The Migrants and Refugee Movement opens the Decolonial Space in Naples
The starting point is the Decolonial Space, an initiative of the Movement for Migrants and Refugees Naples (MMRN) based in the former Judicial Psychiatric Hospital Je so’ pazzo, right in the city centre.
The Decolonial Space is inspired by a famous principle ‘inherited’ from Martin Luther King, so relevant for all of us:
Today, in a time that calls for profound discernments for new directions of global freedom and justice according to Article 1 of the Universal Declaration: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, the migrants and refugees of the MMRN, through the Decolonial Space, claim the right to the recognition of their cultural dignity. So far, the Movement has tried to provide answers to institutional racism from residence permits to the right to housing to workers’ rights.
Photo: www.avvenire.it
Today, the Movement is opening up to a new phase, not only for Naples, but also vital for the whole of Europe: the migrant community is changing shape, “today it is made up of many people born and raised here who, in continuity with their parents, are victims of institutional racism, being deprived in many cases of the rights of citizenship, but are also crushed by the constant stereotyping and stigmatisation of their bodies. We need an action plan that gives us the possibility to describe ourselves, not to be subjected to the surrounding space but also to shape it.” (Source: ilmanifesto.it/napoli-ex-opg-je-so-people-culture-and-identity-is-born-decolonial-space).
Image: www.lavocedellisola.it
“We can no longer accept that our bodies should be relegated to a position of subalternity and objectification”, so claim the new generations of migrants and refugees along with the right to have a voice about themselves and the valorisation of diversity, and call on everyone to realise a “cultural dream” that breaks down the colonialist logic also advocated by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Exhortation “Querida Amazonia”.
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There is a social dream that challenges us all. Let us reverse the course of current urban phenomena: “Cities, which should be places of encounter, of mutual enrichment, of fertilisation between different cultures, are being transformed into the scene of a painful discard” (Querida Amazonia n°30, Pope Francis).