40 Fascinating Facts About the Fabulous Josephine Baker

40 Fascinating Facts About the Fabulous Josephine Baker

Khalid Elhassan - July 2, 2019

40 Fascinating Facts About the Fabulous Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker and ten of her adopted children in 1964. Wikimedia

10. The Rainbow Tribe

Josephine Baker, who had no biological children of her own, and whose wartime hysterectomy forever closed that possibility for her, eventually ended up adopting twelve children. They hailed from Algeria, Colombia, Finland, France, Israel, the Ivory Coast, Korea, Morocco, Japan, and Venezuela. Baker dubbed them “The Rainbow Tribe”, and lived with them in her French estate, Chateau des Milandes, which also doubled as a resort with hotels, a farm, rides, and The Rainbow Tribe singing for audiences. She saw her children as living metaphors of what humanity could be like, and an attack against racism.

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