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Canny Michele

Ital 187

Prof. Ferraro

13 June 2017

To Speak the Human Language

20th –century Martinique philosopher Frantz Fanon once stated, “To speak a language is

to take on a world, a culture,” (Frantz Fanon Quotes). Fanon is greatly admired for his influence

on post-colonial studies and at one point in his life he aided Algeria in their fight for

independence from France. The Algerian War for independence and decolonization between

1954 and1962 was brutal and bloody. It has in the long-term affected the country in various

ways. Beginning in the early 1990s, a civil war broke out in Algeria between the former National

Liberation Front, which emerged during the Algerian War, and the Islamic Salvation Front. At

this time, many civilians were targeted and killed by extremists; for this reason, people fled the

country. Amara Lakhous is an Algerian born, Italian novelist who escaped as a refugee from the

crisis in Algeria to Rome, Italy in 1995. There, he conquered the Italian language and began

writing about Italian culture from a migrant’s point of view. A Clash of Civilization Over an

Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (Scontro di Civiltà per un Ascensore a Piazza Vittorio) is evidence of

post-colonial Italian literature in which the mixture of cultures and languages in modern-day

Italy sheds light on Italy’s past and the multiple perspectives of immigrants in Italy today. The

novel was originally written in Arabic, then rewritten in Italian, and translated into English. This

method of literature is also known as Italophone literature in which migrants or children of

migrants give a voice to their experiences by intertwining their cultures through writing.

Gabriella Ghermandi is also an Italophone literature author who has expressed her culture both
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through writing and music. Therefore, language for Amara Lakhous and Gabriella Ghermandi in

their forms of art reveals what Franz Fanon recognizes as taking on a culture and identity that

can be both a barrier and vehicle of belonging.

Italian culture has not always been attributed with a sense of nationalism. The division

between Northern and Southern Italy we see today proves just how recent the unification was in

the late 19th century. Not only did differences in appearances, foods, environment, and customs

divide these regions, but also language. There are thousands of dialects within Italy that depend

on one’s region and city or town; internally, it is as if many Italians are bilingual between their

dialect and the universally-recognized Italian language. An article written by Stephanie Love and

Manka Varghese titled “Race, Language, and Schooling in Italy’s Immigrant Policies, Public

Discourses, and Pedagogies” discusses the importance of language for immigrants in Italy and

how this, in turn, affects the barriers that many immigrants in Italy face regarding one’s culture,

language, and identity. In first addressing Italy’s construction of nationalism, the authors present

to its readers the policies that have shaped “Italian Culture.” The Gentile law of 1923 mandated

that Italian be the only language to be taught in school, which “was important in establishing

such links between language, race, and schooling as state mandated policies,” (Love and

Varghese, 4). Furthermore, according to this article, the Italian language has recently emerged as

a focus in the politics of Italian national identity, and as recent as 2007, Italian was marked by

the government as the official language of the country. This has affected and continues to affect

immigrants who now have to prove proficiency in the language as a prerequisite to residency or

citizenship in Italy (Love and Varghese, 6).

With laws that already encroach on the basic rights of nationality in Italy, Italian

language proficiency is yet another form of systemic discrimination against immigrants. The
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language tests to prove proficiency are written rather than oral, so it hinders those immigrants or

children of immigrants who are illiterate or only know an Italian dialect, (Love and Varghese, 6).

Yet, the hypocrisy of who is considered Italian based off of language is reflected in Italy’s

citizenship laws. Ius Sanguinis, the concept of citizenship based off of blood, holds a higher

standard than Ius Soli, the concept of citizenship based off of birthplace. Those who are

foreigners to Italy but can prove their ancestry to Italian citizens are able to receive citizenship

regardless of knowing the language whereas a person born and raised in Italy by immigrant

parents would be considered an immigrant until the age of 18 when they can apply for

citizenship (Love and Varghese, 7). Language therefore proves to be only a small piece of what

makes someone apart of a culture, or in this case, the Italian culture.

Lakhous provides readers an interesting concept about the use of language in his book.

The main character, Amedeo, is under investigation as the potential killer of the Gladiator in

Piazza Vittorio. The setting provides a meeting place for people of all backgrounds and cultures:

there are migrants who are from outside of Europe and migrants who are from other regions in

Italy. To the supporting characters, Amedeo is as Italian as one can be: he can speak the

language better than most Italians, he enjoys the food, has an Italian wife, and overall

understands Italian culture. Yet, the fact that many of his neighbors are unsure of where he is

from, only knowing that he is from “the south,” leaves them unsure as to whether or not he

committed the crime. Lakhous formats the book in a first-person point of view from each

supporting character in every odd-numbered chapter and a first-person point of view in the form

of journal entries from Amedeo in every even-numbered chapter. One character describes their

own “migrant” story and their encounters with Amedeo and other characters that live in the same
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apartment building. Amedeo then recalls his encounters with them and ultimately his own

“migrant” story is revealed at the end.

