An investigation has been opened after the numerous racist attacks targeting Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura since rumors emerged about her possible participation in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
The National Center for the Fight against Online Hate (PNLH) opened an investigation after receiving the report from Licra on Wednesday “denouncing publications of a racist nature to the detriment of Aya Nakamura”said the prosecution on Friday, requested by AFP.
The 28-year-old singer, crowned female artist at the Victoires de la Musique, is stigmatized by the far right and has been the subject of numerous racist attacks since the announcement, at the end of February by the weekly L’Express, of her possible participation on the evening of July 26 to launch the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
This possible participation has not been made official to date either by the singer, nor by the organizers of the Games, nor by the Elysée.
Boos during an Eric Zemmour meeting
Last Sunday, during a first major campaign meeting for the European elections of Reconquête!, Eric Zemmour’s far-right party, boos arose at the mention of the artist.
Detractors of the most popular French-speaking singer in the world do not tolerate the liberties that the artist takes with the French language, as in “Djadja”, mixing slang, vocabulary and images from the four corners of the world (“J’suis pas your whore, Djadja, like, in catchana baby, you die).
“We like it or we don’t like it, she doesn’t sing in French”, considered Tuesday on BFMTV Marion Maréchal, head of the list for the European elections of this party.
Last weekend, the identity group Les Natifs published on social networks the photo of a banner on which was written: “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market.” “Macron aims to impose Aya Nakamura as the singer representing the French and their culture”, they also said in a press release on Telegram on Tuesday, deploring, according to them, “the Africanization of our culture, largely underway after 50 years of family reunification”.
SOS Racisme denounced this banner, the aim of which is “to assert that Aya Nakamura has no legitimacy to represent France“while she is one”French artist.
The Franco-Malian singer is “referred to Malian origins that are clearly disqualifying in the eyes of the extreme right”, continued SOS Racisme on Friday in a press release, announcing that it would take legal action in turn.
The artist also reacted on her social networks: “You can be racist but not deaf… That’s what hurts you! I’m becoming a number 1 state subject in debates etc. but what do I really owe you? Kedal” (sic).
Asked about her slang open to all winds, and her musical influences mixing RnB, zouk and Puerto Rican tempo, she told AFP at the end of 2020 that she could “understand that some people say to themselves: + who does she think she is, taunting us with our French language + but it’s important to accept the culture of others and I have a double culture”.
Nearly one in two French people surveyed (49%) consider that their possible participation is a “bad idea”, against 21% believing that it is a “good idea” and 30% who have no “no opinion“, according to an Elabe survey for BFM TV published on March 13.
Many supports
Faced with repeated racist attacks, the singer benefited from a lot of support.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, warned against “pretexts to attack someone out of pure racism”: “attacking an artist for who she is is unacceptable, it is a crime.”
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games, chose to express her support for Aya Nakamura by repeating the chorus of “Djadja”.
“On what criteria do you base yourself on to say that she cannot represent France?”asked former footballer Lilian Thuram, very involved in the fight against racism, in a video posted on TikTok.
“Racism (…) is when someone tries to tell you that you don’t have the right to have what you deserve”added Lilian Thuram, inviting “above all, do not trivialize this speech” that a black person could not represent France.
2024-03-17 12:20:30
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