Ferrus is best known for her poem about Sarah Baartman, a South African woman taken to Europe under false pretenses and paraded as a curiosity.[2] She wrote the poem in 1998 while studying at Utrecht University.[3][4] The popularity of this poem is widely believed to be responsible for the return of Bartmann's remains to South Africa.[5] The poem was published into a French law.[6]
Ferrus is a founder of the Afrikaans Skrywersvereniging (ASV), Bush Poets, and Women in Xchains.[7] She has a publishing company called Diana Ferrus Publishers and has co-edited and published a collection of stories about fathers and daughters.[4]