SU_T_12

[r] My name is [name], I am originally from Eritrea, born in Denkalya, in the province of Asmara. I lived with my family until I was eight, they are farmers, but we were well off. Then for eight years the Locusts came, and they ate everything. My father was desperate, he had two sisters in the capital Asmara. They took me and my sister. My sister was older, she was promised in marriage and was engaged. Because my mum was an only child, she had land, she had livestock. And my aunt, the one who looked after me, only had one daughter, she said, but leave this little girl with me and I’ll bring her up with me. I grew up for three years, so to speak. But she had promised that I would study, that she would send me to school. In the morning she would help me, in the afternoon she would send me to school. But she didn’t keep that promise. So after two years my father would come every year and say, if you don’t make them study, either pay for it or send her home. I didn’t have many children, they ticked them off. And I heard about it. After three years, a third year, I went to celebrate in my village every year. And I made an agreement with my cousin, on my father’s side, she was the same age as me, they had two sisters in Massawa. And we ran away, especially from the strange people. We ran away. And so my life began. When I wanted to work, my aunt wanted my cousins to come back, but I didn’t want them to. If your mum and dad beat you when you’re wrong, they’re different. But if a stranger or your aunt beats you, you hold on to them, you bite them, right? So, because of the fear, because of the things, I didn’t talk, I spoke little. I mean, I was closed off. My brain worked, that’s just how it is. I don’t get stressed, but my brain kept going. But you do this, you do that. I didn’t want to go back to the village because I was afraid, terrified of the alien and the snake. Of the dark. So I never went back. I tell my cousins, if you want to work, then go and look after a child or go to Arab houses. I entered Arab houses. Every moment was hot in Massawa. They would send me shopping for something small. Then I cried, I said, I don’t want to do it anymore. Because my uncles were the wives of Italians, both married. And I want to work with the Italian, I want to be with the Italian. But where can we find the Italian for you, dear?
[i] Did you work for Arab families as a maid?
[r] You run away. You didn’t study, the other aunt doesn’t study me. I have to work, I have to earn money. So, one of my uncles said she had a family. She was Italian, also Piedmontese by destiny. Her name was Giordano. This lady was forty years old. He was from Ittigrai. And look at that, she cooked. I’m forty, I need help, a little girl. And I found destiny, just as I wanted. With these people, with this lady, we lived separately. We made coffee in the morning. He was the young one, but he was on the level of the rich. There was a level of those who married and those hours, but he treated me like his daughter. But he paid me what I deserved. 15 dollars. It was the Ethiopian dollar at the time. Every year I went to my village to visit, I was fine. And then, after four years, he came, when it was warm, he came to Italy. And after four years, he brought his wife. He said, I want to keep [name]. They called me [name], short. And so, the elderly person who had been there for forty years, I didn’t feel right about taking her job. And besides, fifteen dollars wasn’t enough for me, because I grew up, I spoke Italian. Now I don’t speak much, I’ve lost the Arabic. From Italian, interpreter, I made her some Arabic. Because he bought pearls, the kind I saw, even gold ones. And Madre Bella, they call them spoons, he made buttons. He later made a button factory. And so I accepted for a while, then I found work when he was born in Italy, I went to look for work.
[i] In the meantime, how old were you [name]?
[r] So, let’s see, I’ve been in Massawa for thirteen years, 8-8, 4-4 is 8. One year, stop saying that, the ones I worked, then it’s, come on, 9 years.
[i] 22 years, in short.
[r] Oh yes. So, I went back to Asmara, I accompanied her because the refugees were leaving, the war was starting. My mother-in-law was also there, she’s married to an Italian, who now lives here, in Vallette, she came with her husband as a refugee. All Italians and refugees. And even when I was with that man from Piedmont, we wanted to go to Italy, when I was little. And so you study, you stay with my mum. But my mum couldn’t cook when she left, she said, my sister, my daughter, I help her with everything, I want to take her to Italy, she didn’t want to, and then my father didn’t want to affirm the destinies of Italy. And I bought it in Italy, and it got into my brain, rebellious character not violent, I have a rebellious character, I don’t like beating those who beat those who beat. I don’t know, you can see that she was born for that… I can’t tell you, now I think about it, a 13-year-old girl where does she go? I think about it, but what kind of therapy did I have? Because when you see these underage kids running away, you don’t understand this brain, to get out of the tank, out of the punch, and I go to another… I don’t know where I was going. So the kids don’t know where to go, but my life is going well. So he’s in 448, guaranteed, there were my aunts who had two villas, married to Italians, he gave me one, not the one where I grew up, he gave me the guarantee, in 15 days my passport will be ready, he makes me happy. I sent many young people because they sent you to Italians, because you do the shopping, you do things, they made these gentlemen who call you pay, they pay in dollars and these put the money in lira, each one on a terrese, as there was also an agency, they make the contract, the contract expenses, and that owner who makes you the contract…
[i] To come here to Italy and get a visa?
