Entry to the Pantheon by Joséphine Baker on Tuesday, November 29 “will be an example for future generations and young people”, rejoices on franceinco his son Brian Bouillon-Baker who publishes the book Josephine Baker, the universal, published by Le Rocher. For him, this entry to the Pantheon “it’s a great day, a memorable day”. Josephine Baker is the first black woman to enter this temple of the Republic; it is the sixth in all, it was resistant and received the Cross of the Resistance, the Cross of war and the Cross of Lorraine. My mother “took risks because she was a liaison officer, a spy for the Free French Forces” and “she sent a lot of messages in her scores taking the risk of being arrested and shot”, detailed Brian Bouillon-Baker. According to him, “we can now say that this beautiful love story becomes eternal with its entry into the Pantheon”.
franceinfo: Joséphine Baker, symbol of anti-racism, resistance, music hall artist who became a symbol of France. Is it a big day for you, for your family?
Brian Bouillon-Baker: It is a great day, a memorable day, a day of joy and if there is tears it will be tears of joy. My mother, who has always been committed to humanist causes, was an idealist. The fact that for eternity, it rests in the Pantheon will be an example for future generations and young people. It is a strong symbol for young people who do not know her well, because she has always fought all forms of racism. Today, she would fight fundamentalism and communitarianism. Obviously sexism and homophobia and anti-Semitism and terrorism. She would say it all stems from a lack of education or an education misdirected by parents towards rejection of the other and hatred of the other.
She insisted that her name be pronounced in the French way and not in the American style, why?
For her, France was not her adopted country but simply her country. “Now that I live in France and that I am French”, that’s what she said. She had France at the bottom of her heart. It was love at first sight between France, Paris and my mother. And we can now say that this beautiful love story becomes eternal with its entry into the Pantheon.
It embodies the values of this Republic of this France. Is she a naturalized Frenchwoman who fought against racism all her life?
If we take the motto of the Republic. Liberty was a liberated woman, not a feminist. Equality, she always wanted justice. She got involved for a lot of causes. Brotherhood, his ideal was that of a universal brotherhood. It was an energy, to travel, to engage, to give lectures, to sing and then she took care of twelve children, it was not easy. Especially since there was no more dad because my father separated from my mother when we were little, even if we saw him from time to time. They have never divorced. She had to play the role of mom and dad. She did it with conviction and firmness. A loving and protective mother. It was also education before 1968.
Is it a very touching, very funny book that you publish about your mother because you tell Josephine Baker through your child’s eyes?
With the eyes of the child and those of the adolescent. I tell all that we lived with my mother and with my brothers and sisters. The Rainbow Tribe was a summer camp. We were traveling and we went to Cuba and we were received by Fidel Castro who arrived by helicopter with all his bodyguards, his security team. I found myself on his knees. He lets me touch his beard. I asked him to taste his cigar, he tells me that I am too small. He said to me ‘later when you grow up and if you want to live in Cuba, you will be a colonel in the Cuban army’.
Her strength of character, the fact that she was a woman who did not allow herself to be dictated by her way of life. Can it still inspire young people today?
My mother had energy, courage. She wasn’t afraid of anything. She caused scandals because in some posh places in New York they refused to serve her or her black or mixed-race friends. She defended with Martin Luther King, the cause of civil rights. She also spoke during the Washington March [28 août 1963] after which the pastor gave the famous speech “I have a dream”.
In your book, you say that she would never have dared to claim entry to the Pantheon …
She would never have dared to claim it. She probably would have protested. This is what I said to the President of the Republic when he asked me this question. She would have said surely that there are people more deserving than her and who took more risks. And yet, she too took risks because she was a liaison agent, a spy for the Free French Forces. Afterwards, she was asked to join the Air Force where she ended up as an officer. She sent a lot of messages through her scores, taking the risk of being arrested and shot.