A topless woman, posing with a cheetah and a belt of bananas around her waist.
Such is the tenacious image that we keep of Josephine Baker (1906-1975).
This American magazine leader, who became a star in the Paris of the Roaring Twenties, was however much more than that. France also underlines it with a bang by inducting the famous artist into the Pantheon this Tuesday.
PHOTO ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Josephine Baker performing at the Winter Garden Theater in New York on February 11, 1936.
Josephine Baker is the 81e personality to enter this “hall of fame” of the Hexagon. She is also the very first black woman to receive this honor, which in itself is an event. She will join other great figures in the history of France, such as Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Marie Curie or Alexandre Dumas.
At the request of her family, her remains will however remain in Monaco, where she is buried. The cenotaph will be symbolically filled with a few kilograms of earth from St. Louis, Missouri, his birthplace, while the ceremony, chaired by Emmanuel Macron, will pay tribute to this “tireless anti-racist activist” and “incarnation of the French spirit. “.
War effort
Legend of the Paris cabarets of the interwar period, Joséphine Baker (née McDonald) became known for her exotic shows, where she ridiculed colonial fantasies with great reinforcements of feathers, bananas and nudity.
“It was mockery, she was very daring, almost punk”, underlines Monique Giroux, host of the shows Free songs and Across from Monique’s place on Radio-Canada radio.
His caricature seduces. The whole of Paris celebrates it, and France adopts it. Affection is mutual.
For Josephine Baker, an African-American raised in the midst of segregation, France is the land of all promises and all freedoms. A land where we do not judge its color, its bisexuality, or its emancipation.
She will thank him for that in I have two loves, her flagship title, where she declares her love for France. “A hell of a snub in the United States,” adds Monique Giroux, referring to this classic of French song.
FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY ARCHIVES PHOTO
Joséphine Baker was decorated with the Legion of Honor on August 19, 1961.
It was also out of love for her adopted country that she joined the resistance during World War II. Having become a spy, she takes advantage of her tours and her star status to transmit sensitive information. A risk that earned him in particular to be decorated with the Cross of Lorraine and the Legion of Honor by General de Gaulle.
For the artist, it is the beginning of a second life, where entertainment and activism are brought together. It is involved in the fight against anti-Semitism. Then in the American civil rights movement and march alongside Martin Luther King. Even her family is a political project: she adopts 12 children of all nationalities and makes them her “rainbow tribe”, a kind of laboratory focused on inclusion.
An exemplary journey that ended in 1975, after a difficult end of life marked by serious money problems.
A marketing coup?
In France, few people opposed the choice of Emmanuel Macron.
Figure of multiculturalism, the emancipation of women and the fight against racism, Josephine Baker was undeniably ahead of her time.
Paying him this homage is not only legitimate, but justified. It is a strong symbol, at the time of #metoo and Black Lives Matter.
Despite everything, some discordant voices were heard. This is the case of the decolonial feminist political scientist Françoise Vergès, who sees it only as a simple public relations exercise on the part of Emmanuel Macron, a few months before the presidential election.
“I have nothing against Josephine Baker, she said, but for me, it’s com,” she said.
Bringing a black woman into a pantheon filled with old guys is a way of saying: see how France is a modern country, see how wonderful we are.
Françoise Vergès, political scientist
“But does it really contribute to the education of society? We can bring 25,000 Josephine Baker into the Pantheon, it will be pointless if the police violence does not stop, if the violence against women does not stop and if Islamophobia does not stop. ”
Note that Joséphine Baker is only the sixth woman to enter the pantheon, after Sophie Berthelot and Marie Curie (scientists), Germaine Tillion and Geneviève De Gaulle-Anthonioz (resistant) and Simone Veil (politician).