[r] Oh yes, he’s the one who called you, the contract, the ones in our country, because they were rich, they had the money, they couldn’t send with something, the gardener, the one in Massawa, he sent either gold or something, when the ships came, I saw him. And instead the ones in Asmara, the wine factory, had dollars over there. So, that Italian who spends with lira and puts them in his bank, we’re never slaves, you see that he moves it around, and instead they spend dollars, in fact I asked him for a big chain, the suitcases, the gold, he paid for it. Use your brain, learn from the many people you’ve met, from Arab families, what they were like, from Italian families, because I’m a child, but I didn’t understand, I said, this Arab family, what do they give me? What impact will they have on me? So I prefer, my families are Italian, my mum is third or fourth generation Greek, my grandmother and her mum married Greek, that is, Greek uncle, in fact my grandmother is married to that one, and why was she married Greek? Because they would marry you whatever race you are, right? In our country, I don’t know about yours. Then I came to Turin, three years later, and this lady from Turin, from Lucca, I’m very tense, every month, because I went to Asmara, one month left, because she didn’t give it to me. She was playing poker with her friend, right? And it’s clear that she cheated me, I’m lying, and then…
[i] She didn’t give you your salary?
[r] One month, she wanted to rip me off. And then a lot, I received it.
[i] Why did your salary, just to understand, the lady give it to Asmara? She gave it to us here.
[r] They paid me and I went to this bank. Once she showed me, I managed my own money. Then, over the last three years, a girl who was a student in Tuscany paid 5 euros, 5 lire, 500 lire it was called, and I studied. I never stopped studying. Then they showed my Libertà on television. Rai3 was born, which did Geo in Geo. He only watched that, the news and that. It made me discover the world. That little girl, I come back and cry. Because I couldn’t anymore. Because my eyes were like this, I looked like Una Fallana, they called me Una Fallana. Then I put on make-up and my eyes were out. And then you know, a little doll, but made all there. I couldn’t with these Italian people. One who tells me, oh you entertain and you make me marry you. Marry me. But I only came to get married. I came to go back. Like that. What did this lady do? To send me away. Because there when you finish the contract you have to leave, because they paid you on your return. If the tickets only pay you for the outward journey, I’ll come back when they call you. And she makes me leave. She made a deal with the marshal. The marshal says, we want to stay, yes the contract has expired, but my father wanted to stay with us for a month. But if my contract expires, what do I do? She says to me, look, I say, there’s always God, isn’t there? God has always been there for me. There’s no problem, there’s no one, only him. And he said to me, ‘Listen, dear, he was old, you have to accept that I want to send you away.’ He didn’t give me any severance pay and he said, ‘I paid for your ticket.’ Because they imposed that contract. That you were going from Rome and that they advised you, more or less from Rome, you want to repatriate yourself because you have a ticket. When they do the check, you have a ticket and they send you. You do me this favour, I respect this gentleman, who has a degree, I don’t respect you, and you don’t go to Rome, you come directly to me.
[i] And the marshal?
[r] Yes, the marshal. I told him, the lady has to come to me because he has to make the expulsion orders, I wasn’t even close. And I told him, okay, I won’t have you deported. You do me a favour, I’ll do you a favour. Okay. The clothes she had were old, the only thing that was thrown out. Take them away, right? The old stuff stays with the old contract. And I’ll give you half with your wages, right? Either you give them to me or you’ll pay for them. You don’t have children and you’ll pay for it on your knees. That’s enough. Thanks for what he did to me and thanks for everything. As soon as I got back from Turin I found him a job, I got pregnant with [name] in nine months of pain because he said to get rid of it, not to keep it, but I told him, I’ll get rid of my first flowers, I won’t get rid of my roses.
[i] They, the family you were working for, wanted you to abort the child?
[r] No, the father.
