factors, showing that sex work in Zimbabwe isn't a clear-cut case of agency or coercion. Instead, we need to analyze agency within the context of varying degrees of coercion and constraints.

This article explores the recent visual representation of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Despite not having the largest population, South Africa has the highest number of people living with and dying from HIV/AIDS. This has given rise to a complex mix of AIDS campaigns and visuals. The article focuses on how these visuals oscillate between representing the pandemic and perpetuating African stereotypes. It calls for a more culturally, politically, and socially nuanced approach to visualizing the HIV epidemic.