Welcome Association Italy celebrates Africa Day

On 25/05, on the occasion of Africa Day, Welcome Association Italy was invited to participate in the 11th birthday of QuestaèRoma Association. The event, in collaboration with the Museum of Civilizations, hosted the exhibition "phonomuseum_rome," a multimedia installation by artist Wissal Houbabi, with the collaboration of Ismael "Astri" Lo and Toi Giordani. The exhibition was produced by the Museum of Civilizations as part of the Taking Care project, as part of the Museum of Opacities, the first critical rearrangement of the collections of the former Colonial Museum in Rome. Deputy National Secretary of Welcome Association Italy, Carlo Palumbo, attended the event, representing the association that is committed to the protection and integration of foreigners in Italy. The participation of Welcome Association Italy underscores the importance of preserving the native languages and cultures of foreigners as a means of integration into the Italian social fabric. The exhibition "phonomuseum_rome" reflects on the gradual extinction of indigenous languages of colonized populations, predominantly oral languages of community and proximity. Imagining a future in 2152, the work predicts the total extinction of mother tongues, replaced by "father languages," understood as state, institutional, bureaucratic and high-value economic languages, often with colonial tendencies. This project was made possible thanks to the collaboration with the QuestaèRoma association, which has done valuable territorial networking, acting as a bridge with communities in Rome. One example is the language workshops held last October, during which public lectures were given on phonetics, grammar, history and linguistics of the most common idioms: Wolof/pular, Tashilhit, Bengali and Tigrinya. Welcome Association Italy is aware of the importance for foreigners to preserve their native origins and cultures, promoting them as tools for integration in Italy. Special thanks to Susanna, President of the QuestaèRoma Association, for the invitation and collaboration of Anna Spencer, Public Relations Officer of the African Communities Union of Italy.