Esoh Elamé (a cura di), Dossier: Approcci postcoloniali alle danze e musiche etniche per un dialogo interculturale / Approches postcoloniales des danses et musiques ethniques pour un dialogue interculturel / Postcolonial approaches of ethnic music and dance towards an intercultural dialogue, pp. 3-135

Esoh Elamé, Introduzione / Introduction, pp. 3-14

Magali Nayrac, Anaïs Vaillant, De la circulation des musiques brésiliennes en France: un dialogue franco-brésilien entre exotisme et essentialisme? / The circulation of Brazilian music in France: a French-Brazilian dialogue between exoticism and essentialism? / La circolazione di musiche brasiliane in Francia: un dialogo franco-brasiliano tra esotismo ed essenzialismo?, pp. 15-38

After a brief excursus of the historic and ideological Eurocentric inheritance that has still a strong influence in the contemporary cultural relations between France and Brazil, the paper will initially describe the different discourses and practices of Brazilian music lovers. It will then deal with the fact that intercultural learning continues to be profoundly marked by idealized and stereotypical representations of Brazil and its culture. As a significant example the essay will use musical swing to analyze the processes of naturalization of musical skills. Finally, it will tackle the question of the conditions of an intercultural dialogue when the modalities of exchange are submitted to an economic market based on social and cultural disparities.

Dopo un breve excursus sull’eredità storica ed ideologica eurocentrica che ancora oggi condiziona fortemente le relazioni culturali contemporanee tra la Francia e il Brasile, il saggio descrive, inizialmente, diversi discorsi e pratiche di appassionati di musiche brasiliane. In seguito, si affronta il fatto che l’apprendimento interculturale continua ad essere profondamente segnato da rappresentazioni idealiste e stereotipate del Brasile e della sua cultura. Il saggio utilizza, come esempio, il swing musicale per analizzare i processi di naturalizzazione delle competenze musicali. Infine, si affronta la questione delle condizioni per un dialogo interculturale in un contesto dove le modalità degli scambi sono sottomesse ad un mercato economico fatto di disuguaglianze sociali e culturali.

Monica Aceti, Teaching and learning capoeira in Europe: an intercultural experience / Insegnando ed imparando la capoeira in Europa: un’esperienza interculturale, pp. 39-58

The growing presence of capoeira in Europe reveals a phenomenon of circulation of a Brazilian intangible cultural heritage outside its original space. Since the eighties, Brazilian capoeiristas have left their country in order to pass on this activity and to take advantage of the opportunities of a better life abroad. This migration process has been fostered on one hand through the creation of “international networks of capoeira” that has facilitated the insertion of Brazilian newcomers. On the other hand, however, the insertion of a growing number of European teachers of capoeira on the market has modified the traditional teaching pattern of Brazilian teachers. In this process of globalization of capoeira various objectives, sometimes contradictory, emerged from comparative field studies carried out in Brazil, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany and Syria. If the configuration of the roda de capoeira offers a concrete space of exchange, dialogue and adjustment among individuals of different cultural origins that can be used for the purpose of intercultural education, the space of the roda is also the place of negotiations, tensions and conflicts that depend on the context and channel political, historical or pragmatic challenges.

La crescente presenza della capoeira in Europa rivela un fenomeno di circolazione di un bene culturale immateriale brasiliano al di fuori del suo luogo d’origine. Negli anni 1980, alcuni capoeiristi brasiliani hanno lasciato il loro paese per trasmettere la loro attività e per trovare, all’estero, migliori condizioni di vita. Tale processo migratorio, da una parte, è stato favorito dalla creazione di una «rete internazionale di capoeira» che ha facilitato l’inserimento dei migranti nuovo arrivati. D’altra parte, lo stesso inserimento sul mercato di un numero crescente di insegnanti europei di capoeira ha modificato lo schema tradizionale d’insegnamento dei brasiliani. In questo processo di mondializzazione della capoeira, diversi obiettivi, spesso contraddittori, sono stati evidenziati dalle ricerche comparative realizzate in Brasile, Danimanrca, Svizzera, Francia, Italia, Germania e Siria. Se la configurazione della roda de capoeira offre uno spazio concreto di relazione, dialogo e adattamento tra individui di diverse origini culturali, che può quindi essere utilizzato con l’obiettivo dell’educazione interculturale, lo spazio della roda è anche luogo di negoziazioni, tensioni e conflitti che dipendono dal contesto e che veicolano sfide politiche, storiche o pragmatiche

