I arrived late. Shortly after one o'clock. At the former
Socrates is busy lunch social.
The former high school near Via Fanelli written in Bari
corridors with new and old, a bunch of doors and
African boys
arrival when they stop talking and say hello.
Two things are essential for the 'reception:
a beautiful "hello" and a big smile.
For a moment it seemed that they wanted
teach a sense of welcome, while
knowing that I went to visit them to make even my
, convinced their cause. There
reflect a bit ', silently, and I am
realize how they are right. Spare
greeting and smile as we shake hands, how do you
between old friends, and I submit,
led by the young, the meanders of the school
workers.
E 'Sunday in the hallway and we embarked
feels a strong smell.
The feeling is that you have in
by lunchtime Sunday rest, typically Italian,
when you are returning from a Saturday pseudomondano
Puglia and in our homes feel the aromas
abundant lunch being prepared in anticipation of some host .
we finally enter the classroom where the refugees have prepared a banquet and
are a festive and full of smiles. All
greet me and invite me to eat something. A lady advised me to taste the
Zighinì. This explains that
smell good that feels right from the entrance. The
Zighinì is a typical dish of Eritrea, a
beef stew cooked in a spicy sauce and served
much on a sort of spongy bread
. I appreciate very much. Istifanos
, an occupant, and I will not notice
approaches. He wants to know if the food is
my liking. Affirmative. Very good. He notes
me. Look at my camera and
asks me if I am a photographer, a journalist.
I realize that my "no" is still a bit '
disappointed. Usual pleasantries, we're there to talk, to eat the
zighinì.
communicate in English. The kids speak it very well.
Istifanos to ask where he learned to speak English so well
and when I learn that the
ha imparato a scuola, come tutti in Eritrea,
Etiopia e Sudan , penso all’inutilità delle mie
ore di inglese passate alla scuola superiore del
mio paese “civile”.
Istifanos viene dall’Eritrea con tanta voglia di
raccontarsi. Mi fa capire che è andato via da
lì perché si è rifiutato di diventare militare e
fare la guerra. Ha dovuto lasciare l’Eritrea ed
affrontare un viaggio di due mesi, sopportando
fame , grosse umiliazioni e di vedere compagni
di viaggio morire durante il cammino.
Due mesi di viaggio per arrivare qui ? Sono
sbalordito . Mi sembra troppo. Lui mi spiega
che i migranti , seppur coscienti di affrontare
l’inferno , corrono ogni rischio, pur di rivalersi
nei confronti di una situazione che,nelle loro
terre, li umilia senza remore .
Istifanos non è drammatico nei toni. Ha un
viso sereno e persino allegro. E’ proprio la sua
affabilità a trasmettermi le immagini dolorose
del suo racconto, a farmele rivivere, a renderle
mie. Intanto, mentre racconta, tira fuori il suo
permesso di soggiorno con la carta d’identità.
Ci tiene a mostrarmi i documenti perché quelle
carte sono il risultato di un vissuto importante.
Comprendo la forza di quel gesto e decido di
immortalare quel momento in una fotografia.
Lui pare esserne contento e
sports a big smile when I show her
image on the display. Leads me to find other classmates that
not far from us eat pasta
oven sitting on the ground around a gas stove
. Very warm welcome. I have
wine. I look at the label. E 'Italian wine.
I watch them smile because they like the wine
Puglia. You have to find that not all
are Eritreans. There's a young guy with long hair and curly
that Ethiopia is also a gentleman and
a bit 'bigger
is that instead of Sudan. It 'a moment of silence and
looks, but with strong interaction, then we speak of the former
Socrates. I want to know
employment and I explain that after enduring
repression, humiliation, travel exhausting for them
was no longer acceptable to suffer the stigma of
cold winter night and benches
absurd Piazza Umberto. They occupied the ferrhotel
because the Somalis were right. Why
answer this
democracy that solves the "problems" using
systematic oppression instead of really understanding the
situations was for them a moral and civil
. I explain that in Sweden, for example
, the so-called "secondary care"
reserved for political refugees,
would give them the opportunity to be autonomous and to live more dignified
. One of them, the youngest,
insists that you can no longer be so passive in
decision-making power and that it is necessary for anyone to claim
so
their substantial rights. We see all
and stresses that there is only a matter
Eritrean refugees, Sudanese, Ethiopians and Somalis,
but it is a principle that applies to anyone
forced to be on the ropes of the ring to parry punches
daily . In my mind
translate his thought into the concept of "class struggle
. Class struggle? But it was not an 'idea
old and outdated? This twenty-year old Ethiopian-haired
nice, is removing decades of catching up to the modernization of our beautiful
Western society Speaking from experience
a boy not resigned. E '
an important moment and I try to show,
just nodding, as I share his thoughts
. He understands and asks me what my job is
. I do the factory worker.
While I explain what is my job, I think inevitably
to my fellow colleagues in the factory, the benches uncomfortable pause
rooms crowded with characters
stained with iron powder and speeches
recrimination for a penalty not given.
Istifanos and I think the future of this twenty
conscious dignity of their fellow
and those condemned to be
precarious, all relegated to a red traffic light
and carbon monoxide breathed
ask for a little cash to drivers magnanimous
out from any shopping mall in which
have bought the i-phone, in installments, to feel free
as competitors of "Men and Women"
with compliments for the transmission
and evenings spent playing the PlayStation 3.
always better than war and ethnic cleansing.
"We are people." Said by
Istifanos in Italian
remains in my ears like the constant noise of the generator
that allows us to turn the bulb
. I salute you guys and after some practice match
football. Handshakes and smiles
of someone who still believes that the legality
, that substantial, not only
daughter of the bureaucracy. Our law is the daughter of
dignity for all.
Felisio Bruni
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