Cover image: Omo Bello singing La Marseillaise Noire
Screenshot from YouTube video

I recently learned that there is a Black version of "La Marseillaise," France's national anthem.

In fact, there are TWO such versions of the song!

The first was written by Alphonse de Lamartine in 1839.

The second was written by Camille Naudin in 1867.

Naudin's version is the better known of the two.

Detail of book cover for
La Marseillaise Noire et autres poèmes de la Nouvelle-Orléans

Camille Naudin (the name is thought to be a pseudoynm)  was an Afro-Créole who lived in New Orleans, LA at the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction.  He and many other Afro-Créole writers penned passionate calls for emancipation and equal rights in traditional and free verse.

Naudin's poem was first published in La Tribune de la Nouvelle Orléans on June 17, 1867. It was inspired  by a song from the play Toussaint L’Ouverture written by the abovementioned Alphonse de Lamartine. 

de Lamartine was not only a poet, but also a politician.  He was the president of the Société Française pour l’Abolition de l’Esclavage (French Society for the Abolition of Slavery). 

As head of the provisional government in 1848, he signed the decree written by Victor Schœlcher that definitely abolished slavery in the French colonies.

Omo Bello sang "La Marseillase Noire" in an operatic style during the 2019 commemoration of France's history of slavery, the slave trade, and their abolition at the Luxembourg Garden.

Malgache singer, author, and composer Edgard Ravahatra performed a breezier version of the song over 13 years ago.