Peter Yeung
When Kévi Donat first began leading tours around Paris back in 2011, there was one frustrating question that he would be asked again and again by foreign tourists: “Who is that African-American?”
They would point at a portrait of Aimé Césaire—the hugely influential 20th century Francophone writer, intellectual and politician from the Caribbean island of Martinique—that was on display at the Panthéon, a mausoleum containing some of France’s most illustrious citizens.
“‘Black people exist outside of America!’,” Donat recalls thinking in his head, if not going as far as to berate his guests out loud.