Association Feature: Comprendre la Mafia

The year is coming to an end and each one of us, whether 1A or 2A, English or French track, dual degree or three year program, is looking back on the year. We are making a mental account of the events, the ups and the downs, the achievements, and the instances of growth. So is Comprendre la Mafia, Menton’s young anti-mafia association, founded only two years ago.

Between interventions in Italian and French schools, articles, conferences, debates, and bake sales, the association is now organizing a joint weekend with the youth group of Libera Bologna to be held in Menton between the 23rd and 24th of April. During this weekend, the unifying force will be the anti-mafia resistance and the determination to spread knowledge to render people conscious of the presence of mafias — not only in the movies or in rural southern Italy, but also, and especially, in our idyllic Franco-Italian Riviera. After Saturday’s events, which will take place in Menton, the two associations will meet the president of Libera Imperia, Maura Orengo, in the city of Imperia. The president will hold a speech about the mafia in the Ligure Ponent, which will be followed by a lunch on the beach to conclude the weekend.

Students from Sciences Po and the Università degli Studi di Bologna will come together as one to discuss the mafia from its birth to its globalization and internationalization, to the daily civic engagement exercised by non-profit associations dedicated to the sensibilization of citizens and the condemnation of the mafia on local and national territory. One example of this civic engagement can be seen in Libera. Born as an association unifying the survivors of mafia and relatives of victims of organized crime, Comprendre la Mafia is now the most important and vocal association engaged in the fight against the mafia, not only in Italy, but in all of Europe.

On the 21st of March, Comprendre la Mafia celebrated mafia victim Remembrance Day by organizing a march from the Sciences Po Menton campus to the Italian border. There, followed by Nice-Matin and Sanremo News, it met members of Libera Ventimiglia, Sanremo, Imperia, and SPES of Ventimiglia, an association dedicated to helping people with disabilities. Several other Mentonese associations joined the march, such as the Feminist Union, Sciences Po Refugee Help, UNICEF, Environnementon, Alwanat, Union de la Gauche et des Ecologistes, and Bureau Des Arts.

On the border, the names and lives of some mafia victims were honored.Memorials were handwritten on the road to immortalize the mafia victims upon entry into Italy. The Italian, French, and European anthems were then played in a sign of cross-country solidarity. To conclude, a lunch was held, hosted by the SPES of Ventimiglia and its director Matteo Lupi. Present were personalities such as the Tribunal Court Attorney in Imperia, Alberto Lari, Imperia’s Prefect, Armando Nanei, the Police Commissioner in Imperia, Giuseppe Felice Periore, the Director of Public Safety, Giuseppe Cucchiara, the President of Caritas Ventimiglia-Sanremo, Maurizio Marmo, the Witness of Justice Rocco Mangiardi and Colombian clergyman, Don Rito Alvarez, who is one of the main figures engaged in providing aid to migrants in Ventimiglia.

With more events to come and awareness to be spread, Comprendre la Mafia can consider itself satisfied with its successes this past year. Its members are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the association and for the Mentonese community.