While Italians supported the Black Lives Matter movement that was born in the United States, many remain blind to the rampant racism in their own society. In Italy there is an “excessive fear” and great aversion to Africans, a condition which the UN and EU refer to as “Afrophobia.” This presentation analyzes the institutional discriminatory attitude towards Afro-descendants in Italy, and the inevitable related issues in a country that still associates skin color with the status of “foreigner.”
Kossi Amekowoyoa Komla-Ebri, born in Togo in 1954, is a medical surgeon who lives near Como, Italy. He is the author of several books and was awarded the 2005 “Premio Mare Nostrum for Literature” and “Premio Graphein” from the Società di Pedagogia e Didattica della Scrittura in 2009.
Sponsored by the Africana Studies program.