A story of integration in the heart of Genoa, after a dramatic journey. The golden boy of Gambia, like a son for the owners of the “Tripperia La Casana”, the oldest in Italy (R. Bobbio)
Those who descend from Piazza De Ferrari to the sea in Piazza Loading can be greeted by a very tasty ancient perfume, which comes directly from the Tripperia Casana, an activity present in the historic center of Genoa, in Vico della Casana, in the heart of the medieval city. he entrance is like taking a dip in history, it is here that, for two hundred years, the oldest tripe shop in Italy has been located a few meters from via Luccoli, “La Casana”, one of the most well-known historical places of the Genoese.
The large marble tables, the centuries-old extractor hood, the two late eighteenth-century pots and the ancient majolica tiles truly represent a piece of history. Original furniture from the early 1900s, Genoese flooring, tiled walls, marble counter, wooden and marble tables, stools, tiled snuffers and hoods and copper pots. For over seventy years, Genoese customers, served by the legendary Annetta Cavagnaro, stopped inside the shop to feed themselves, a custom typical of workers and dockers who raised their spirits with a nice cup of hot tripe broth.
A tripe shop that enters and remains in the hearts of the Genoese, who buy tripe from in a place that smacks of history, above all and simplicity. Since 1984, the spouses Gabriella Colombo and Franco Pisani have kept alive the historical tradition linked to tripe processing and to those spaces that have been preserved over time.
To help them in the kitchen for some months there is the new 24 year old Foday Towray, Gambian, a native of Kerewan, a large rural village in the belt of the hectic capital Banjul, a sister, peasant parents with his father who also makes do as a handyman mechanic.
The mother is involved in subsistence agriculture and grows peanuts, one of the few products destined for a daily exchange market in the city. The Gambia is a poor country and without great strategic resources. Poverty is not a rare phenomenon on the African continent, but here it is not just about economic values, but also about low literacy and health rates.
In 175th position out of 188, the Gambia is among the countries with the lowest development index. The Gambia has been a major destination for Northern European tourism for years. Swedes, English, Dutch have for years packed their bags to leave the harsh European winter in a few hours by plane and celebrate Christmas in the dry and warm climate that the Gambia offers them.Unfortunately in recent years with the spread of fears related to the Islamic and due to the Ebola emergency, tourism in Gambia suffered a severe setback, putting the entire national economy in crisis.
The very young Foday manages to attend elementary schools up to 14 years, learning very well some of artistic drawing but he cannot advanced techniques in his studies to be able to enter the tourism sector because he must participate in the subsistence of the family in a social context where not only the lack of job opportunities, but also the recent droughts have improved harvests, annihilated the national GDP of the Gambia which becomes a country of strong emigration, with a huge diaspora in Italy, Spain and the United States.
The mother, having collected an important share of savings, begs him to escape, by any means: the story of his frightening journey has a symbolic value, because it unites him with thousands of thousands of people united by the sea and by fear.
Recommended by widespread word of mouth about a non-governmental structure that promised a transfer to Europe, he decides to leave for Libya together with two of his peers. Go on a long journey. to the north, the coveted Libya. It took two months to get to Tripoli, after having crossed Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, spending whole days in the desert among scorpion traps, incredible cold at night very sand dunes. A truly infinite, tremendous and tiring journey. Upon arrival in Tripoli, he feels as if he is touching the banks of the Eldorado. He remains in the capital, a true crossroads of soldiers, clan weapons and human goods, for many months, working as a mechanical aid, in the resurgence of the local civil war that more than once made him fear for life.
He is then thrown onto a dilapidated fishing boat, with a minimal reserve of water and the route already planned for Sicily, given that, from a certain point of the crossing, the helmsman-trafficker transports onto a small boat that has reached them in Libyan territorial waters. and leaves the helm to one of the passengers, reassuring them, mockingly, that so soon the fallen arrived with the white Germans to pick them up.
Foday remembers, with a little pain, being taken by a huge ship that picked them up and transhipped them to Lampedusa, regenerated, coated, identified and, after a few months’ stay in the overflowing hub of the Ministry of the Interior, hijacked, after an endless journey, in Liguria, in Genoa, hosted first at Villa Freccia in Cornigliano and then in the “Tangram” community of SanPierd’Arrena, where he manages to finish his studies up to the eighth grade, learn fluent Italian and check out some opportunities ‘of targeted job placement.
The occasion is represented at the beginning of the year, by the announcement of the search for staff in charge of the kitchen advertised by the owners of the “Casana” tripe shop who welcome Foday with immediate availability and sympathy, who with his kind, peaceful, positive spirit combined with an extraordinary and punctual hunger for learning, he acquires the secrets of cooking that the tripe master Pisani guarantees him from 04.00 every morning, from the first visit to the slaughterhouses in Piazzale Bligny and then in the kitchen to work Tripe, the rumen of cattle and pigs.
Very careful in handling the various types of tripe, the Ciapa, Croce, Larga, Panzon, Beretta, Cuffia, Nido d’ape, the Centopelli, now Foday is ready for the permanent employment contract that the owners of the “Casana” Tripperia they proposed, satisfied to leave the baton of the centenary activity to a worthy ambassador of one of the characteristic dishes of Italian and Genoese gastronomy in particular.
He was impressed by the words of Pope Francis who asks everyone to open the doors of their hearts to welcome and help foreigners who have no home and who are fleeing misery, war.
After all, Foday asks only this, he has clear ideas in life, he wants to work hard and take care of his family who remained in Gambia, with whom he keeps in touch with daily phone calls.
Roberto Bobbio