How Sicily inspires African love ballads and new stars
On a hot Friday night in Palermo, Sicily’s capital, musicians play Senegalese songs outside an African restaurant in the bustling outdoor market of La Vucciria.
The band belongs to Doudou Diouf, a Senegalese musician and owner of the restaurant called Ciwara, which since opening in 2018 has become the focal point for the city’s African community.
The sounds of African drumming and rhythm jostle for attention next to the Sicilian traders serving aperol spritz – an Italian aperitif – from their street carts and the restaurants dishing up Sicilian delicacies like caponata, arancini and fried fish.
As the evening turns to night, the restaurant becomes a dance floor where young Sicilians and Africans grind to Afrobeat hits.
When a remixed version of On The Low by Burna Boy plays, the crowd roars in giddy excitement.
The young African waiters ply the revellers with “African” cocktails – alcoholic beverages fused with the flavours of West Africa such mangos, hibiscus, pineapple and ginger.
Multicultural hotspot
From its musical tastes and the popularity of African dance to food and even the hairstyles of young Sicilians.
This is because Palermo has become home to thousands of Africans, mostly from West Africa, such as Nigerians, Senegalese and Gambians.
Palermo has been a cultural melting pot since ancient times and it has in recent years become known for its welcoming attitudes thanks in part to its pro-migrant mayor Leoluca Orlando.
Tens of thousands of African migrants have passed through Sicily on their way to northern Europe – but what is often forgotten is that many Africans stay on the island.
Nowadays Palermo has become one of the most multi-ethnic cities in Italy and a multicultural hotspot in Europe.
Nowhere is the African presence more visible than in Palermo’s Ballarò neighbourhood, which was once the rough corner of the city with long-standing mafia associations.
It has been reshaped by communities from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
On a walk through Ballarò market the sounds and smells of daily Palermitan life now include the African restaurants serving up mafé, domoda and chicken rice, and stallholders selling ingredients unfamiliar in the Italian kitchen such as okra, yams and scotch bonnet pepper
In the market an African woman grills corn cobs over coals next to elderly Sicilian men drinking cold beers while a little further down the cobbled back streets, a group of young African men gather to eat skewers of grilled chicken.
A slice of Africa can be seen everywhere – from the Nigerian women who run small convenience stores selling sodas, sweets and beers to the Senegalese tailors who make African-inspired garments.