[i] The father of your child? The father of [name], the Italian. Back then a woman wasn’t loved by a man, but by his friend, when she was pregnant, he had to help her. With men, when we’re pregnant by a man, hatred doesn’t help, even if you’re in love. I’ve played footsie, love doesn’t come. Because you have weight, you have something, because of that. But I also tried to live with him, I didn’t send him away, there’s nothing to be done. You have no mum, you have nothing. Jesus bore his cross. And she bears her cross. I didn’t want to marry my father, I didn’t want to marry other Italians, they died here. For me God is a sign that shows me the way. He was born… nine months, crying, tears, she wanted to send me away the other one, where I was working, with the excuse. I can’t be like the man who was going to be head of the department, he’s in Beirut, he’s been there. And he said, if you want to go to the residence, they had one in France, in Monte Carlo. He said, leave her for yourself, you don’t know. Now you want to send her away because you have no one, a good girl. Come on, people who play games like you, you go to Monte Carlo. Now I’ll take the person you chose to buy here alone in this house. You can see she thought it was her husband’s, I don’t know, she treated me badly. Do you know who scolded me? The lady where he worked, Pina Torinese. What do you want? You have a car, a job, just like her. What do you want? But I don’t love her. How do you know if you love her? Think about the child. So he said to me, look, I don’t love you. Don’t ever ask me if I feel it, until I come to give you peace. And he was clever, he behaved himself by marrying me, getting to know my children. I’m not marrying you. There was one of the three, the first love. And he was in love. But what does it mean? I told him, we’ll marry you, I don’t work, I’m not a dishwasher, I’m not a driver, me and this one and that one. One day they call me, where am I going to sleep? But he thinks your son is beautiful, because he’s my son. How can you sleep? I told him, with air. You weren’t there. I know, because I wasn’t distracted.
[i] How old was [name] when you got married? Born in ‘77 and we got married in ’81. We’d been living together for a year, a year and something. And [name] didn’t know his father, in fact I took him away from him straight away. When he went away on holiday, to Calabria, I took the key, I went with Ezio, we went for a drive on Sunday, we went away, and then we came back in the afternoon, at midday, and I went to see his father. So, this is your father, the Italian one, that’s your brother, a friend. And then he said to them, go on, what’s he saying? I don’t know, let’s go by car, he said to him.
[i] But one question, no [name]? So, how many years have you and your current husband been married?
[r] Ezio? Married in 81.
[i] So, that love, there is no love, I’m not going to kiss you, if it’s been going on from 81 to today that’s 37 years. At the beginning, at the beginning I said it like that, I don’t love you, but I, as long as I made the first move, after that love came, affection, because he won me over. And when I felt this man, what the other person was, I went ahead. But you can’t do it by force, with the thing, because that’s my character. If you don’t do something by force, you’ll never have anything. Then he, 15 years older than me, lived off… he looks at your character, he studied his character. Then in fact, he hid many of the things he did from me. And my social worker told me, you’ve worked a miracle. Because he couldn’t say, I worked, for my family, for my children, I didn’t work much in winter, and I paid for my children with Tamassima. He had health insurance in my name, because he was a craftsman. What more could you want than that? I don’t ask, every year, when we go to the seaside, he would buy me a nice swimsuit to show off in the boutique. And at Christmas he would give me money for this, I would buy it. When I got a discount, it wasn’t by forcing him. We did everything together. When we had the shop I had 10 thousand lire, 10 million.
[i] Now let’s get to the word you mentioned. At a certain point [name], this enterprising Eritrean woman with a very intense life story, arrives in Turin, and ends up at the egg that is the symbol of where we are sitting now, and has a club, a restaurant. How did this come about? How did it happen? What year?
[r] So, in 1986.
[i] Another club after African Club.
[r] It’s called Mar Rossi.
[i] African Club, which was the first African club in Turin, in ‘86.
[r] In ’86. And there was… people were like that, but it’s wild, it’s not bad. And people had just arrived, they were wild. But the people of Turin were around, and they couldn’t stand it. Then there was lively music, African, Congolese, Zairian, other types. It was beautiful. Dance, the Arabs, African dance. And colourful people are beautiful. When the international school for Fiat was asked about it, they came, they cheered. Is there a photo? Do we have the photo? In Asmara there’s a painting of the whole race that we did. Then they had teams of footballers made up of Africans, with the names of Africans, of the whole race. Arabs, North Africans, whoever was there. Beautiful. Lots of people, Italian women married to the guys. Everyone they knew. Married. The Italians made a life for themselves. The Senegalese too. Paintings and stuff. It was beautiful. All African painting. A Serian one, but done on the wall with a board. It was great to see the people. We earned well that year. We opened there in the pensionato, in Eritrea. The typical Piedmontese name, with a Piedmontese coconut. We made it a pensionato.
