Elsewhere and Here: Revisiting the Colonial Encounter from the Perspective of the Global South in The Gurugu Pledge

Abstract

L’articolo presenta un’analisi del romanzo The Gurugu Pledge (2017) dello scrittore della Guinea Equatoriale Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel. Partendo dalle teorie sulla natura coloniale del potere sviluppate da una serie di teorici latino-americani, queste pagine sostengono che il romanzo in questione costituisce una contro-narrazione sulle masse di sfollati in Africa (immaginata soprattutto dalla prospettiva dei rifugiati stessi), oltre che un’illustrazione delle modalità in cui la razzializzazione rappresenta una delle principali eredità del colonialismo. La narrazione qui analizzata si focalizza in un luogo particolare: il Monte Gourougou (Gurugu) in Marocco che dista 2 chilometri e a 500 anni dall’enclave autonoma spagnola di Melilla, il confine più a sud dell’Unione Europea, sebbene si trovi nel continente africano. Il Monte Gourougou è il luogo dove centinaia di migranti e rifugiati dell’Africa occidentale vivono nello squallore, in attesa di un’opportunità per entrare in Europa scalando la barriera che circonda Melilla. La barriera incarna il divario narrativo tra privilegio e abiezione, tra l’occidente e i suoi ‘altri’.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-93

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