Mathilde Edey Gamassou, 17, on Monday afternoon, was unveiled to the media by the Orleans Jeanne d’Arc Association to don the armor during the 589th Johannean Festivities, a tradition that dates from 1430.
A few minutes before the announcement, the lounges of the Groslot Hotel were rustling with “the news” that Joan of Arc 2018 would not be white. The fifteenth century French heroine is a symbol of a European France because she led French armies to save her country and was ultimately burned at the stake.
In fact, the high school girl’s father is from Benin and and her mother is from Poland. Born in Paris, she has only lived in Orleans since 2003 and is perfectly bilingual, but she prefers English to French.
During an interview, after her winning application was announced, she said she liked English more, but then quickly corrected herself and added that she also likes French.
Joan of Arc is famous because she had received saintly visions instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War.
In the microcosm of Orleans and even beyond, the choice of a black girl who is not French and not born in Orleans, has caused great unhappiness.
But the jury claims that as long as a candidate has lived in Orleans for ten years, was educated at a high school in Orleans, baptized in the Catholic church and demonstrate a commitment to voluntary service, she is eligible.
And when Mathilde was asked if the choice of a black candidate was of any importance to her, she dismissed the question. “I’m mixed-race, so what? The girl who plays Joan of Arc can be white or mixed-race, whatever, it’s important that she is French.”
Bénédicte Baranger, president of Orléans Jeanne d’Arc Association, said the race of the candidate did not matter. “What’s important, she’s Catholic, cultivated, we had no reason to refuse her candidacy, moral excellence is not skin-colour,” he said.
He added that their choice was not “positive discrimination” but added that it could attract other racial groups to the otherwise white festivities.
Baranger said the reactions of the conservatives in Orleans do not worry him. “It’s not my problem. Mathilde loves her city, her story, she goes to others, she meets all the criteria, but if this designation allows another part of the population to participate, it’s a good thing.”