Africans in Italy Roberto Saviano "Africans in Italy don't fear fighting crime"
Roberto Saviano "Africans in Italy don't fear fighting crime"
Thursday, 21 January 2010 10:01 | 
He praises immigrants for defending the rights which Italians no longer want to defend
7th October 2009: Africans in Italy, especially those in Castel Volturno, play a very important role in the fight against organised crime, Mr. Roberto Saviano, a famous Italian author and journalist has said in an exclusive interview he granted Mr. Gianni Ballarini of the Nigrizia missionary magazine.
Mr. Saviano has written extensively about the Camorra (a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization), exposing its territory and business connections. In 2006 he published his bestselling book Gomorrah (Gomorra in Italian), in which he described the clandestine details of the Camorra business. Having been threatened by several Neapolitan “godfathers”, Mr. Saviano has been granted a permanent police escort.
He is full of praise for the role played by Africans to lead the revolt against the mafia in Castel Volturno and Rosarno. He describes the courage of Africans in the area as a “magic that immigrants have brought to Italy in the recent years.”
He says that many Africans usually arrive in Italy desperate and accept absurd working conditions. This often provokes anger of Italians who see themselves sidelined by people ready to accept lower salaries.
Already living under difficult conditions, when “it happens that criminal organisations take away from Africans what they have strongly fought for, that is life, work, breath, possibility of having a family, the entire African community rebels without retreat, without fear,” Mr. Saviano says.
Italians usually fear taking part in such protests because of family objection. But “Africans don’t have any fear. They all come out!” he says, adding that: “Immigrants come to Italy also to defend the rights which we no longer want to defend.”
He holds that in Italy, cynicism and to some extent, reluctance have lead to a situation whereby the fight for “the right to life, dignified work,” are now only left to the “old people, the bored, the moralists.”
In his home area (Naples), he says, it is commonly said that Camorra, Ndrangheta (an organised crime organization centred in Calabria), unscrupulous business people, have always been there, and whoever goes against them does so for his own personal interests. People therefore seem to have given up the fight, and are more interested in living their own lives without fighting against such organised criminal organisations. “An African doesn’t allow this because it deprives him of what he has fought for, that is, to be able to provide shelter to his children, a dream of a regular job, and above all, life.”
He says that an African who considers himself to have come to the country ‘paying with blood’ can’t allow anyone to take away what he has strongly fought for. “Africans are injecting this defence of rights into the Italian system,” Mr. Saviano says.
Describing Castel Volturno as “a truly African city,” Mr. Saviano praises the work done by Comboni Missionaries in the city, terming it “miraculous”.
“They enable the African community, dominated by Nigerian mafia, to have an alternative, to be able to choose not to stay with criminals.”
Mr. Saviano says the good work done by these missionaries enables many African children born in the area, to have hope of not joining the band of ‘rapaci’ (the name used to refer to Nigerian organised criminal organisations in the area).
Mr. Saviano holds that Castel Volturno may represent the future of Italy. “If Italians were to open their eyes once and for all, that reality could represent a unique laboratory: for the first time an African community could manage an Italian city,” he says.
This is because Castel Volturno isn’t an estate but an entire city inhabited by Africans.
According to Mr. Saviano, if this community could be given the possibility of becoming resistant to the Nigerian mafia, to break the criminal relationship with Camorra, Castel Volturno could become a major resource even for Europe. This is because there isn’t any other city throughout Europe which is entirely African.
Mr. Saviano disagrees with those who claim that illegal immigrants who arrive in the country by boats are criminals. “I feel so much hurt” by such claims, he says, adding that many criminals who arrive in the country never use boats. They arrive by air and with documents, he says.
“What can happen is that someone who arrives by boat, through desperation, finds himself becoming a small drug pusher. It’s however serious to say that criminals from Africa, depart specifically to commit crimes in Italy. That’s not the case. Any investigation carried out by the anti-mafia squad shows it.”
Investigations have in fact proved that ethnic community members are the ones who stop crimes, not the police or judges who usually arrive late, Mr. Saviano says. “Good members of the community are the ones who stop crime.”
Asked whether Italy is a racist country or not, he says: “I’ve asked myself that question many times. May be it’s becoming racist in its way of thinking and less in it’s way of acting.”
He gives the example of Lampedusa where most local residents have been ready to help illegal immigrants who arrive by sea. “Surely, the way of thinking is strongly becoming racist.”
He says that from the cultural point of view, a few immigrants are allowed to emerge. “When your doctor is an African, your lecturer is Slavic, your favourite musician is an American,” you can breakdown racial prejudice.
Mr. Saviano blames Italian politicians for the widespread racist attitude. Today by only taking into consideration the politicians’ statements, one can conclude that “we are the most racist country in Europe.” He says that many Italian politicians are never careful with the words they use.
Mr. Saviano is convinced that ethnic criminals want their communities to be victims of racism so that they can become the community’s point of reference. He says that ethnic mafia supply people with documents, permits, work, a different identity, drugs, fake marriages, etc. If an immigrant has the possibility of living an independent life from their way of doing things, they lose, but if the person doesn’t have such a possibility, they win.
Mr. Saviano is urging authorities to facilitate integration of good immigrants. They should be empowered and helped to become rich in an honest manner, he says. More facilities should also be made available for reporting crime.
Mr. Saviano reveals that Africa is increasingly becoming a hub for drugs trafficked to Europe. Nigeria for instance, has become an important transit hub for cocaine towards Russia. It has become such an important transit hub that even heroine from Afghanistan is first taken to Nigeria before being dispersed to other destinations.
Mr. Saviano holds that the recent coup in Guinea-Bissau was managed by drug traffickers who now have control of many African airports. He says that the cost of drugs in Italy has now gone down because of the large supply from Nigeria.
Mr. Saviano says that Africa has become an ideal place for illegal dumping of waste materials from Europe. In his book Gomorrah, he tells of how he saw many business people from his area worried when tsunami hit the African coasts. He thought that such unscrupulous business people were worried over deaths of the local people, but he was wrong. They were worried of the fact that tsunami had uncovered the waste materials they had dumped on the African beaches.
By Stephen Ogongo
Special thanks to the Editor of Nigrizia for allowing us to prepare this article using information from the interview Mr. Roberto Saviano granted Mr. Gianni Ballarini.
Last Updated (Monday, 25 January 2010 13:44)