The stories of these migrants carry with them a tone of irony as well as longing

throughout the book. The foreigners, such as Parviz Samadi or Maria Gonzalez, long for their

homes but at the same time they want to belong to the Italian culture. Learning the Italian

language is only one way for them to assimilate and advance their place in Italian society.

However, hearing and using their native language allows them to return to that place of

belonging, a place that they may have escaped from for whatever reasons but nevertheless, it is a

part of their identity. On the other hand, the characters who have internally migrated in Italy to

Piazza Vittorio hold in high regard Italian language proficiency. For the Italians from southern

Italy, they have prejudices toward immigrants and are alerted by their differences in language,

habits, and traditions. However, at the same time these Italians must also attempt not to use too

much of their own dialect so that they don’t reveal their origins, such as in the case of Benedetta

Esposito who is a native of Naples and who is offended by being referred to as the “Napoletana,”

(Lakhous, 677). Italians from the north are just as discriminatory toward immigrants as they are

toward southern Italians. Antonio Marini is a character from Milan who overtly informs readers

of his apathy toward southern Italians and their way of speaking Italian. To him, people from

Rome are lazy because their dialect affects how they speak in which some words are not

pronounced correctly or finished when said. While race and ethnicity is also a clear issue within

Italian society, language proves to be just as unsettling for natives and migrants.

This type of literature from Amara Lakhous that explores the concepts of language and

multiculturalism stems from a movement in Italy called “Italophone Literature.” As explained by

author Graziella Parati in her book titled Migration Italy: The Art of Talking Back in a
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Destination Culture, “Italophone Literature” is defined as texts written by migrants in Italy and

in the Italian language. Parati states, “The term Italophone places the emphasis on language and

on the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers, who acquire a new language

through the process of migration,” (Parati, 54-55). Furthermore, Parati analyzes how the use of

language is ever-changing and never really owned or captured by anyone, especially in a country

such as Italy where there are multiple languages that are continuously being shaped over time by

its people as well as its migrants. As a consequence, “the linguistic modifications brought about

by migrants, and their languages, in their use of Italian directly connect to a local tradition of

linguistic transgressions and modifications that a linguistic ‘homo-hegemony’ cannot erase,”

(Parati, 56). The “minor narrative” that Parati calls these texts, is a method for minorities to

express themselves in a major language.

In “Italophone Literature: From ‘A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures:

Continental Europe and its Empires’” by Cristina Lombardi-Diop, explains the three stages of

Italophone literature. The first stage is described as written in journalistic and autobiographic

style that recounts a migrant’s journey to Italy and their experiences with assimilation. These

works were normally translated by Italian co-authors and editors which had a significant effect to

the tone and personality of the books due to the barrier of using multiple languages. The second

stage emerged with stories that were more fictional or of poetry where Italophone writers of the

second wave concentrated less directly on the experience of immigration as a transitory event

and more on the complex process of settlement and integration within Italian society,”

(Lombardi-Diop, 2). The last and current stage of today’s Italophone literature spurs from a new

generation of writers, second-generation Italians or the children of immigrants in Italy. Much of

their work deals with the influence of knowing more than one culture. Language through
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literature is yet another way for migrants to express their stories and give a voice to their shared

experiences. By using language, in turn, allows for migrants to invent and experiment with

identities that can manipulate stereotypes and literary traditions, (Parati, 61). Storytelling either

through books or music can further the understanding and complexity of language, culture, and

connections, such with the work by Gabriella Ghermandi.

Gabriella’s Ghermandi’s work can be most associated with the second wave of

Italophone literature. Most notably her work Queen of Flowers and Pearls (Regina di fiori e di

perle) captures a beautiful insight in the life of a young Ethiopian girl named Mahlet who has the

gift of storytelling. The stories she shares originate from the people she has met throughout the

years that link Africa and Europe together while at the same time, exposing to her audience the

repercussions of Italian colonialism in Africa. Ghermandi was born in 1965 in Ethiopia to an

Italian father and a mixed-race Ethiopian mother. She moved to her father’s hometown of

Bologna, Italy in 1979 after he passed away. Ghermandi described in a 2005 interview with

Ubax Cristina Ali Farah that growing up in Ethiopia she was raised as a “white person” because

of her light skin and her mix-raced mother who was also treated as “white.” This privilege

excluded both Ghermandi and her mother, but once she moved to Italy, the solitude and

alienation she felt pushed her to embrace her own Ethiopian identity through multiple forms of

art (Encyclopedia of AfroEuropean Studies).

