SU_T_28

[i] Hi, I’m [name], aka MUSO, which means socially operative human mind. I am a Guinean citizen.
[r] I was born in Guinea, my region is Guekedou, I am a Kissi foretier in Guinea. I lived there from 0 to 11 years old, so I went to primary school there until the age of 11, after which I moved to Italy for family reunification because my cousin had already been living in Naples for almost 30 years so he basically made me come to Italy for work to study and work, so I did all my studies in Naples. I lived in Naples for 8 years then I moved to Turin because in the meantime he had moved to Turin. He had met a girlfriend from Piedmont so I chose to join him, in Turin of course, when I was 18. So I immediately started working in a factory. From 2000 to 2008 there was still work in Italy so, for better or worse, things were much better than now, because there is a world crisis and it can be felt in Italy too. Little by little I made friends, I grew up, I made myself loved, and I often went to Turin where I live in the suburbs of Bariera di Milano. Here I have a bit of a social life, professionally I’m a cultural mediator. In my free time I try to cultivate my passion, which is music. Basically I make social music to get people to think about issues of inclusion, what it means to accept differences, what it means for someone who comes from another place to integrate into a country that is not his own. These are the issues I deal with when I make music. I also try to combine my profession and my passion, so I try to make them go together. When I mediate I also do it with music, so I combine business with pleasure. At the moment I am the spokesperson for my neighbourhood, Bariera in Milan, because it is a multi-ethnic neighbourhood, mostly people who are not from the area, but they feel at home there. It is a neighbourhood where you can live on little, because in a suburban neighbourhood everything costs less, but it also allows you to broaden your knowledge while staying in the area because you get to know people from all over, including native Italians, Piedmontese in particular, of which there aren’t many. I try to set a good example to all Africans who want to come to Europe, to the West, to try their luck. And then to create a future for themselves in Africa, I try to set a good example and give them the right means to follow the legal route. There are different ways to achieve our goal, but it depends on us, on our education. From what our parents taught us, obviously everyone has their own choices, I try to make my own in order to set a good example for the younger ones and for those who are already here. Who have difficulty in dealing with the law. Basically my thought is that if you have little, don’t keep it for yourself but distribute it to others. Surely the world is aware of this. So it makes us a little more like brothers, in a sense not blood brothers, brothers can also be of a different colour. But who think alike, this is my conception of brotherhood. Professionally I’m now a cultural mediator, I work for young refugees on the MOI project. So I give them the chance to integrate into society, and at my events, when I can invite the kids, I explain to them what it means to live with Italians and vice versa, so I try to make them understand how people live in Italy. This is more or less what I’ve been doing since I was 18. When I arrived, from the age of 11 to 18 I was like all young people who wanted to have fun without thinking, but once we mature, because we Africans know very well that we mature at 18, sometimes even earlier, so maturity has allowed me to be a sociable person. In the shoes of others, what I didn’t have as help when I arrived in Italy, I try to give it to new young people. Who are arriving here because I know it’s not easy to change a country and be in a different country where you have no guidance. I try to give this because when I arrived there was no one to help me, not even Guineans. If I had to speak directly to my fellow countrymen, they weren’t there either, and in Italy in 2000 I knew very few Guineans. One of them is definitely Adramet. We met in Naples when I was still in the community. He was one of the few Guineans I knew in the area, there were Senegalese, Nigerian, Italian and Neapolitan friends. Now in 2018 2019 I have started to get closer to my community, this makes me very happy and very proud because I can share my sorrows and my joys with my fellow countrymen, this was something I was aiming for. I always try to include Guinean kids in my projects, just to set a good example, but we don’t all have the same passions, I try to give new young people some input. This is kind of the gist of it and what I do as a profession.
[i] I’d like us to go back to when you were a child, how you left your family in Africa and then came back, how you feel about your family.
[r] Well, since I left in 2000 I’ve travelled by plane, so I’ve arrived regularly with the passport-port document. I spent a week in Tunisia, then I took the ship from Tunisia to Naples where I lived until I was 18. Since I left the country I have unfortunately not been back. I have been on Italian soil for 19 years now and I regret it. When I think about it I imagine how the country has changed, fortunately I am in contact with my brothers. I lost my parents when I was young, my father died when I was still in Guinea, I was 7 or 8 years old, and my mother died in 2008 when I was already here, so I lost them when I was young. Anyway, I grew up with my aunt who lives in Guinea. My little brothers are grown up now, just yesterday I heard from my brother, he’s 25 and he wants to do something. I try to be a big brother from a distance, even that’s difficult. If you’re not really there you don’t know how to guide them. Anyway, I have brothers and sisters on my mum and dad’s side, I’m the oldest, I’m the first child so everyone counts on me.
[i] What was it like arriving in Italy?