[i] Did you open another restaurant?
[r] We did in Asmara.
[i] Ah!
[r] Yes, you see he’s standing on his own two feet. And then…
[i] Sorry, so you had two restaurants. One Eritrean, here in Turin, in San Salvario. And one Italian, down in Asmara.
[r] Yes, Asmara. But what did they say? Call it Mar Rosso. He wanted to call it the symbol of Turin.
[i] Love.
[r] He made the tickets in Eritrea and told him, if you have Mar Rosso, call it Mar Rosso. In the restaurant Mar Rosso. They called it Mar Rosso. When we arrived, we thought that Mahver was a company. We were in Italy. From 74 I was in Turin and from 75 I started. I studied… we bought cassettes, we bought books. Everything that was written, this and that, politics. I didn’t know the geography of my countries. I learnt a little because we did our schooling in Italian, on Thursdays, with those kids who studied. On Sundays, before the meetings. That Eritrea. In fact, I told you, fourth grade, then middle school, fifth grade, Italy, Eritrea. And so, politics. I’ve been having fun since ‘71 when I came. After ’74, there was no fun. You worked, the meeting interested the country when the war started. I earned 200,000 lire. I paid 30% of my payments. I had a child. I paid 60. After 60 lire I paid for the child and his sisters. Until we got married, until three years. And so, there were no other things. Tears and stuff. Then we made baskets, we made things, we organised, we did everything.
[i] Did you make books to tell the story of the defence?
[r] No, there are books, politics is written in combat. We bought the cassettes, everything, one by one, with force, because that’s all that was needed. Then…
[i] Did the government reward you for your activism?
[r] I fought for seven years, seven months. I was so mad.
[i] So you fought… sorry.
[r] I didn’t fight, I fought with my fists.
[i] You were an activist for seven months in the field?
[r] Yes, I said that…
[i] Not with weapons, but with actions.
[r] Not even with a lawyer. I got advice, I got someone who worked in the government with women. Because Eritrea, we did it, we have independence. Then on my side it’s called Saray, the women are very strong. So… I did my duty. The council houses he gave them were big, black, I don’t even know if they were Eritrean, that’s how they ate, like that. There were three of them. Do you know you have to leave your house? Dunno, I don’t know. Why do you have to leave? Why? What is it? I was in the first government card, I was there. The duty I did, the women’s cards, the laurador card together, women’s cards, like a woman. And then there’s my card, the passport like Eritrea. And why do you have to leave? Because you’re not fighting. You’re fighting, but I fed you. With ice, I take food away from my children. If you don’t feed him, if I didn’t make the factory, if I didn’t make anything, what did you eat? I would die and not come back. Is the one who died on alert or what? Seven months. And I would come back. I write, I put it in the thing. He gives me his signature, like saying, Torrice Votto. I told him, this woman is like a soldier. That soldier says to me, you sleep on the clean sheets of the pillow, I sleep under the stone. You didn’t walk in the snow. I want my rights. I did my duty and I reserved my rights.
[i] What year was this? When?
[r] 2007. In 2007, I don’t know which mafia my husband and I got mixed up with, they set fire to my husband. They did it because my married husband went to my house with my sister’s girlfriend. And marriage. And there is no marriage, because all my name is gone. There was a deli, a restaurant. Trac, trac. Closed. I don’t eat and you don’t eat either. I’ll leave you at home for a year. I’ll leave you at the residence. Then after a year, do you want to come back? The wall is broken, do you want to fix it? Is it collapsing? Oh no, I want to go with her. Then go. Done, everything’s done. 2007, seven years, seven months. Back home, the government told him, do you want the villa? Take the villa. And you move the military there where you were. So he made me move. Until now. Every two years the contract ends, these military… And she’s in Italy, and she’s rich. I’m not rich. Give me 60 million lire and I’ll buy the villa from her. Those who did the deed, who have the villa. I got it all, eh. I only paid 30% of what I had paid. She gave me this money, I bought it at home. 95, 96… Every August, for five days in August, the whole of Eritrean society comes together in Bologna. Politics, what America did, what Italy did, what everyone did. We suffered, even the Italian government. It didn’t bat an eye. It bathed more eyes in Somalia, because it was getting something. Not us, because it still has to pay for the war, for the damage caused by the war. It gave a little to some countries. That’s what Italy is. And Italy, I asked you, you are our father. You know, we didn’t unite.
