“Black Italia. Contemporary Migrant Writers from Africa”

Abstract

Through the centuries, historical and fictional characters of African descent have been an integral part of Italian culture at large – from Hannibal to Othello. Yet their presence, in history as much as in the arts, has often been marginalized, or considered episodic, if not entirely overlooked by Italy’s dominant discourse. The recent arrival of a plethora of migrants from the four corners of the world, many of whom from African countries, has urged Italians to recuperate their African past as an essential, and often problematic, component of their national identity. Yet historical sources appear fragmentary and often interpolated. How to re-compose the neglected African Italian heritage? A number of artists from the African diaspora, coming from different backgrounds, have recently tried to answer this question with their creative works. Art has succeeded in filling history’s gaps. Imagination provides connection, inclusion, and the possibility of cultural transmission. By giving voice and visibility to those who have been silenced and made invisible by mainstream history, an array of contemporary artists is contributing to the recollection, and the re-creation, of a crucial, largely ignored aspect of Italian culture. Among them are a number of writers, whose flourishing literary production has been reshaping Italian contemporary letters: Pap Khouma, Salah Methani, Ubax Cristina Ali Farah, and Igiaba Scego, among others. Their texts differently address and call for a critical investigation of issues of color, race, gender, class, hegemony, nationality, citizenship, post/colonialism, identity, borders, language, agency and representation.