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This Tuesday, November 30 marks the date of Joséphine Baker’s entry into the Pantheon. Forty-six years after her death, the artist is the first woman afro-descendant to receive such a distinction.
It is on the forecourt of the Pantheon that a coffin filled with earth was carried to the interior of the monument, because the family of Joséphine Baker wants her remains to remain in Monaco. The date of its pantheonization is not a coincidence, because it is on November 30, 1937 that the artist seen issue French nationality.
Once inside the monument sounds his famous title “I have two loves”, accompanied by an orchestra. 2,000 people were present for this ceremony chaired by Emmanuel Macron. “Its cause was universalism, the unity of the human race, the equality of all before the identity of each (…) My France is Joséphine”, declared the President of the Republic. In the crowd present were artists, relatives of Josephine Baker, but also school groups. The facade of the Pantheon served as a broadcasting screen, and thus witnessed all the stages of her life, from the music hall, to activism, including her motherhood.