Time.news – Raffaele Masto would have liked it. Here in Grand Bassam, the former colonial capital of the Ivory Coast, the Carrefour Junesse library has been named after the friend and colleague who died on March 28, 2020, taken away by Covid. Raffaele, in addition to being a friend, was a journalist of Radio Popolare and of the Africa magazine, an expert on the African continent, very attentive to his evolutions, with an eye to civil society, the forgotten one, but which he valued in his reports.
A library, therefore, a cultural center, a place for discussion, for meeting. A space that will become the reference point for the young people of this neighborhood among the poorest in the city. The inauguration, too, was an exciting moment. In Africa, and the Ivory Coast makes no difference, the ceremonies, to which the authorities are invited, are long and boring.
© Angelo Ferrari
Ivory Coast, ‘Raffaele Masto’ cultural center
Everyone must speak and their speeches are often full of rhetoric. This time it wasn’t like that. No one gave in to the proclamations, no high-sounding words, they limited themselves to telling, from their point of view, the importance of a cultural center in a very poor place. The need to have a space in which young and old can meet and talk, meet. It is no coincidence that the “motto” of the cultural center is this: “Ecouter – Respecter – Parler”. Before even “talking”, listening to the opinion of others, respecting, and then telling one’s point of view.
It seems to be something “normal”, taken for granted, but at these latitudes it is not always the case. Over the years, the Ivory Coast has been crossed by very bitter clashes between political groupings, often fueled by ethnic affiliations, which have shaken the country from the very beginning. Listening and respect did not belong in comparison, to put it mildly. This is so true that the reconciliation process is difficult, the country is still far from finding a shared peace.
© Angelo Ferrari Ivory Coast, ‘Raffaele Masto’ cultural center
Then that a cultural center has as its primary objective that of listening is a novelty because it can bring people together in mutual respect. Only then is it possible to tell and express one’s opinion which will never be prevaricating, but will serve to enrich the debate with respect. A novelty, of course, but all to be built and the young people of Carrefour Jeunesse are determined so that this place, the cultural center, becomes the fulcrum of reconciliation.
The inauguration was the beginning of this journey, it was a celebration. The Association of Ivorian Writers and Poets generously gave its contribution by staging their literary and poetic works, also donating their works to the library. The young writers of this land, and they are happy with it, will find a place where they can express themselves. The party was then animated by a griò, a storyteller from the Poro region in the north of the country, who alternated with a slameur, a modern griò, who comes from the poor neighborhoods. A sort of rapper without music, where the word prevails over everything.
And Raffaele would have liked this. He who dedicated much of his time spent on the African continent to meeting and telling the stories of men and women who, even if not powerful and arrived, make history, the one that is built every day, even through misery. daily.
© Angelo Ferrari Ivory Coast, ‘Raffaele Masto’ cultural center
All this, however, was already in Raffaele’s head. On one of his last trips to the Ivory Coast, he visited the Careffour Jeunesse, animated by the Abele Community, and speaking with the manager, Leone de Vita, he had precisely said that this space could become a cultural meeting place for the young people of Grand Bassam. Immediately after his disappearance, I received a phone call from Leone who suggested that I dedicate the library to my missing friend. I immediately accepted the idea. We set out with friends of the collective of journalists Hic Sunt Leones, of which Raffaele was a part, and we sought the funds to make this dream come true. The Zanetti Foundation joined the initiative, and thanks to their important contribution it was possible to make a dream come true.
The Abele Community has rehabilitated all the spaces, the Embassy of Italy in the Ivory Coast supports the initiative, and the rest have been done by the boys of the center who will now have to animate the library. And as I said during the inauguration: now the words must come out of the books and spread through the streets and among the young people of Grand Bassam. But we are already thinking about the future. To the realization of the Arbre à Palabre and the Grand Bassam Culture Festival, maybe next year. Maybe. Dreams are beautiful to cultivate because they can be realized.