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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

France probes racist backlash against pop star Nakamura over Olympics

French investigators have opened an inquiry over alleged racism against French-Malian pop superstar Aya Nakamura following reports she might perform at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

Published: 15 March 2024 17:08 CET
France probes racist backlash against pop star Nakamura over Olympics
French singer Aya Nakamura. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)

The probe follows the filing of a complaint by the France-based International League against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA) on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

The 28-year-old superstar is known worldwide for hits like Djadja, which has close to a billion streams on YouTube alone.

The abuse began after media reports said the singer had discussed the possibility of performing a song by 20th-century icon Edith Piaf at a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron last month, though neither party has confirmed the topic was discussed.

At a campaign rally on Sunday for the Reconquest party, led by far-right former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, Nakamura’s name drew boos from the crowd.

A small extremist group, the Natives, hung a banner by the River Seine that read: “There’s no way Aya. This is Paris, not the Bamako market.”

SOS Racism, another group battling discrimination, said on X that it had also filed an official complaint over “acts of incitement to discrimination and racist cyberbullying” against the artist.

It said she had been, “the victim of waves of racist hate driven by the far right”.

The Olympics organising committee told AFP on Monday that it had been “very shocked” by the backlash against the singer, and Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera also expressed her support on X.

Nakamura said Tuesday that said she was grateful. “Thanks for the support, especially to my community,” she posted on X. “I feel like I made you discover Edith Piaf and she has been reincarnated in me.”

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POLITICS

French territory New Caledonia counts the cost of overnight riots

People in New Caledonia's main city Noumea assessed the damage on Tuesday after a night of rioting in the French Pacific territory that saw vehicles and shops torched, and shots fired at security forces.

Published: 14 May 2024 08:08 CEST
French territory New Caledonia counts the cost of overnight riots

Riots erupted on Monday over a constitutional reform that is being debated in the national assembly in Paris, and which aims to expand the electorate in the territory’s provincial elections.

Groups of demonstrators took over several roundabouts and confronted police, who responded with non-lethal rounds, while the territory’s high commissioner said shots had been fired at security forces during the riots.

On Tuesday, the streets of Noumea bore the scars of clashes between the police and rioters with traffic blocked by burnt-out cars and smoking piles of tyres.

“The police station nearby was on fire and a car was too, in front of my house, there was non-stop shouting and explosions, I felt like I was in a war,” said Sylvie, whose family has lived in New Caledonia for several generations.

“We are alone. Who is going to protect us?” she told AFP, asking to be identified only by her first name.

A total of 36 people were arrested and 30 police officers injured, according to authorities, who also announced a night-time curfew on Tuesday and a ban on public gatherings.

No deaths have been reported.

“I can’t talk,” said Joelle Vincent, who owns a supermarket business. “I am disappointed and disgusted.”

The fire brigade recorded nearly 1,500 calls and counted around 200 fires in the overnight unrest.

At least two car dealerships and a bottling factory in the capital Noumea were set on fire in arson attacks, an AFP journalist saw.

‘Side by side’

While the situation appeared more calm in parts of Noumea on Tuesday, there were still clashes in the suburbs, where a supermarket was looted after being rammed during the night.

Many other businesses also bore the marks of attempted break-ins and few shops were open. Long queues were forming in front of the few that are still open.

Hundreds of cars were set on fire, as were more than 30 businesses, shops and factories, according to a group of employers’ representatives.

The group issued an appeal for calm and said nearly 1,000 jobs on the island had been put at risk by the unrest.

The island’s public transport network has also been cut off, with the territory’s flag carrier Aircalin announcing that it was cancelling all its flights for Tuesday.

“I feel sad,” Jean-Franck Jallet, who owns a butcher shop that firefighters managed to rescue from the flames. “I thought it was possible for us (islanders) to live side by side, but it hasn’t worked. There are too many lies.”

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