“The air, in Africa, has a meaning unknown in Europe: full of apparitions and mirages, it is, in a certain sense, the true stage of every event.”
(Karen Blixen)
It was an evening with warm and enveloping tones, but as harsh as the African land that was experienced last May 18th inside our Showroom in Bosco di Scandiano.
The musical aperitif, organized by ELIO’S ONLUS, saw the intervention of the journalist Antonella Sinopoli and the political analyst Beniamino Franceschini with the musical accompaniment of the band I Tre Dadi.
The collaboration between the ELIO’S ONLUS association and LI&PRA
The Elio’s onlus association was founded in 2010 by the strong will of two orthopedic doctors from Reggio Emilia who, after having experienced the terrible and contrasting reality of Goma first-hand, felt the need for greater involvement.
The association’s local aid and solidarity relationship is discussed and developed with the local managers of Caritas of Goma and the Charité Maternelle Hospital, after having identified with them the intervention priorities. The target is the most needy segment of the population.
In order to guarantee greater economic resources for the hospital, the association is studying local self-financing alternatives, with the possibility of involving single mothers and the unemployed. In addition to the renovation of the Charitè Maternelle Hospital and the surgical missions, a census of orthopedic and traumatological pathology in the Diocese of Goma is underway. This census will make it possible to reach the most remote areas without specialist care.
The greatest commitment carried out by the association, however, is aimed at creating autonomy and professionalism on site and takes the form of financing specialization scholarships for local doctors. This very important action will allow us to train doctors who, in the short future, will be able to offer professionalism to their patients, have greater economic prospects and above all guarantee a continuous presence in the territory.
The collaboration between Elio’s onlus and the Li&Pra company has resulted in the creation of an event with a strong social impact that aims to give Africa a new face, which delves into the depths of a territory of which we know only a small part, crossing the borders of prejudice and racial hatred.
The offers collected during the evening will finance the purchase of medicines and materials for the Goam hospital, guaranteeing the right care and a safe healthcare environment for children and the most needy groups of the Goam population.
The interventions
Africa tells its story – Antonella Sinopoli
Antonella Sinopoli is a journalist and videomaker who lives between Italy and Ghana, covering sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to writing for various paper and online newspapers (including Nigrezia and Valigia Blu), he holds meetings on information regarding the African continent and on the communication models of Western media.
Her greatest commitment is to explain the African female universe through literature and poetry, a motivation that pushed her to found the AfroWomenPoetry project with which she gives voice to African poets.
With her speech, Antonella accompanied the audience on a journey to and on the African continent. The suggestions, created with the energy and passion that characterize it, allowed those present to get to know the “dark continent” in a new light, illuminating the gray areas and discovering a set of fascinating cultures whose depth is anchored in the harshness of a wild nature.
Thus, Africa is told through the voices of its inhabitants and the women who write verses, prose, epic narratives in a very different way from the Western one.
The poems of African poets evoke a world in which people and nature merge, where bodies are dark like the land they are part of, and the blood that flows through the veins is red like the sunset, a world where every living being it has its dignity, including mosquitoes. Other texts, however, are the mirror of a profound suffering that arises from the need to be recognized as equals. This is how cries for help are born which are transformed into acts of courage, and it is precisely courage that characterizes the soul of these women who are not afraid to talk about themselves and their land, their joys, their pains, their anger. and their pride in being African.
To experience these emotions first hand we recommend you visit the afrowomenpoetry.net website, you won’t regret it!
The (un)predictable geopolitical transition of Sub-Saharan Africa – Beniamino Franceschini
With Beniamino Franceschini we tackle much more technical but no less interesting topics.
Writer, political analyst, Vice President of “Il Cafè Geopolitico” and coordinator of the Africa desk, professor of Geopolitics at the Higher School for Linguistic Mediators in Pisa, Beniamino Franceschini is an authority when it comes to geopolitical development on the African continent.
Franceschini’s great quality is that of explaining even very complex topics and dynamics in simple terms, without compromising the analytical rigor due to a context as complex and rapidly evolving as that represented by sub-Saharan Africa.
Observed from an objective and rigorous point of view that takes into consideration both the main dynamics and those most often overlooked by the main information channels, sub-Saharan Africa appears as a rapidly evolving territory with populations that present a strong desire to break with current policies. In fact, despite widespread instability, Africa will try to complete a rapid infrastructural and technological transformation, also strengthening trade in energy and raw materials with Europe in the name of fairness.
In several African states, the desire is to develop a democratic climate in which people can be the main actors in the socio-economic life of their country. A development that has been foreseen for years and which is becoming increasingly concrete, bringing Africa to the center of the world.