“Freedom, Equality, Humanity” is the title of the exhibition with which the Bonn Museum of Art wants to honor the life and work of the French-American singer and dancer, Josephine Baker. “A hundred years of banana skirt is enough,” confesses Baker’s biographer, Mona Orncastle, in an interview with DW. Baker, with her ability to change, her self-reliance and the way she defined her own life, is an inspiration to artists and future generations. Following President Emmanuel Macron’s decision, the American artist and resistance fighter was honored with a cenotaph at the Pantheon mausoleum in Paris.

Orncastle’s biographer says that her claim to the right to freedom and equality is “incredibly motivating” today, as it was then, when diversity was far from the order of things. The starting point of the biography and the exhibition about Baker is not only about her role as an exotic dancer in the 1920s, when she excelled in her “controversial outfit” full of African clichés, but also about her anti-racist struggle against racial discrimination.

Josephine Baker is said to be has received more than 1,500 marriage proposals, while at the age of just 20 the famous dancer was earning more money than any other presenter in Europe. In Paris, Berlin and Madrid, artists and writers such as Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, the architect Le Corbusier as well as actors and theater people such as Jean Gabin and Max Reinhardt were literally at her feet. The French artist Jean Cocteau he exclaims euphorically: “Ahthis beautiful idol of brown steel, irony and gold».

Her inspections were a worldwide success

She had a difficult childhood and had to work from a very young age to make ends meet. At the age of 11 he witnessed the pogroms in which nearly 100 blacks were lynched. Born Frieda Josephine MacDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, she worked as a maid for wealthy white families, quickly discovering the racism of the affluent class. At the age of 15 he married for a short time, but kept the surname Baker.

As a teenager she works in the wardrobe of a touring troupe but must hide her youth. But when a dancer fell ill, Josephine jumped at the chance and performed with the troupe. At 16 she dances as a substitute in a black musical. A few years later, in 1925, she appeared in a dance revue at the ‘Théâtre des Champs Elysées’ in Paris wearing only a few feathers and a pearl necklace. Her eroticism, her fit body and her legendary charleston numbers drive the audience crazy. Her “dance sauvage”, the skirt dance with 16 bananas, is particularly well known.

She becomes a famous star overnight and starts a tour with the revue “Revue Nègre”. Josephine Baker is adored by her fans, who shower her with expensive gifts and vows of love. The diva has innumerable lovers and has sexual encounters with both men and women. During the ‘Roaring Twenties’ she was a sex symbol and relished her ‘black Venus’ image. During a tour of the USA, Baker, then famous in Europe as the black star of the revue, experienced enormous racial animosities. After her performance she had to go through the servants’ entrance. Disillusioned, she obtained French citizenship in 1937 through her marriage to French-Jewish industrialist Jean Lyon.

Great anti-racist work

With the outbreak of World War II, she offered her services to the counterintelligence agency by smuggling letters and secret documents. When the war ended, the general Charles de Gaullewe awarded it to her Medal of the Legion of Honor. In the post-war era, always continuing to sing, she and her third husband adopted twelve children from different races and religions. She was constantly on tour and rarely at home, leaving the raising of her children to nannies and her husband. In 1963 he marched alongside Martin Luther King in the historic “March on Washington” to protest against racism.

However, the luxurious life creates huge debts that she could not repay, resulting in the confiscation of all her property. Her legendary 1972 performance at the Theater Bobino in Paris brought Josephine Baker back into the limelight. Passed away from heart failure on April 12, 1975 and to this day she is considered one of the most unique dancers worldwide.