16/07/2019
The Sky Arts-1 Channel, broadcast on satellite and cable television platforms in the UK, looked at the amazing career of Josephine Baker on Sunday night. The African American dancer was effectively driven out of the United States during the harsh years of puritanism and prohibition, and she found sancutary in the liberal Third Republic of France during the 1920s and 30s, enjoying a halcyon period of cultural and creative endeavour. The Third French Republic lasted from 1871 following the Prussio-French War and ended in the horrifying occupation of the fascist German Nazi regime which invaded Western Europe in 1940. During those interwar years, the government was dominated by liberal and socialist parties and a huge interest in the arts took place. Homosexuality had long been legal in France, decriminalised by the forward thinking revolution way back in 1791. In the twenties and thirties, the country enjoyed jazz music, bohemian arts and a progressive attitude towards sex and gender. Women enjoyed immense freedom, and bisexual people such as Baker were able to explore their desires relatively freely. Even radio enthusiasts look back on this era fondly, for unlike the state controlled British model, France permitted privately run radio stations, with outlets such as Radio Post Parisienne and Radio Normandie enjoying a considerable following over the channel in England with their light entertainment, jazz and big band programmes. Josephine Baker thrived in the clubs of Paris, enjoying a huge fan following for her fusion of European and African dance styles. She was black, beautiful and a strong female icon. What's more, as the Sky Arts programme found, she was a brave hero. She settled in France, and did not return to America even after the Nazi regime invaded, subjecting the French people, and particularly minorities, to brutality and violence. Instead, Josephine Baker joined the French Resistance, bravely fighting to liberate the country from oppression, and did her part to bring about the liberation when General Le Clerc and the Free French Army, backed by the Allied powers, rolled into Paris in May 1944. Josephine Baker lived the rest of her days in France, honoured and loved by the people. She will forever be a black and LGBT icon.