How a banana skirt became the ticket to the Panthéon for Josephine

HOW A BANANA SKIRT BECAME THE TICKET TO THE PANTHÉON FOR JOSÉPHINE

So, do you believe that Gods are walking the Earth?

The Greeks did, and they even created a place where these godly humans should be forever honored.

One of these remarkable personalities was the American born, French naturalized Joséphine Baker – who was recently immortalized in Paris’ Panthéon, the temple of all Gods.

Read below to see what made this a unique event, and watch the ceremony that took place last week.

As France24 announces:

French-American dancer, singer, French Resistance member and rights activist Josephine Baker became the first Black woman to enter France’s Panthéon mausoleum of outstanding historical figures on Tuesday, nearly half a century after her death.

The Where

The Panthéon (from the Classical Greek word pántheion, ‘temple to all the gods’) is a monument in the 5e arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Quartier Latin, atop the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the centre of the Place du Panthéon, which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 and 1790. (Wikipedia)

The Who

Josephine Baker, born Freda Josephine McDonald, was naturalized French Joséphine Baker. She lived between 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975, and was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist.

The Why

Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris. Her costume, consisting of only a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.

Baker performed the “Danse Sauvage” wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas. Her success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave birth to the term “Art Deco”, and also with a renewal of interest in non-Western forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion.

This dance — the danse sauvage — is what established her as the biggest black female star in the world.

Writing on the 110th anniversary of her birth, Vogue described how her 1926 “danse sauvage” in her famous banana skirt “brilliantly manipulated the white male imagination” and “radically redefined notions of race and gender through style and performance in a way that continues to echo throughout fashion and music today, from Prada to Beyoncé.”

Crossing her eyes, waving her arms, swaying her hips, poking out her backside, she clowned and seduced and subverted stereotypes.

Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the “Black Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, the “Bronze Venus”, and the “Creole Goddess”.

The Depth

She aided the French Resistance during World War II. After the war, she was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation, the Croix de Guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.

In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Baker was the only official female speaker. While wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d’honneur, she introduced the “Negro Women for Civil Rights.”

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, ’cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all over the world…

Joséphine Baker

Baker adopted 12 children, forming a family which she often referred to as “The Rainbow Tribe”: two daughters and ten sons.

The Legacy

Place Joséphine Baker in the Quartier Montparnasse of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, and on 29 March 1995, into the Hall of Famous Missourians. St. Louis’s Channing Avenue was renamed Josephine Baker Boulevard and a wax sculpture of Baker is on permanent display at The Griot Museum of Black History.

In 2015 she was inducted into the Legacy Walk in Chicago, Illinois. The Piscine Joséphine Baker is a swimming pool along the banks of the Seine in Paris named after her.

The Panthéon

Baker is just the sixth woman to be honored in the secular temple.

She is also the first entertainer to be immortalized alongside writer Victor Hugo, scientist Marie Curie.

To symbolize her entry to the Panthéon, a coffin containing earth from four places where she lived – her hometown of St. Louis, Paris, South of France and Monaco – was carried into the building by members of France’s air force.

You are entering this Panthéon because, although you were born American, there is no one more French than you.

Président Macron

Watch the entire ceremony here:

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Tell us in the comments below, what impressed you the most about Joséphine Baker’s life and legacy? 🙂

Let me guess.

Do you constantly have the feeling that you can’t hear what the French say and you don’t know how to read all the French words because they are written so much differently than they sound?

Learn 3 secrets that will help you be self sufficient in the way you pronounce French words – even if you don’t know what they mean – so that you can read that sophisticated menu in your favorite French restaurant.