Either through literature or through music, Ghermandi has proven to her new place in

Italy the connections she has with her Ethiopian roots. In “Rewriting history in the literature of

the Ethiopian diaspora in Italy” by Sara Marzagora, a closer look at Ghermandi’s literature work

of Queen of Flowers and Pearls as well as migrant authors of former Italian colonies is

examined. In a place such as Ethiopia, there lives a connection between Ethiopia and Italy for
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migrants long before they migrate to Italy. These connections shape not only the author’s own

pieces of work but their history as well. Language is an important aspect of these connections

and for many migrants “Italian is for them one of their mother tongues, and they are willing to

demonstrate, in their writings, their command of it,” (Marzagora, 213). This shared identity with

the Italian language demands recognition of Italy’s history with colonialism. The knowledge of

modern-day Italians about their history with colonialism in Africa is very limited. The literary

and art works created by migrants in Italy further demonstrates the emergence of how

colonialism has affected people in Africa and the migrants of these former colonies in Italy

through an open dialogue. This dialogue is described as being a first step for political healing and

by using the languages of Italy and of former colonies, readers are then forced to recognize the

individuality of their work as a migrant. Ghermandi illustrates this method of literature by

explaining:
“Writing is a magic weapon that allowed me to harmonize my differences. Mixing the Italian
language with the smells of spices, with the sounds, with the songs, with the sayings of my country
is for me a source of an endless pleasure- pleasure of the senses and the soul. Through writing I am
not split between my differences, but made four times larger; writing creates a space inside of me to
be Italian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Bolognese at the same time, without diminishing any of my
identities,” (Marzagora, 216).

The multiculturalism that Ghermandi attempts to exhibit through her work reflects the struggle

that migrants face with identity in Italy. Not only does language inflict a barrier but skin color as

well and for Ghermandi, her lighter skin and mastership of the Italian language has enabled her

to blend in at times. Yet, by enabling one identity to dominate over the other, Ghermandi

recognizes that it can cause a loss in her own identity. Thus by using language as a vehicle for

Italian identity, she also uses it as a vehicle for her Ethiopian identity which has been manifested

in her music.
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Ghermandi is not only an author, but she is also a singer and songwriter. The Atse

Tewodros Project was created in 2010 as a way to foster dialogue through artistic creation

between Italian and Ethiopian musicians. The name of the project stems from the first emperor of

Ethiopia that was not of Ethiopian descent. Atse Tewodros was one of the most beloved and

respected emperors in Ethiopian history due to his perseverance and charisma, and for his respect

toward Ethiopian traditions, (Atse Tewodros Project). Ghermandi’s music dives into the worlds

of her Ethiopian and Italian backgrounds by using instruments and a music style that are

traditional both to Ethiopia and Italy. Ghermandi’s songs are narratives of either traditional

Ethiopian folklore or stories of Ethiopia’s history with colonialism and the stories of migration.

For Ghermandi, “Music is a way of taking place and giving volume to unexpressed voices.

Music doesn’t mean politic but goes into politics, into building society, into one’s life,” (Atse

Tewodros Project). By instilling her Ethiopian language and explaining the significance behind

her songs, it allows for Italians and other listeners to understand a deeper meaning of the use of

language as a tool for identity.

In the case of A Clash of Civilization Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio and for the

literary work and music by Gabriella Ghermandi, language is seen as both a barrier and a vehicle

for one’s place and belonging. The murder suspect, Amedeo, is hiding a secret of his past and is

able to do so through the use of language. His ability to speak the Italian language enables him to

be respected much more by native Italians and he is questioned less often about his origins. Once

it is revealed that the murderer was an Italian and not Amedeo, who is a foreigner and refugee,

readers are then able to see the irony that language and one’s origin has on the misguided

perceptions of who belongs and who does not. Lakhous uniquely presents his book as not only a

clash between different cultures but also a clash between ignorance due to the stereotypes and
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biases that the characters have with one another. This book reveals that no matter what the

differences are between all the characters, Lakhous allows for a further understanding that there

are similarities between all people and that is the human identity we share with one another.

Ghermandi presents her understanding of identity through literature and music. For her, identity

is important in understanding one’s belonging which can be marked by one’s knowledge in a

language. By being half Italian and half Ethiopian, Ghermandi’s duty through her art empowers a

dialogue between Italian and Ethiopian culture that shapes and transforms Italian identity as a

whole. Being Italian does not only mean to have the language skills, but also finding the human

connections that make us the same. While legally, this concept does not mean anything to Italian

citizenship, authors such as Amara Lakhous and Gabriella Ghermandi are some of the many

immigrants in Italy who are forcing the conversation about changing what makes someone

Italian.
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Works Cited

"Gabriella Ghermandi." Atse tewodros project. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2017.

Gabriella Ghermandi. Encyclopedia of AfroEuropean Studies. Np., n.d. Web. 14 June 2017.

"Frantz Fanon > Quotes." Frantz Fanon Quotes (Author of The Wretched of the Earth). N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 June 2017.

Lakhous, Amara, and Ann Goldstein. Clash of civilizations over an elevator in Piazza Vittorio.
New York: Europa Editions, 2013. Digital Copy.

Love, Stephanie V., and Manka M. Varghese. "Race, Language, and Schooling in Italy’s
Immigrant Policies, Public Discourses, and Pedagogies." International Journal of Multicultural
Education 14.2 (2012). Web.

Marzagora, Sara. "Re-writing history in the literature of the Ethiopian diaspora in Italy." African
Identities 13.3 (2015): 211-25. Web.

Parati, Graziella. Migration Italy: the art of talking back in a destination culture. Toronto: U of
Toronto Press, 2005. Print.