Teranga: Naples' Afrobeat Club Where Migrants Dance to Forget Their Sorrows
Doc Weekly contributor Nathalie Weatherald takes our Free of the Week series into the bowels of Naples’ nightlife, specifically the Teranga nightclub, a place that serves a true community purpose in bringing long-suffering asylum seekers some comfort and safety. The film is available to watch on Guardian Docs.
‘We dance to forget, we sing to forget. To forget the horrors we passed through before we came to Naples’ says Yankuba, an aspiring biochemist from The Gambia, one of the protagonists of Guardian Docs’ latest film Teranga: Life In The Waiting Room.
The 35-minute observational short, directed and produced by Daisy Squires, Sophia Seymour and Lou Marillier, follows Yankuba and Fata - two young men who fled extreme poverty and a 22-year dictatorship in The Gambia, now living in corruption-riddled camps as they wait for their asylum claims to be processed in Naples. The eponymous Teranga - which means ‘hospitality’ or ‘generous welcome’ in Wolof, a language spoken across parts of West Africa - is a migrant-run afrobeats nightclub in the heart of Naples. It’s more than a place to socialise at the weekends: Teranga, for Yankuba, Fata and friends, is escapism in the form of solidarity and joy. It’s a place where asylum seekers can go to connect, dance and shake off the stresses of the enduring legal limbo and haunting memories of their journeys; in stark contrast to the increasingly xenophobic and hostile environment of Italian domestic politics.
Recent years have seen a surge in racist hate crimes in Italy, particularly targeted at those of African or Roma descent. In mid-2018, the United Nations publicly condemned the state, saying that the rise in attacks cannot be separated from politicians ‘unashamedly embracing racist and xenophobic anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner rhetoric’. That autumn Matteo Salvini, the far-right interior minister, had brought in his broadly-condemned ‘Salvini Decree’ - a piece of extreme anti-immigrant legislation. The bill formally abolished humanitarian protection status for migrants deemed ineligible for refugee status but otherwise unable to return home; blocked asylum seekers from accessing reception centres designed to combat social exclusion, and closed Italian ports. In mid-2019, Salvini announced further plans to fine NGOs up to €50,000 for performing unauthorised migrant rescue operations. ‘If we do not intervene soon, there will be a sea of blood’ one UNHCR spokeswoman warned.
Teranga: Life In The Waiting Room is a celebration of resistance and resilience in such a hostile environment. The film is a snapshot into the lived worlds of those who have landed on the Italian coasts and a testament to their youth, ambition and talent. Watch the film on Guardian Docs here, for free.
