II.3.5.i. SUDDENLY VISIBLE BLACKS

MENU: 2.3.5.i. Suddenly visible Blacks

A WOMAN OF GUADELOUPEAN ORIGIN SANG THE MARSEILLAISE AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES   

Axelle Saint-Cirel  on the roof of the Grand Palais.

   

These pages observe that evolution.

In brief 

• The City honors heroes of color

• Popular recognition

• Ads reveal the shift 

• Marketing experts go step by step

• Is there a downside to ads' racial mix?

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Next,

The City honors heroes of color

THE CITY HONORS HEROES OF COLOR

SUDDENLY...

Of the 15 "Mariannes"* whose photos surrounded the Panthéon

to honor Women's Day, three were Black...

(In 2021)

*Marianne: the symbol of the French Republic 

 

Three Black Mariannes, " Entrée to Black Paris," March 2021

 

• Fatoumata Kébé, daughter of a Malian cleaning woman, is an astrophysicien specialized in spatial waste. 

• Others: of the film-maker Fanny Glissant and the judo champion Clarisse Agbeguenon, of Martinican and Togolese heritage respectively.

# # #

Two sculptures of Black heroes appear at the same time.

(At the General Catroux park, 17th)

• General Alexander Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie,* the herculean general of whom Napoleon was jealous. He was born into slavery as the son of Marie-Cessette Dumas, a West Indian slave, and as a child was briefly sold into slavery himself.

He is the father of Alexander Dumas.

*Podcast: Dumas and Napoleon in "Noble Blood"

Irons by Driss Sans-Arcidet / zoom

The irons evoke slavery in his memory.

General Dumas (zoom) and his statue (of 1906), demolished during the Occupation (zoom)

Black past with a short biography

• Solitude, a slave hanged for participating in a Guadeloupean revolt that Napoleon repressed (en 1802):

   By Jacky Poulier / zoom with a short biography (in French) 

The attitude she confronted

"And since nothing stops people without education, of whom violence is the essence of character, they indulged in the greatest excess [...]. Thirty thousand were in full insurrection and had already burned down 2018 sugar plantations and massacred 300 whites [...]. The merchants Le Havre and other ports offered all their armed ships for the transport of troops." 

-- Memoirs of Madame the Duchess of Tourzel, governess of the children of France,

 1957 ed, pp. 251-252

Her biography, The Mulatto Solitude by André-Schwarz-Bart (1972), is fictionalized since little is known of her. But the context is real. 

The hanging took place the day after she gave birth, because the baby was valuable as a slave. 

This is the only statue of a Black woman in Paris. 

WikiTimbres

    This stamp appeared at the same time.

Other cities also remember... 

• La Rochelle, the second French slave-trading port  

By Ousmane Sow (please scroll down), 2015. zoom

Toussaint-Louverture, best-known general of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)

Clarisse, wet-nurse slave by Woodly Caymitte, called Filipo, 2024

She nourishes a white child. Her child, who is Black, cries.  

• Bordeaux

                                                                                                                   Zoom

Modeste Testas, slave of local people who own a plantation in what is now the Dominican Republic, also by Filippo in 2019.

# # #

The Senate's recognition of the slave trade and slavery

as crimes against humanity is commemorated each May 10... recently with drama.

• In 2021 President Macron came to the ceremony but remained silent, though a speech by the President is traditional. A few days before he had given an oration in praise of Napoleon, who restored slavery that revolutions in the Antilles had abolished.

• Christiane Taubira, the former Minister of Justice, deputy from Guyana and driving force behind the law just mentioned, walked out in protest.

# # # 

In autumn 2022, Black popular arts appeared at...

• The City Hall métro station

 Baudoin Mouanda

"Sapeurs" of Congo-Brazzaville mocked the white conquerors by exaggerating their dress, and now make overdressing an art.

• The Louvre

 "Wax" prints are worn throughout sub-Saharan Africa and almost nowhere else

• In 2022 and again in 2023, a celebration of American Black music:

    "Black legends" sign outside the 13th's mall 

 

• In 2023, Creole music on Bastille Day

    Announcement on a street in the 13th

 

"JULY 14

 Paris celebrates its overseas departments" 

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Next,

Popular recognition

POPULAR RECOGNITION

EVER SINCE BLACK AMERICANS INTRODUCED JAZZ TO FRANCE DURING WORLD WAR I, PARISIANS WELCOME THEIR ARTS

France-Amérique / zoom

Gospel singing of African-American churches has been sung and taught in Paris for years.   

WikiTimbres

Entrée to Black Paris

• Josephine Baker, the first international star...  

• Entered the Panthéon (the secular mausoleum) on November 30, 2020.

Entrée to Black Paris, 21 mars 2021

Soon afterwards the television station France 24 interviewed Monique Wells, who publishes Entrée to Black Paris and guides visits that focus on African Americans.

• A square had already been named for her (in 2000)

Claude Abron

Inauguration of place Joséphine Baker, 14th, with the district mayor and the American singer Ursuline Kairson.

• Now a famous poster is spontaneously adapted:  

Entrée to Black Paris 

   

Bus stop in the 13th, novembre 2023; decor 2024 (Facebook, Jill Danger)

•  She's painted on a wall...

       

            169 boulevard de l'Hopital,13e 

• And appears on a coin (in 2024)

Zoom

# # #

They have appreciated intellectuals from the former colonies from almost the same time, and may now turn to such artists as Cameroon's Barthelémy Togué for his decor of the Château Rouge métro in 2017 and exhibit at the National Library* in 2024.

*For a full report, Entrée to Black Paris, photos Monique Wells. 

# # #

But it's only recently that they turn to their own artists by... 

• Introducing hip-hop to a classic opera (in Octobre 2019):

 Les Indes galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1836, at Opéra Bastille

 

• Presenting a hip-hop competiton at the Théâtre du Châtelet (an important theater) during the Olympic Games: 

• Adapting the cult movie La Haine ("Hate") of 1995 into a play to which The New York Times gave major coverage:

The New York Times, October 9, 2024

As so often,

energy comes from below 

It is appreciated at last. 

   

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Next,

Ads reveal the shift