SU_T_52

[i] Hello [name] !

[r] Hello!

[i] How are you?

[r] Yes, everything’s fine.

[i] Welcome. Then tell us who you are and where you’re from.

[r] I’m from Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, the capital is Kinsassa,

[i] How long have you been in Italy?

[r] For more than 15 years.

[i] For more than 15 years ?

[r] Yes

[i] Is that when you were still in the Congo what did you do?

[r] I studied, and then I did some small jobs, I went to school and then I did some small jobs.

[i] And why did you decide to immigrate and come here to Italy?

[r] Because things were going badly in my country, there was a dictatorship, so many things were not going well.

[i] Did you not feel free?

[r] Not so much.

[i] And when you decided to come here to Italy, how did your family get the news?

[r] It was normal that they took it badly, because separation always hurts because one goes far away, leaves the country, separation always hurts no one thinks it’s nice that I go away, but for them if I stay hurts, we do not know when we see each other after 5 10 years, who knows?

[i] Of course you do not know, and for what you suffer, the distance and the obstacle. How was the first journey here?

[r] It was a bit strange because, I left my country and I come here and everything is new to me, people as they behave, all things are new to me, everything.

And how did you do the first day, do you remember the first day you set foot on this earth?

[r] The first day on the road I didn’t know where to go, and no one wanted to answer me because I spoke French I asked and they ran away from me, in the end I found someone who asked me what I was looking for, explained it to me go to the police station, then I went to the police station.

[i] And you came by sea or how?

[r] I didn’t come by plane.

[i] How did you overcome these obstacles, especially for an African boy who does not know the language, comes a totally different country? What were the steps to integrate well into this company?

[r] I studied a little and went to the Catholic church, with the Italian priest I had lived with him, he was the one to make me come here. He gave me the idea.

[i] So you found some help from the Italians? R Yes.

[i] Over time, time has allowed you to make friends, are you inserted?

[R] Yes at the beginning I went to the dormitories, I made friends, and then I went to Italian school to learn the language, and then slowly everything went well. Slowly, not immediately fast, even the food was a bit difficult for me because I was not used to eating pasta and some things all the time. We eat another thing arrived here I had to get used to the new things again.

[i] Those friendships you’ve had how they treat you? How do you feel? Do you feel different with them or even just normal yourself? A We say when you go to a country to get used to them, leave your behavior behind you to follow them. You have to adapt to them.

[i] Have you managed to work? A Yes I have studied, I have two qualifications or maybe three.

[i] What is it about?

[r] An electrician and then I took the eighth grade and then I studied at the Cameroon school, I studied a bit of these things.

[i] So you’ve been busy?

[r] Yes I also wanted to go far, I wanted to do ORS I took the test but I didn’t pass it.

[i] How do you live your culture, your African culture, how do you live it here in your daily life? The food, the music you listen to? A Really and too different, from us when we see each other in the street we say goodbye even if we don’t know each other, good morning good evening, but here even if you say goodbye someone doesn’t answer you, says I know you ? instead you said goodbye to nothing else, good morning good evening, but here it’s too different, even to smile is a bit different

[i] They think if you say hello even if you don’t know him, maybe you want something in return.

[r] Maybe they think so, and maybe they think badly, because it costs nothing to say goodbye.

[i] Because they’re not used to it. And how did you do this diversity? The fact of being from a different country as you did live these things here, where there are no points in common?

[r] It really wasn’t easy, that’s the truth, but slowly. But your country is always your home.

[i] Of course

[r] Because like me, I say it for me, I always feel foreign, because the things I can do in my country I can’t do here. Only that

[i] The community of Congo and your countrymen meet here when there are holidays for example national holidays in your country.

[r] Yes yes

[i] What do you do together? A Like June 30, it is Independence Day, which we are freed from Belgium but this is fake, maybe we are still colonized.

[i] Maybe you officially took independence but as you say ….

[r] With the sheet or paper not, but the word yes. But with my fellow countrymen yes we are used to meeting perhaps for the holidays or one makes a complement, we meet perhaps in church or other things.

[i] What do you eat on these feast days, what do you wear? What kind of music do you listen to?

[r] We listen more to our music than to Italian music, we also wear our own clothes, because they are a bit beautiful, when we meet we feel like

[i] At least that’s when you’re living your own culture.

[r] Yes, yes, we also prepare our own food, pasta and other things. Everyone cooks at home, then we bring them and eat them all as a family.

[i] Has it ever happened to you that some Italian asked you to taste a typical dish of your country? A Yes yes many times, my colleagues, many people have asked me this.

[i] And what did you cook well?

[r] But I really don’t know how to cook our food, because my culture at home tells me that a man doesn’t have to cook, at my place, at my place. So I didn’t learn how to cook at home, because men can’t, but women can.

[i] Once you are here, something of your culture you took maybe you started to learn something Italian

[r] I’ve learned some Italian things, and some of our things.

[i] And what have you learned more, what Italian dish do you like the most?

[r] I really like pasta with ragu, and then I like lasagne very much, and then I also like vegetables, fresh and dried vegetables.

[i] Do you do any sports here practice sports? A Yes, I tried at the beginning but it didn’t go well.

[i] Why?

[r] I tried to play football but it didn’t go well. Because where I played it wasn’t good for me, but for the coach, who didn’t get along with him, because maybe a foreigner, even the color he didn’t like.

[i] So sometimes you feel judged by the fact that you’re black?

[r] Yes, this can’t be missing, never.

[i] And what do these people say when they judge according to your color? Even sometimes before meeting you?

[r] Because they think short, even in my country in Congo there are many Italians, but they are a bit different, an Italian who came out and different from what never came out.

[i] Because maybe what came out is an open mind.

[r] He understood that we are all equal. Black whites are all equal.

[i] [name] I would like to go back with the time behind, the first day you returned to Congo after you were in Italy, how was it?

[r] Here in Italy?

[i] No, when you came here to Italy how long you were without going back to Congo.

[r] A little good weather.

[i] When you returned to Congo on the first day, how did you experience it?

[r] I really saw all the things changed, all the things I left was different houses, friends, some are married others have gone away, my neighbors some wax some not, a little different, I felt bad.

[i] You felt like a stranger in your city

[r] Again yes, because you still have to learn the streets as then get out of here, I went back there still foreign. You have to learn everything again.

[i] [name] Do you think you’re going back to live in Congo forever or do you think you’re going to settle here forever? A My thoughts already now I think I’m coming back, as Moses did 400 years later they came back, they came out of dodging, and I think so too, one day I’ll come back to live again the years that I have left on earth.

Do you prefer to go back to your country and die there on the land where you were born?

[r] Yes, yes, I think I will come back one day.

[i] [name] Do you have anything to add to tell us?

[r] I really like Italy because it gave me work, its children gave me almost everything, I can’t say that I’ve always been bad I can say well, I grew up here I understood so much, I took the documents to get out without problems, I say thanks to Italy, because it gave me so many things.

[i] Did it give you so many possibilities that you didn’t have in your country of origin?

[r] So many things that I couldn’t have in my country, thank God and thank Italy.

[i] For my part, thank you, I wish you many good things and good luck in your life.

[r] Thank you very much.