Podcast: France's first Alzheimer's village, translation wars, Josephine Baker

An experimental centre near Bordeaux offers Alzheimer's sufferers more freedom and less medication; debate over whether a translator's identity matters following the Amanda Gorman controversy, and France honours Josephine Baker – performer, Resistance hero and civil rights activist – with a place in the Pantheon.

Spotlight on France, episode 63 © RFI

The Covid pandemic showed the limits of caring for the elderly within nursing homes, raising concern over how they are treated, especially those with Alzheimer's – a incurable form of dementia, often accompanied by anxiety and depression. During France's first lockdown in the spring of 2020, some patients were confined to their rooms to protect them from infection, adding to their sense of isolation and confusion. The Village Landais Alzheimer in Dax, south of Bordeaux, is experimenting a very different, non-pharmacological approach, providing 120 patients with the chance to carry on living as much of their ordinary daily life as possible within a vast but secure setting.  A visit to the village offers a glimpse of what Alzheimer's care could end up looking like in France, if research concludes it is effective. (Listen @1'20'')

Translation is very visible in France: most movies and TV series are dubbed, and large numbers of books are read in translation. The spotlight was recently shone on the work of translators following controversy over who would translate Amanda Gorman – the 22-year-old African-American spoken-word artist who presented her poem The Hill at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2020. The white poet chosen by the Dutch publisher stepped down from the job after questions were raised about why a black artist had not been picked. Literature professor and translator Tiphaine Samoyault talks about why it made sense to choose Marie-Pierre Kakoma, aka Lous and Yakuza, a 24-year-old Belgian-Congolese performer, for the French translation, and why a translator's identity matters. She also talks about the inherent violence in translation, the subject of her most recent book, 'Translation and violence'. (Listen @20'12'')

Josephine Baker was the most successful American entertainer working in France in the 1920s and '30s. She was also a Resistance heroine and civil rights activist. On 30 November she will become the sixth woman, and the first black woman, to enter the Pantheon – France's mausoleum of 'great men'. In deciding to honour her, President Emmanuel Macron called Baker a figure of reconcilliation for France. (Listen @15'30'')

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, iTunes (link here), Spotify (link here), Google podcasts (link here), or your favourite podcast app.