Paris Mayor calls for ban on Black Feminist Festival

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is seeking to ban a black feminist festival, Nyansapo Festival, in the city on the grounds of it being discriminatory.

Hidalgo said that the festival, which dubbed itself as an event rooted in black feminism, excludes white people. Hidalgo condemned the festival and tweeted: “I am asking for this festival to be banned.”

The festival, which describes itself as “Afro-Feminist”, organised by the Mwazi Collective, is aimed at black women, for whom most of the festival space will be reserved with segregated areas for black men and non-black people.

The Nyansapo Festival is scheduled to run from July 28 to July 30 at a cultural centre in the capital city of France. Hidalgo’s comments came after the organisers – the Mwasi feminist association – mentioned on its website that 80% of the venue would be reserved for black women.

It added that black people irrespective of gender would be allowed in another area, while a third area would be open to all. Some French anti-racism organisations have also condemned the festival, calling it a “mistake”.

SOS Racisme described the event “an abomination” and said it “wallows in ethnic separation”, while Licra, the International League against Racism and Antisemitism, said: “Rosa Parks would be turning in her grave”.

The regional head of Marine Le Pen’s National Front party, Wallerand de Saint-Just, had also questioned the mayor and asked her to explain how the city was fine with an event that was “promoting a concept that is blatantly racist and anti-republican“.