By Massimiliano Virgilio – fanpage.it – translated by Alessio Colonnelli –
On the liberation of Silvia Romano, the Italian and Somali author Igiaba Scego sheds light on the prejudices of Italians about Somalia and their unchanged colonial gaze: “Silvia was dressed in green. There are no traditional Somali clothes, just as there are no traditional Italian clothes.”
“The storm of hatred towards Silvia Romano [an Italian charity worker released by al-Shabab after a ransom was paid, translator’s note] is part of the problem, including the fact that for many Italians the word Somalia is synonymous with savages and many speak of Islam without knowing anything about it.” For Igiaba Scego, Italian writer of Somali origin (“I belong to both countries and I’m proud of it”), whose latest book La linea del colore by Bompiani publishing house [literally “The colour’s line”, translator’s note], the current debate triggered by Silvia Romano’s arrival at Rome’s Ciampino airport, with the images of the Italian charity worker wearing a jilbab, open up a wound that never healed in the relationship between our country and its former colonies.
Why are we talking nonsense when we talk about traditional Somali clothing?
Simply because there’s no traditional Somali dress, in the same way that there’s no traditional Italian, French or German dress. There is fashion in Somalia, as everywhere else, which changes over time. In the seventies they used to wear bell bottoms, now they wear tight jeans. For many people it seems incredible, but fashion changes in the global South too.
How has women’s fashion changed in Somalia and in what ways does it relate to religion?
There was an important watershed after 9/11 and with the outbreak of civil war. Since then, there has been a massive influx of fashion from the Persian Gulf countries. Many women began to dress as in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. It would seem to be a religious discourse, but dressing for Somali women has always followed other dynamics as well.
Which ones?
Dressing like a woman from the Gulf meant dressing like the rich, this dynamic applies to all countries around the world. Yet there’s more to this. Often, when we talk about clothes in Arab societies, we associate them with religion and the role of women. But the problem, as far as the Somali context is concerned, is not the veil or the type of dress, but its colour. At first, what I noticed is that in order to imitate fashion from the Persian Gulf, women had stopped wearing the brightly coloured clothes that distinguished them in the past. So black became the predominant colour. In recent years, however, there has been a turnaround and bright colours have become fashionable again. You can tell by the way Silvia was dressed.
Why?
Because hers was a green jilbab – coloured. Which is not, as it has been said, a traditional Somali dress, but one of the possible types of clothing. Many consider it the religious dress par excellence, but here too religion plays a peripheral role. Every woman, just as in Western countries, chooses a dress for a thousand reasons: to seduce, feel protected or closer to God, or simply because it’s works at that precise moment.
The other day in a Facebook post you denounced the overlapping of the term Somali with savage. How do you explain that in 2020 in Italy? What does it reveal about our collective imagination?
Often some Italians forget where the trouble in Somalia comes from, they forget that Somalia was an Italian colony and the terrible things Italians did in Somalia during Fascism and even afterwards, with the UN-granted trusteeship of the Fifties and Sixties, the support and dirty business in cahoots with dictator Siad Barre, not to mention the sale of weapons during the civil war and the toxic waste dumped there. Just think of Ilaria Alpi and the reasons that led to her tragic death [Alpi was an investigative journalist killed in Somalia in 1994 in unknown circumstances, translator’s note]. Somehow, Italy and Somalia have karma in common. However, these relationships have not been enough to make certain stereotypes such as that of savage Somalis disappear in the imagination of the Italians. Or the idea that Somalia is an easy country, as has been said for years about its women, considered sexually available, or the plundering of its natural resources.
In Silvia Romano’s case, is there a possible reading of this distortion, and where?
Many showed their indignation, when they heard that Turkey was behind Silvia’s liberation. On social and the traditional media, plenty of invectives were hurled and analyses offered about Italy’s loss of influence in Somalia. “But how come the Turks are there?” is yet another vulgar colonial expression that makes you understand what the Italians think of the country I’m originally from. That hurt me a lot.
How can we intervene to change this approach?
The truth is that Italians must be decolonized from their own colonial imagination. Even in our language we carry too many legacies, not only stemming from fascism, but from the rhetoric typical of the 19th century. The idea that the other is stupid, inferior, sexually available, is an implication of our culture that has never really been questioned. The thing we can do is talk about it in books, on television, at school, try to deconstruct our gaze, not only by telling the historical phenomenon of colonialism, but by showing how it evolved. And then we have to expect our politicians to change, it’s not possible to be represented by people with a sick imagination, who use an imperialist language that divides the world between superior and inferior. How much longer will it take before it is understood that human beings are all on the same level and that at the very most they are divided into those who have suffered and those who have caused suffering? The debate on the regularisations of migrants in recent weeks is a serious symptom of this situation. The mercantile and slavery terms used to discuss this issue are a disgrace.
What is the possible role of writers and intellectuals in such a situation?
Personally, with my books I try to dig into history and show what mainstream history does not tell. In La linea del colore I dealt with the Afro descendants in Italy, the so-called Black Italy. I don’t believe in pedagogical writing, but I believe in historical excavation and bringing to light the complexity of the past. The history of Italian colonialism hasn’t yet been told in each and every aspect, we must do more. Because there is still a colour line that separates whites from blacks.
(By Massimiliano Virgilio; published by fanpage.it under the headline “Igiaba Scego: ‘Su Silvia Romano lo sguardo coloniale di un’Italia ferma’” on 12 May 2020. Translated by Alessio Colonnelli.)
Read more:
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• THE STENCH OF HYPOCRISY: ROME’S ACCUSATION OF FRENCH COLONIALISM
• ITALY IS DIVIDING THE POOR INTO DESERVING CITIZENS AND UNDESERVING IMMIGRANTS
• TO REVIVE LA FRANCOPHONIE, FRANCE MUST LOSE ITS PARIS-CENTRIC VISION AND “ARROGANCE”
Alessio Colonnelli 