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Fun, human rights activist and spy: Josephine Baker Tuesday evening will be the first black woman to be remembered at the Pantheon in Paris – a tribute given to the French President of national heroes.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to run for a second term in less than five months, will lead a radio broadcast in the country, which will “re-examine various aspects of the country.” [Josephine Baker’s] life as an artist, a fighter, a freedom fighter and a woman ”. They will be joined by Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and Voltaire.
In words announcing the election in August, the Elysée said Baker “incorporated the spirit of France” and “should be recognized in their country”.
At the request of his family, Baker’s remains will be in Monaco where he was buried in 1975, when he will be remembered in a cenotaph with soil from the US, France and Monaco in the Pantheon. She will be the sixth woman to be “pantheonised”.
Politicians, organizations and fans for many years have been campaigning to include Baker in the Pantheon, with a recent request from journalist Laurent Kupferman to rekindle the controversy.
But many also see the moment he entered the hall of French officials as Macron’s contemporary politics and tried to reconcile the country during the great controversy over immigration, French colonial and feminist history.
Baker, born in poverty in St. Louis, Missouri in 1906, was one of the most influential black American artists and writers, including James Baldwin and jazzman Miles Davis, seeking protection from American apartheid in France.
In an interview with The Guardian in 1974, less than a year after his death, he stated: “I became famous in France in the 20th century. I could not stand in America and I was one of the first black Americans to go to Paris.”
Her story of coming to France to escape US prejudice, as well as rising popularity in Paris while sometimes making a necklace made of beads and a banana-made skirt, makes Baker a symbol of controversy among others despite her overall popularity.
A dancer and entertainer who was the first black woman to be featured in a major film in 1927, Baker continued his campaign for civil rights with Martin Luther King and was adorned with spies from the French opposition where he slipped hidden messages in his paper. songs.
He ceased to be an American citizen in 1937, bought a château in southern France and raised 12 children from different countries.
The support committee working on the Bakeries’ group, which includes his son Brian Bouillon-Baker, among others, told AFP: “We respect his commitment to Republican culture,” recalling his comment to France: “Here he treats me like and they do not consider me a race. ”
Additional reports of Domitille Alain in Paris
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