Dance and singing – Josephine Baker: There was more than just the banana skirt

50 years ago, on April 8, 1975, she was on stage one last time: Josephine Baker, then 69 years old. Four days later, she succumbed to the consequences of a stroke. Now her memoirs have finally been published in German, with an afterword by Mona Horncastle, curator of the great exhibition on the legendary African-American dancer and singer last year in the new National Gallery in Berlin, and a foreword of her adoptive son Jean-Claude Bouillon-Baker, who was in the Panthéon in 2021 in the Panthéon Paris is reminiscent of her new, eternal resting place: “The French nation honored it and equated it to the great benefits of the general public.”

When Freda Josephine McDonald born in St. Louis (Missouri) as an illegitimate child of an African -American washer and a Jewish drummer, spent her childhood in poor conditions. Her father separated from the family a year after her birth. Josephine remembers her games, her disguises, her love for animals and her early urge to freedom. This miraculously resulted in a first engagement in New York, which followed an “appeal” to Paris. The city on the Seine became her center of life, in 1937 she became French. She understood her commitment in the Résistance and in the Forces Françaises Libres, the French resistance movement against Nazi okkupation, as a matter of course to her new home, in which she did not meet racist intolerance as in her country of birth. From President Charles de Gaulle, she received the Lorraine Cross for her commitment as an officer of the “Free France” Air Force.

The majority of their memories take their comet climbing in Paris to the star of the great reviews and soon also their own cabaret. She revives her successes without indulging in it, and reports in between about the culinary dishes that she likes to prepare, because: “I have insatiable appetite.”

Josephine brings Charleston to Europe and soon becomes the world star beyond the borders of France. Above all, but not just through the banana skirt around her hips, chosen by her consciously to keep racists the mirror. She travels many European countries and celebrates triumph everywhere. In Berlin the brown mob rushes against her. But Max Reinhard tries to tie them to the German theater. Your appearance in Munich is prohibited from the police. In Vienna, all bells ring on arrival – not to greet, but to warn the believers of her. There are also protests in Sweden until the king receives them. Ultimately, their dance and skin color are considered “offensive” – ​​racism everywhere. The worst thing in the USA as she has to experience on a tour. “No Jews, No Dogs, No Niggers,” Josephine reads on signs and parks. She is happy when she can be back in her Paris.

Josephine Baker: dancing, singing freedom. Memoirs. A. d. French v. Sabine Reinhardus and Elsbeth rank. Reclam, 281 pages, born, 26 €.