October 2, 2022
Igiaba Scego is an Italian-Somali author, activist, and journalist who writes about the struggles of the Somali minority population in Italy. Her parents are migrants from Somalia, forced to run from their home during the Siad Barre coup in 1969. She is black and Muslim living in a predominantly white and Catholic society. This raises a lot of confusion about belonging because although she considers herself a citizen of Rome, Italy does not consider her a citizen. In Italy their naturalization rights are based on jus sanguinis, which means a child’s citizenship is determined from their heritage. Therefore, as a black Muslim, she is not even considered a legal citizen in the country she has lived in her whole life. In her book, La Pecora Nera, Scego uses a metaphor about her inner turmoil with sausages (Salsicce). This short story is set during an Italian holiday called Ferragosto where the people take two weeks off work to go to the beach and close down their businesses. Scego is looking for food and stumbles into a small shop selling sausage. Although eating pork is haram, an urge overcame her to buy the sausages to feel like her fellow Italians. She looks through her life through her intercultural perspective and can speak on her experience with eloquence. I noticed that our intercultural heroes have a lot of similarities to who we are as people, and who we want to become. We admire these people because they have handled life with grace and dignity and intercultural competence. Each of our individual heroes represents an important ideology and moral in our life that relates to open-mindedness and acceptance. A trait I found admirable is the compassion towards others even if their culture has personally affected your life. In one of my peers intercultural story and in my intercultural hero, the people still love where they came from. Even though the Italians have been the ones discriminating against her and causing struggle in her life, she doesn’t cease to love Rome and their customs and cultures. I admire that she finds the strength to carry on because she feels connected to the where she is born and where she comes from at the same time.
