SU_T_29

[i] Good evening Mr [name].
[r] Good evening.
[i] Could you please introduce yourself?
[r] My name is [name], I was born on the 12th day of the 4th month of 1994. I am a Guinean national. I was born in Conakry, the Guinean capital. I am currently 25 years old. I live in Italy.
[i] Piram, did you go to school when you were a child? Were you lucky enough to go to school?
[r] Yes, my dad wanted me to be an intellectual, but I didn’t like school. I didn’t like studying until I finished.
[i] Can you tell me about your background, please? Or did you not do anything at school?
[r] No, I had something new for nine years of study. After those nine years of study, I decided for myself to do something else. I thought that the oppressed of the classroom are not the oppressed of life. It was in relation to all that that I tried to give up. I tried to do the job I was doing.
[i] Can you tell me what job you did? Why did you choose it again?
[r] Yes, my dad was a transit worker. After dropping out of school, he decided that I would be a driver of large vehicles at the autonomous port of Conakry.
[i] How did you learn that kind of work?
[r] I learnt it from a friend of my dad’s. He introduced me to one of his friends. He was the one who taught me how to do this job so I wouldn’t have to stay in the neighbourhood and get into trouble.
[i] Was this apprenticeship a school or were you just given someone to teach you?
[r] No, it was already a school, but it wasn’t a school like the way they do it here in Europe. It’s African in terms of the words.
[i] How long did you do this apprenticeship for?
[r] I did it for a year and eight months.
[i] Were you able to drive a vehicle?
[r] Yes, I drove the four-pillar PPMs that unload and load containers in the Guinean capital, specifically at the autonomous port of Conakry.
[i] And how long did you do this work for?
[r] The apprenticeship lasted a year and eight months. After that, I did a year on my own. I was self-employed. After a year, the port authority closed. The companies changed. We had no more space, so I went into exile. I had nothing to do like at work, so since I lost the job, I tried to go into exile.
[i] In what year did you start this decision to go into exile?
[r] If I remember correctly, it was in 2012.
[i] In 2012, you went into exile?
[r] Yes.
[i] Where did you go?
[r] I went to Côte d’Ivoire.
[i] Did you go to Côte d’Ivoire to work or to be with family?
[r] When I lost my job, I went to the other family in Côte d’Ivoire, to see how things would go there too.
[i] How long did this adventure in Côte d’Ivoire last?
[r] It lasted until the seventh month of 2016.
[i] From 2012 to 2016, that’s something like four years, is that right?
[r] Yes.
[i] And during those four years, did you work or do you have any activities?
[r] I worked, I had small businesses with a brother.
[i] What did you do in 2016 when you changed activity?
[r] When I arrived there, I didn’t have the opportunity to do the job I learnt in my country of origin.
[r] And in Côte d’Ivoire, I tried to do a small business with my boyfriend’s brother to get by, to avoid staying…
[i] How did it end, up until 2016?
[a] It wasn’t easy at all, but we managed to cope. When you come from a poor family, you have to cope with everything. It wasn’t easy, but…
[i] I hope it was after you gave up this business in 2016 that you left the Ivory Coast again.
[r] After that job, I decided to try something different. It was a bit of a complicated journey. From the Ivory Coast, I went to Niger. From Niger, I went to Algeria. From Algeria, I went to Libya. From Libya, I ended up in Italy. I currently live here in Turin.
[i] In what year did you arrive here in Italy?
[r] I arrived in Italy in 2017.
[i] When you arrived here in Italy, how did you start your procedures? Because you have a family, or you have no colleagues or family. How did you start your situation?
[r] So when I arrived here in Italy, I didn’t go straight to the north. I ended up in the south. From the south, they transferred us here to the north. We arrived at the Red Cross centre at Sédiment. The Red Cross at Sédiment divided us up among the different reception centres. I went to another reception centre. Where I managed to stay. Where I managed to stay, from there, they took me to another centre. From there too, it’s to another centre. Because at the moment, a lot of centres are closed. It’s time to do the thing. But let me go back a bit. When I arrived, after the two months of rest, the fingerprints, the stuff for the document procedures, they explained my story to me. They put me in an Italian school to learn the language. I went to school, I learned to speak Italian. I took my testation de testamedia. That’s how you say it in Italian. In French, I got a little language diploma. Well, after that, the organisation I was with put me on another course to learn a different trade. They asked me what kind of job I wanted to learn. I said I wanted to be a cook. They put me in this school. Well, I did six months’ training. After these six months of training, they found me a little job where I could do my apprenticeship. I did my apprenticeship… I saw it here in Turin, but I went to Genne to do my apprenticeship. Six months there and I woke up in Turin. That’s what I’m still doing, I’m still going. I’ve had the idea for… how many years now?
