Josephine Baker’s memoirs “Dancing, singing, freedom” | EUROtoday

In 1949 “Les Mémoires de Joséphine Baker, Recueillis et adaptés par Marcel Sauvage” in France, once more appeared in 2022, on the event of Josephine Baker’s admission to the Panthéon in November 2021. Prerequisite for this switch to France’s National Hall of Fame on the initiative of President Macron, which she was in 1937 had acquired Jean Lion by means of marriage to the French entrepreneur of Jewish origin. The switch was a symbolic act, with earth from her hometown of St. Louis, from Paris, from her Les Milandes Castle, the place she based her “rainbow tribe” with twelve adoptive youngsters from the Nineteen Fifties, and her final residence Monaco. She is the primary black lady within the panthéon of solely six girls.

Now the German translation of those memoirs from 1949 is accessible. As the journalist and author Sauvage writes in his introduction, he first made Baker in 1926, when she was twenty years outdated, the proposal to put in writing her memoirs. The results of these early interviews was printed in 1927, which isn’t explicitly talked about. They met once more in 1930, after Baker’s excursions in Europe and America, then within the first yr of the struggle 1939 and eventually in 1949, the place they remembered, as he remembers: “Okay, but I just want to talk about amusing things, also as far as my memories of the war are concerned, you know, even there there were so many fun things, on the seam of horror …”

Over 20 years, “rather a kind of report”, no ongoing narrative of Baker’s life till 1949. In her studies, she repeatedly involves the scandalon to talk the feeling, which implies her distinctive profession as a revue star and singer. The resistance of their nation of delivery was a lot bigger than in Europe. Accordingly, the “memoirs” are underlaid by their deep gratitude for France, which turns into their true dwelling. She, too typically dedicated to attributes similar to “Black Venus” – her mom was African American from Little Rock, Arkansas, her father, whom she did not know, a white one – says phrases: “But now Paris is my jungle. I love this city with all my heart.”

In the German translation, the chapter headings of the French version are omitted, which bundle their spraying tales. They begin with the outline of their departure from a bitter childhood in St. Louis within the state of Missouri, which can make them Paris through Broadway in New York. It continues together with her beginnings in Paris, initially that legendary “Revue Nègre” within the Théâtre of the Champs-Élysées: “Voilà, that’s me, Josephine Baker! I let my shoulders circle in the meat like wheels, my eyes like murmur. After all, I am not a needle cushion in which I talk about my hands and my arms.

The third chapter in which Baker reflects her impressions from the first big tour from 1928 to 1930 in Europe and America, including the encounters with people in their most acclaimed appearances and various prominence, can be read amusing. Despite all the friendliness, she always comes to speak of her dark skin color, including in Austria and Germany. In Austria – “Vienna is positioned in the course of the little Austria, a rustic that doesn’t appear to be large enough for its luxurious capital,” she says – she comes into enthusiasm for “Graf Sternberg” (probably the eccentric liberal politician Adalbert Graf Sternberg), who defends her flaming against cultural conservative and clerical demonization. In Germany, she performed in a revue in the theater of the West: “Back then Berlin was finest organized one of the vital stunning capitals on the planet and in on a regular basis life.” In Munich, the police banned their appearance: “Is Munich not in Germany? ‘, I requested.” For this, Hamburg becomes “my most stunning reminiscence from Germany”.

The focus is on the eighth chapter, which is overwritten within the authentic version: “Four adventurous years within the service of France on the sidelines of the struggle 39–45”. It’s about Baker’s function in the Résistance, in the service of the French counterpart. What often sounds like adventure with her was life -threatening missions when passing on information. In addition, her appearances came to physical exhaustion as a troop entertainer, especially in North Africa, but also in Europe. In 1944 she received the rank of a sous lieutenant, Charles de Gaulle will make her the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. However, Baker’s reports may be decorated: they express the decisive commitment to their adopted home, which will only penetrate the general awareness much later.

As the “memoirs” progress, a good twenty years are between the records, it becomes clear how reflected and sharp -sighted, not least socio -political, baker. She is well aware of her possibilities, which at the same time give her enormous freedom. And when she makes faxes when it comes to cooking and beauty recipes, or about working in the film- she was the first black woman in a large cinema film in 1927 as “Siren of the Tropics”, her sense of irony.

Marcel Sauvage has succeeded in giving her memory current a picture -speed linguistic version, which is also preserved in the German translation. For this he makes himself a company, which arranges its multifaceted reminiscences and idiosyncratic observations, in which her intelligence and humor flash. Their authenticity is not so loyal to reality, it is wrong, accidentally or even knowingly, several times. Her reports are also not free from today’s perspective, and it is also known that their self -staging serves the goal from the start to establish itself as a brand with a unique selling point.

What is the identify of virtually on the finish of the e-book? “I used to be given the distinction of contemplating me silly. I however saved the respect. I’ll by no means be a snob. I do not like snobbish individuals or snobbish animals. I’ve been given dangerous tales. And I’ve nothing to make it. And I’ve no explanations. God doesn’t depart me alone, he’s there, in me, I discover my power and my freedom. life.”

The “memoirs” of the Josephine Baker can be read as a life certificate of an extraordinary, brave, against all resistance, which has been successful against all resistance, whose fate in her country of birth may have more topicality than was to be feared in our presence. Anyone who sounds (on YouTube)-two years before her death on April 12, 1975 at the age of eighty years-sings in New York’s Carnegie Hall Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Chang” will get an thought of ​​her power and presence.

Josephine Baker and Marcel Sauvage: “Dancing, singing, freedom”. Memoirs. From the French by S. Reinhardus and E. Ranke. Reclam Verlag, Ditzingen 2025. 281 pages, born, 26, – €.