Ascanio Celestini: “Never mind Piano Mattei, Italy should apologize to Africa first”

The actor and director talks about colonialism, oil and human rights on the sidelines of a meeting in Rome with the SOS Mediterranee organization

(Photo profile credits X SOS Mediterranee Italia)

ROME – The Mattei Plan is a bit funny. And it started badly too. Because instead of “inviting Africans to Rome” we should have first apologized for the history of Italy, which was also a “violent, colonizing and massacre” country. Words by Ascanio Celestini, actor, director and at the same time activist.
Of the initiative of Giorgia Meloni’s government, with the promise of an alliance with Africa on an “equal and non-equal” basis predatory”, we are talking about on the sidelines of a public meeting organized by the organization SOS Mediterranee. Celestini answers a question on migration as one of the issues of the Plan which is said to be inspired by the figure of Enrico Mattei, former white partisan, then at the helm of the national body hydrocarbons (Eni).

“The Mattei Plan does not exist” is the actor’s premise. “It is rather something that we have deduced from a practice of openness towards countries that were colonies of the West, directly or indirectly; and Enrico Mattei died for this ‘Plan'”. After mentioning the plane crash of 1962, Celestini continues: “The idea of thinking of something called the Mattei Plan seems a bit funny today; that was centered on money, on oil and on very indirect support for local revolts in some countries, such as Algeria told by Gillo Pontecorvo’s film, which was also banned in France until a quarter of an hour ago”. The actor recalls the summit organized by the Italian government on January 29th and 30th to present its initiative to the heads of state and government of the sub-Saharan area. “Of course the overture of this Plan was not a good start” denounces Celestini: “We called the Africans in Rome to let them know how strong and good we Italians were because we would have given them a few cents” .

MOHAMED (SOS MEDITERRANEE): “RESCUE IS NOT A POLITICAL CHOICE”

Rescue at sea cannot be a political choice, because it is a duty; to be undertaken in the name of that respect for human rights and life which was placed at the basis of European integration. This was underlined by Abdelfetah Mohamed, of Eritrean origins, formerly a migrant at sea, now president of the SOS Mediterranee organisation. His reflection was shared with the Dire agency on the sidelines of a public meeting in Largo di Torre Argentina, in Rome, a few days before the elections for the EU Parliament. The title of the initiative, with a reference to the shipwrecks of migrant people in the Mediterranean, is “Let’s not stand by and watch”.

Forty years old, Mohamed arrived in Sicily from Libya in 2011, in the weeks that followed the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Later, as an activist, he saved and was sometimes forced to watch people die at sea. “In a normal situation we shouldn’t talk about rescue, about who decides on the life or who takes the life of another person” underlines the activist. “Unfortunately, however, we are forced to remind the world that rescue at sea cannot be a policy because it is simply the right to life.” The gaze broadens to the next events, with the vote for the EU Parliament starting on June 6th, in Italy on the 8th. “I would like to see a Europe that respects human rights and people’s lives” underlines Mohamed. “This commitment is also the basis on which Europe was born: after all, we are not asking for much.” A petition promoted by SOS Mediterranee was presented off the coast of Torre Argentina, which invites European leaders and deputies to take responsibility towards migrant people.

THE RAPPER KENTO: “PUTTING THE MEDITERRANEAN BACK AT THE CENTER OF EUROPEAN POLICIES“

“The time has come to put the Mediterranean question back at the center of the political debate and to reverse European policies that seem shameful to me.” Speaking, this time without bass and without rhyme, is the rapper Kento, born Francesco Carlo. The theme, in an interview with the Dire agency, is the shipwrecks of migrant people off the North African, Spanish or Sicilian coasts.

The musician, of Calabrian origins and migrant ancestors, takes part in a meeting organized by the SOS Mediterranee organization off the coast of Torre Argentina. The European elections are just a few days away, starting on June 6th, in Italy on the 8th, and this is where Kento starts. “We need to go back to talking about hospitality and continue saving human lives, as SOS Mediterranee does every day” is the rapper’s appeal. He adds: “Honestly, my goal is that there will no longer be a need for SOS Mediterranee one day and that one day this type of demonstration will no longer exist because there are no more deaths at sea”. That of the musician is a call to responsibility, from which he does not escape, personally. “We need the commitment of citizens”, says Kento, “and also of us who make art”.