[i] There’s a question, seeing as you’re an activist and your children were both born here in Italy. Were you able to pass on to them the values and traditions that you grew up with, that shaped you?
[r] Yes, I think so. One hundred percent, I think so. [name], yes. In a small way. Because [name] also went, it’s called Fiori Rossi, every August. He went for six months, they brought him, they would draw his tongue and they would introduce him to these kids.
[i] What was it called?
[r] Fiori Rossi.
[i] And it was a place where they met…
[r] Every summer these kids were brought together. Before independence, though.
[i] Kids in…
[r] Kids here, children, kids.
[i] Kids of Eritrean origin though.
[r] And in Nile, on the eighth floor, I went twice, and [name] went, went to visit these children.
[i] And where was this place?
[r] But sometimes they went to where there’s the sea.
[i] But in Eritrea?
[r] No, no, here.
[i] Ah, ok, they were field trips.
[r] Well, they took them to the countryside, they drew them.
[i] Here, all from the Eritrean community, for the children?
[r] Yes, yes, they took them for free. And… Nile didn’t go, eh, he was over eight. I took him to find [name]. But [name] did. [name] is… I raised her. I speak like my… Like my. I don’t say everything together, after a while it gets boring, she says [name]. I still have a lot to learn. She’s a lively child. Because she looks like my blood. I like music. I like everything that moves, but she grew up freely and that’s it. I was closed, I was afraid of everything, she didn’t speak. I kept my brain, the brain that I make work. I say yes, yes, yes, but I make others do mine. He tells me, [name] now go home, then we’ll come and see you, right? Inside me. I’ve been doing my thing for more than three months, it needs to be checked. I stuff myself there, he calls me Turin, he feels me more Turinese. Forty-something years have passed. From seventy to four Turin. So, and then there are my colleagues.
[i] [name], you’ve done a lot of things in your life, haven’t you? You arrived as a young girl, you worked as a maid, then you had [name], your first child, then you opened a bar, then you got to the restaurant. But how many things have you done in your life? I mean, how many steps?
[r] So, when I got married I took Italian citizenship, I continued to work as a domestic helper and I studied, taking [name] to kindergarten and I studied in the afternoon. I had a car, I managed everything. And then, I did the fifth and eighth grades. Because what I did helped me. Don’t look because my memory is failing me now. So, I want to study, I want to do what I didn’t do. I didn’t want to study even when I was little, what did my aunt want, I did something small for her. To open her eyes, to read the newspaper, to learn. Then, I was going to third grade, when this question from Pidella came along. [name], you do the question that’s arrived, you tell me one that I can use. But I still haven’t got my certificate for the third year of secondary school. No, then, now I can’t even remember French. I got a good grade seeing things. And when I don’t have it, you come round, you do the question. I applied, I brought the application, and then two numbers came up. Because my husband wasn’t working. I, [name], there, at that time, there were many children who went there. And so, it just happened. I went to Asmara, I did what, I received the case from 2007, and I closed all the old stuff. I went a bit mad, because of my husband and my family. And I went to the asylum, because thanks to my children I didn’t go to the asylum any more. Of course, her husband also came and said he was closing this room, a restaurant there, a room. I was there, I came. I arrived in Italy, October, I arrived earlier in October. [name] says to me, mum, you’re lucky. But what do I have, it arrived by telegram. What do you say? Work, they call you at school. At school, I forgot about you, after 27 years. I’ve been working for seven years, full time. Then they told me, in 2013, in 2007-2013, retirement age.
[i] Thank you.
[r] Thank you, darling.
[i] Thank you.
[r] I also hope your life, your thoughts, your things, that they will come as you think. But, as I told you, don’t say, I’ll do this. No, say in my hope. You, Allah, guide me. Even if they are Christians. Light the candle. Believe. Because believe the Muslims too, because they pray for us. The wise ones, the kings, what are they called? Are they those ones? They are humans, they are saints who eat leaves, who pray for us.