Stories and News

Stories and News No. 1318 Here Africa, where it all began. And, now, also the end. Precisely we are at the clothing market of Kantamanto , in Accra, Ghana. You know, right? Those narrow, crowded streets between all the same stalls covered with piles of clothes. Pants, T-shirts and jackets of any fabric. But above all style and color, according to the fashions and tastes of the moment. A sort of rainbow that like a snake winds its way across our planet from one point to another of the latter, instead of across the sky. Maybe that's why in the end there is no treasure to be found. It is the same old scaffolding which the story of humanity that we have chosen to interpret rests on, whose moral, for those who live on the opposite extreme, is bitter to say the least. Meanwhile, life proceeds indifferently going up the unfair current in reverse. Anyone of us, on the side where dressing is a way of expressing the personality or mood of the moment - instead of just a mere protection fro...

Stories and News No. 1317 I would like to put some order on a topic that has always touched me personally, but which I still believe today is misunderstood as inescapable in a country like Italy and beyond. I'm talking about racism. I learned to know it literally firsthand since birth. It is enough to say that I was the only black student in the entire institute for my entire course of study almost including university. I remember that day in high school when I heard one of my teachers saying that there were about 600 students in our institute. Well, the first thing I thought was that he meant that the "whites" were 599... This was usual in my neighborhood when I played on the street or the playing pitches. Or when I went to the beach, where things got complicated because I inevitably got darker. I won't sit here and bore you with the exorbitant amount of episodes of intolerance and discrimination suffered. In part they have become nourishment for stories, novels o...

Stories and News No. 1316 Once upon a time the people, you know them? How many times have you heard this, come on, and every time it's a lie, though. It's a false story from the very beginning, because whoever writes it, tells it and most of the time screams it, has always a hidden reason. Indeed, there is one behind the latter, and then another and in the end there is him, taking selfies while he is overeating or having fun behind your back. Without a precise order, following the chaotic shouting of such scoundrels: the people are tired, the people must be understood, the people can't stand it anymore, the people are with us, the people agree with us, the people have agreed with us once again, despite "the people", in the sense of most of them, are those who have been staying at home for decades now and do not respond to appeals in one sense or another. In the meantime, people are always on the lips of them, pay attention. I say this because it came to my mind...

Stories and News No. 1315 Once upon a time a proverb, all that glitters is not gold, which urges us to be wary of what at first glance may seem appreciable and of undisputed value, but if its actual qualities and characteristics are ascertained, it proves much less agreeable and meritorious. I cite as an emblematic example the coronation ceremony of the new sovereign of the isolated, rather than united, Kingdom, celebrated moreover with a concert that stood out  for the number of absent artists than for the few who performed. Yet, as per tradition, at every public event involving the royals of England there is an exorbitant amount of clamor and above all glare. I could say high beam, it would be very redundant, but it is the real gist of the speech. Because in the era of information that can be obtained anywhere, by any means, from any point of the world, both on the eve and after the advent of the renewed British monarchy, what is unworthy lurks in the dark corners - or better ...

Stories and News No. 1314 Dear ancestor, It could be you too, dad, but in your case I wrote a book, while here I would like to expand the discussion. Both in time and space. However, if in my personal story the unpunished crimes of colonialism begin and take place above all in the Horn of Africa, and concern the country where I was born and where I will end my journey, remaining in the same continent the group of suspects is significantly larger. It is with regard to the significant aspects of history and memory that unite and at the same time divide us, that I would like to send this letter to you, who are in a certain sense my ancestor and in some way close on my father's side, if not in the well-known sense more noble and universal called simply humanity. Dear African of the past, who saw those emissaries of three populations arriving from overseas, English, French and Italians. Watch them carefully with the eyes of the past and today. Especially the latter. Can you see those...

Stories and News No. 1313 My non-Western origins should be raising their voice, right now, because today I would like to be a member of the U'wa , an indigenous people of Colombia. As one of them, I undertake to believe with all my heart that the world we live in has been given to us as long as we are willing to play the role which we were chosen for: to safeguard mother Earth. This is the main task of our community: to take care of the planet that has been entrusted to us, period. There can be no misunderstanding in such a high purpose. Of course, for many around here we are just "savages". Let's be honest, come on. When one reads the word “indigenous” or is watching images of half-naked individuals in the middle of a forest, most of people on the modern side of the screen think about backwardness and incivility. Nonetheless, despite living in the same era, for some it is irrelevant what other peoples do with the life. It’s hard otherwise, when for U’wa people’s n...