[r] Arriving in Italy was very welcoming because I arrived directly in Naples, it’s a city that welcomes you with open arms so it gives you the chance to integrate immediately so I didn’t find it difficult to integrate. First in Naples, then all over Italy because I travelled around a bit. I can say that I was very happy to come to Italy from Guinea, because at that age, when you’re going to Europe, you’re very happy. Because you don’t know, maybe Europe can also be like Africa, only the climate is different because when I arrived in Naples it was exactly like Guinea, only there were more buildings, the kids were white and not black. Basically it was like in Guinea, I was always outside, always hanging out with friends playing, nothing had changed, only we were in Italy.
[i] Then how did school go?
[r] So, as I told you before, I started school in Naples in the first year of middle school, and I did the linguistic course after middle school. Because I like to speak languages, as well as French, English and Spanish, I had to speak Italian. I learnt it immediately. I learnt Italian before going to school, and this is something I recommend to parents who want to teach Italian to their children who come directly from Africa. It could be an alternative way. I learnt it by giving them a newspaper and repeating the words I read, trying to guess what was written. Every day my cousin would buy me the newspaper and make me read it. He would go to work and come back in the evening and ask me what I understood. This is one way I learned Italian before going to school. This is a way I can suggest to anyone who wants to learn any language, even if it’s not Italian. If you find yourself in another country, the best way to learn is to relate and read.
[i] I’d like to know what your plans are for the future?
[r] I have many plans for the future, life plans and creating a small business that allows me to not only eat but also feed the people around me, this is a long-term project. The short-term project is that I’m working on my next album, which will be called EMBLEMA. So musically I’m trying to gather all the information, all the ideas, all the experiences of the people around me, even my own experiences, and put them into songs. That’s the short-term project. Other projects, well obviously you have to follow me on my pages and what I do on social media to be updated on what’s coming up. However, the two most important projects are the creation of a small business where I can give other people the opportunity to work with me, and to make a music CD about everyday life.
[i] I would like to understand [name] are the dreams you had as a child the same or have they changed what do you want to achieve?
[r] As a child I dreamed of becoming a musician like my father . Because I grew up looking at photos of my father. Because I lost him when I was little, but in the photos I saw he always had a guitar or bass in his hands in Guinea. And at the time he played music, as a child I always listened to Sia, Tolno, Salif Keita, that music, music in general, has always accompanied me so I always dreamed of making music and transmitting joy to people, this is the dream [name] as a child and [name] as an adult became a singer, I have already realised that. My biggest dream now, if I had to dream, would be to go back to my country, Guinea, to Conakry, to my neighbourhood in Behanzen, and to connect the reality I’m creating here with the Guinean one. And to create a kind of branch, my project is called social art, I would like to do social art Italy and Guinea. These are the three projects that I work on every day, to make them happen
[i] Would you like to tell me about other things that maybe I haven’t thought to ask you about?
[r] Well, there are so many things, if I had to talk about all my experiences, I’m 30 now so there’s a lot to tell from the age of 11 to 30. But I’ll try to give the essentials, it’s up to the person who reads this interview to decide what to do with it. Become curious about my story, about our story, then go and do further research and then in the end I can give everything. I want to give all the information I want but if people don’t become curious about the person who is talking in front of the camera I can talk until tomorrow but curiosity is the fundamental thing, an intelligent man is still a curious man. So be curious and go and see the things we do to discover more and more, there are many experiences I’ve had. If I have to stay here we’ll make a film. This one I’ve told is already fundamental for those who want to really listen and understand the person in front of the camera and really want to know.
[i] Do you have a message for the migrants who arrive here in Italy, and for the Italian people who welcome the migrants?
[r] The message that I would like to give to those who are arriving is to arrive as yourself, because in the end if you arrive thinking of changing a place that is already built you are wrong, because you are arriving with your cultural background that is very good, the union of your culture with the culture that you find will be your strength. So don’t arrive thinking about radically changing your life, you have to be yourself, not be aggressive, you have to have a goal. I think non-EU citizens who leave their country to go to another country certainly have a goal, and that is to improve their life and the life of their loved ones, so you have to follow your own goal. In following our goals we sometimes make the mistake of making friends too quickly, which is more of a bore of course. Surrounding yourself with positive people who don’t want to do bad things, but simply want to improve themselves and the world around them is the advice I give to those who arrive. The advice I can give to Italians is to have an open mind, to be a little more curious to discover what brings you what is different because in diversity there is always something positive, also because in truth diversity can only enrich you, what you don’t have is finally completed by what is different.
[i] Thank you for answering our questions.
[r] Thank you and I hope to meet you soon. PEACE AND LOVE to all. An important thing, a very simple phrase, very meaningful for all of us. Remember, we are all human minds, socially interconnected. Bye.
[i] Thank you.