In a jungle setting, she sways almost naked with her famous banana belt: by taking up racist clichés targeting blacks, Josephine Baker has imposed her skin color on the Parisian stages but above all "
transcended
" these xenophobic imaginations.
“
If we looked at it today, we would all probably be shocked,
” warns historian Pascal Blanchard, co-author of the book
Le Racisme en images: déconstruire ensemble
, published by La Martinière.
The artist, who will enter the Pantheon on November 30, was born in the American Midwest in 1906. She is spotted by a member of the
Revue nègre
, a music hall show, while performing on Broadway.
Her face, her facial expressions, her body ... Seduce immediately, the impresario persuades her to come to Paris.
To read alsoSinger, resistant, spy ... The many facets of Joséphine Baker
His first appearance at the Champs-Élysées theater in 1925 will launch his legend.
She dances there topless with a feather belt at the waist.
It is a triumph for the dancer discriminated against in her country, who then lived under the regime of racial segregation.
"
Bakermania
"
Very quickly, Joséphine Baker capitalized on this success. She moves the show to the Folies Bergère and trades feathers for ... a belt of bananas, an erotic and racist symbol. But the young woman, the embodiment of modernity, sports it with boldness. If the
Banana dance
made her a celebrity, an exceptional phenomenon for a black artist at the time, and marked the beginning of the "Bakermania", it is also the reflection of a historical context specific to the 1920s.
During this period, “
France was both a colonial country but also a country of openness to others.
It is in Paris that the first Pan-African congress on the “black race” took place in 1919. It is also where most of the black American artists and intellectuals live
”, decrypts Pascal Blanchard from AFP.
The Hexagon is crossed by a “
negrophilia
”, adds the researcher Jean-François Staszak, of the University of Geneva: “
It is a period marked by the exoticism, the taste for the black masks and especially the esthetization of the. black body
”.
Joséphine Baker in 1925 in the Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with her banana belt.
Photograph by Lucien Walery (1863-1935).
Leemage / 108: Private Collection
See also Josephine Baker: free opening of the Pantheon on December 4 and 5
It is precisely in this relationship "
attraction-disgust
" towards black bodies that Josephine Baker will slip.
"
By taking up the imagination of the 'African savage', it satisfies the public's demand for exoticism but it also takes power by making fun of racial stereotypes that it ends up transcending
", underlines to AFP Michell Chresfield, researcher in history at the University of Birmingham.
By creating "
its own imagination above the colonial, it takes power over the eyes of the White
", adds Pascal Blanchard.
"
Misunderstood
"
Proof that she manages to free herself from her skin color, she is showing at the end of the 1920s in four films,
Princess Tam Tam
, alongside white actors, which Hollywood has always refused her.
Having become French in 1937, she does not forget her native country, engaged in the struggle for civil rights.
She is the only woman to speak alongside Martin Luther King in the historic 1963 march, but she has been marginalized by African-American activists for years.
Read also The Eye of INA: Dare to Joséphine Baker!
“
She was misunderstood. He was criticized for having taken up racist clichés targeting blacks. She was seen as a not very respectable diva
, ”says Michell Chresfield. Its acceptance by the black-American community was something "
gradual
", which took years, insists the researcher. In 2006, superstar Beyoncé paid tribute to her by wearing a banana belt during a concert.
Anti-racist and resistant activist, Joséphine Baker is criticized by anti-racist activists who criticize her for supporting French colonial policy.
In 1931, she posed as the face of the colonial exhibition but Marshal Lyautey finally opposed this too daring choice according to him.
"
He is someone who has always refused to criticize France, believing that she could not criticize the country which had allowed her to be free
", explains Pascal Blanchard.