The Panthéon and the politics of memory
The inside of the Panthéon. Image Credit: via Unsplash
On Tuesday 30th November, American-born French Joséphine Baker became the first black woman and the sixth woman to be interred in France’s Panthéon mausoleum. The neoclassical monument is now dedicated to the celebration of the lives of many of France’s most eminent figures, and to the upholding of the Republican values they are seen to have incarnated. A culturally, socially, and politically implicated process, pantheonization problematizes the seemingly evident boundaries that one might too easily locate between the past and the present. This border between the living and the dead can make us question how memory, both individual and collective, interacts with the French political sphere.
Josephine Baker in a French Air Force uniform in 1948. Image Credit: via Wikimedia Commons
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker emigrated to France in 1925, where she then became renowned for her erotic dancing at the renowned Folies Bergères cabaret music hall. Considered a « femme libre» and Venus-like figure, Baker obtained French citizenship in 1937 before then playing a key role in French resistance networks during the Second World War, actions for which she was named a chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, and for which she received the Resistance medal and Croix de guerre among other high-ranking military awards. Following the war, Baker then strongly contributed to the civil rights movement before her eventual death in 1975 in Paris.
« Ma France, c’est Joséphine » (“Josephine, that’s my France”). For French historian Patrick Garcia, the process of pantheonization is « un rite qui construit l’image du président » (“a rite that builds the image of the president”). Macron’s speech, given before two-thousand invited attendees, including Baker’s family members and prominent French figures, emphasizes this. Baker, a symbol of modernity, resistance, and liberty, is equated directly Macron’s vision of the France he has helped to create, his own possession. Baker’s past and memory are evoked in a way which seeks to create a certain shared perception of the present, which desires the production of a certain political narrative. As psychologist Bennett Schwartz notes, memory is dynamic rather than simply a process of cognitive recall seeking accuracy above all else.
This institutionalization of memory is manifest throughout the speech given by Macron, as the values embodied by Baker act as the basis of French identity and of the Republic itself. Baker the individual becomes France the collective, a nation of diversity and prosperity that has flourished under Macron’s leadership. During his speech, Macron said the following: « Paris fera d’elle une des plus grandes gloires des années folles » (“Paris will make her one of the biggest glories of the années folles”). Paris is alive, an actor controlling Baker’s memory. Its agency subsumes and reappropriates Baker’s narrative and the associated values in order to meet the needs of the political present, to legitimize Macron’s presidential tenure. Looking at the past paradoxically represents a time to look forward, as the use of the future tense conjugation «fera» further blurs the boundaries between the living and the dead. To quote Victor Hugo’s aptly named poem L’enterrement, « Les morts sont des vivant mêlés à nos combats » (“The dead are the living amidst our battles”).
Given the upcoming presidential election campaign regarding current debates on immigration within France, this quotation has arguably never been more true, as political stakes are high for Macron. Against such issues and the pressure of right-wing politics, Baker’s pantheonization should be seen not only as a means of producing a certain political discourse, but of silencing others. Far-right political figure Eric Zemmour announced his candidacy for the presidential elections via a YouTube video on the same day as Baker’s interment, yet this announcement was overshadowed by the celebrations of Baker’s life and of the France she represents. Furthermore, the racial politics of such candidates have been somewhat lost amidst the political message of unity attached to the events. Memory is as much about suppression as it is about promotion. As Macron consciously produces a certain collective memory and perception through Baker’s entry into the Panthéon, he arguably simultaneously attempts to negate and efface those perceptions which are hostile to his own.
Despite the ceremonies, Baker’s body remains in Monaco at the request of her children, where she is buried alongside her final husband and one of her children. Instead, a cenotaph containing parts of the earth from important places in her life has been installed in the vaults of the Panthéon. Both temporally and spatially detached, this absence highlights the theatrical element to the process of pantheonization, and consequently the importance of its politics. The iconography and mise-en-scène of such rituals are as important as the event itself, helping to reinforce and to perpetuate the memory that the French President desires to construct. Baker’s coffin was adorned with the French flag, whilst images of her face were presented either side of Macron’s lectern.
The strong links between politics and memory that can be seen through Baker’s entry into the Panthéon fundamentally obscure the boundaries between the past and present. Where can we locate these boundaries? It is precisely that we should not be able to locate them in the case of pantheonization. Memory is here a dynamic concept seeking to promote and legitimize a certain collective vision of France to be consumed by the public, a political weapon to be wielded by the President. The case of Joséphine Baker is no different, yet given her heroism, the recent celebrations of her life should not be cynically reduced to having represented simply a political phenomenon.