[i] During this time, when you arrived here in Italy, the job you learned to do in Guinea, when you arrived again in the Ivory Coast, you learned another job. When you arrived here in Italy, why didn’t you want to continue the same job you were doing before? Out of love or lack of means?
[r] Well, I can say that it was because of a lack of means and a lack of reaction. If you know, from Africa, we come from a country where we don’t understand the language. It’s not easy at all, we don’t know how the procedures work, the problems with documents. If you have problems with documents, you can’t get involved in several areas. That’s why I didn’t rush into it, but for the future, I hope to do the job I did in my country of origin again.
[i] Do you have any plans to do this, to start the job over from the beginning?
[r] I do indeed have plans to do that. That’s why I’ve been trying to find out what else I can do. I’m planning to get a driving licence, and I’m waiting for the outcome of a procedure I’m going through. If God grants me the results I’m hoping for, I’ll be able to realise my current plans.
[i] Wanting to live in three countries, what have you noticed, have you noticed a difference between these three countries? Guinea, Ivory Coast and Italy. Do you have a difference to explain?
[r] If I have several differences to explain, it’s because there are many things, I’ve had a lot of experience of life, of nature, of all things. I’ve learnt about many cultures, I’ve faced many things. Mr [name], who currently lives in Turin, [name], who lived in Guinea or the Ivory Coast, and who will be the [name] who will live tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? Can you imagine what situation, what project, what your plans for the future are?
[r] You know, everyone is free to think, to think positively, to think negatively, no one wants that. I always think on the bright side. At the moment, I feel a bit, by the grace of God, I feel a bit good, a bit at ease here in Turin. It’s just that the situations are not at all easy. When you are in a country with a different culture, it’s not at all easy, but we try to adapt a little. I hope for the future.
[i] What difficulties and advantages have you encountered during your journey from Africa to Europe? Because the cultures are not the same. I can understand a culture in Guinea and a culture on the Ivory Coast. As they are two countries that are too close to each other, I can understand that the culture may be similar. But between Africa and Europe, I believe there is a big difference. What are the difficulties you have encountered and the advantages?
[r] I put the difficulties I have encountered in my life as they have already happened. I hope for the future. We can’t talk about everything we’ve been through because of the difficult situations in the past, but we hope for the future.
[i] I can ask you a question, if you want to answer it. Have you experienced any acts of racism here in Italy since you arrived?
[r] Indeed, if even a striking example, when I went to work in Genne, there were some old men who came. They saw the way I worked, I was the only black person among the Italians. I was making the slopes for the customers, it was a Saturday, it was a lot. There was an old man who said, since we are black in a piscerie. Indeed, under the effect of immigration, there are positive sides, there are negative sides. I am on the positive side.
[i] And did these reactions affect you badly or did you become aware of them? It affected me a little, but then I pulled myself together and responded in every way possible in life. You can see a white person doing something in Africa one day and we didn’t expect it, it’s the other way round.
[i] Do you have a message for people who suffer from racism? Or for people who commit it?
[r] Well, what I can say for the people who commit it is that it’s because they haven’t had the chance or the opportunity to discover the world, to discover other cultures. I think it’s ignorance that makes them that way. For people who suffer acts of racism, I ask them not to consider this kind of thing, to always think positively. A man who always thinks small will never get far. That’s how I think, I don’t think that… before it used to hurt, but now it doesn’t hurt anymore. I’m already used to it, well… it doesn’t bother me anymore.
[i] Mr [name], can you tell me an adage from your country, please? If it comes to mind.
[r] There is an adage in my country that says… He who seeks shall find. He who says goodbye to his parents will face many things in life.
[i] Mr [name], it is a great pleasure to have answered our questions.
[r] Thank you. It is also a great pleasure for me to be able to spend this little moment with you. I would like to thank you and all the editors who are watching you and will have the opportunity to watch this video.
[i] Thank you very much.