Gérald Guillot, Diffusion des musiques afro-brésiliennes en Europe: la perception cognitive occidentale permet-elle une véritable ouverture à cette altérité? / The spreading of Afro-Brazilian music in Europe: does the Western cognitive perception allow a real openness to alterity? / La diffusione di musiche afro-brasiliane in Europa: la percezione cognitiva occidentale permette una reale apertura all’alterità?, pp. 59-82

With the acceleration of global trades at a planetary level, the musical culture of the Other is the target of a growing interest from European citizens increasingly bound to meet difference. This attraction is reflected in many ways, including the musical and/or choreographic practice of an exotic tradition, known as “trans- cultural”. Here we deal more particularly with the method of dissemination of Afro-Brazilian Carnaval music first in Brazil and then in Europe, where it is gaining the interest of numerous non-professional musicians. This spreading carries more or less formal teaching practices whose study reveals an ambivalence between the desire of alterity and a production whose meaning is almost totally rebuilt on the basis of Western values. Can this paradox, which questions the competence itself to intercultural dialogue, be explained? To try to answer this question we will center on the cultural “transmitters”, be they official teachers or motivated non-professional musicians.

In piena accelerazione degli scambi commerciali a livello planetario, la cultura musicale dell’Altro è sempre più oggetto d’interesse da parte di un cittadino europeo destinato ormai a convivere con la differenza. Tale interesse si declina in molti modi, tra cui troviamo quello della pratica musicale e/o coreografica propria di una tradizione esotica, detta “trans-culturale”. Noi affrontiamo, in maniera particolare, il modo di diffusione delle musiche afro-brasiliane carnevalesche prima in Brasile e poi in Europa, dove ricevono l’attenzione di numerosi musicisti non professionisti. Questa diffusione porta con sé alcune pratiche pedagogiche più o meno formali, il cui studio rivela un’ambivalenza tra il desiderio di alterità e una produzione il cui senso è quasi totalmente ricostruito sulla base di valori occidentali. Questo paradosso, che mette in discussione la stessa competenza al dialogo interculturale, può essere spiegato? Per tentare di rispondere a tale questione, ci concentriamo soprattutto sui “trasmettitori” culturali, siano questi insegnanti riconosciuti o dilettanti motivati.

Mahalia Lassibille, “La danse africaine”: de l’archétype à sa recomposition chorégraphique / “African dance”: from the archetype to its choreographic rearrangement / “La danza africana”: dall’archetipo alla sua ricomposizione coreografica, pp. 83-102

Regarded as distant and strange expressions, African “dances” are increasingly gaining ground in Europe. But which African dance are precisely referring to? This article analyzes the category of “African dance” as a cultural, political and ideological construction. Indeed, the expression itself “African dance” gives rise to numerous stereotypes rooted in a colonial history and justified by science, particularly anthropology. These categories and stereotypes are still present in current practices. The features characterizing African dances have been defined in this way and can be found in bodies and discourses. However, choreographers and teachers of African dance are the true actors who use and reinterpret these references. The purpose is, then, using an interactive approach, to consider “African dance” as a co- construction, where numerous protagonists and different processes of negritude, standardization and idealization are involved. In a postcolonial context, creation in the field of dance becomes a privileged space to consider the dynamics of mutual looks and relations between Africa and the West, and to link history to contemporary choreographies.

Considerate come manifestazioni lontane e strane, le danze d’Africa sono sempre più diffuse in Europa. Ma, con precisione, di quale “danza africana” si tratta? Il saggio analizza la categoria “danza africana” in quanto costruzione culturale, politica e ideologica. Infatti, la stessa espressione “danza africana” produce numerosi stereotipi che s’innestano in una storia coloniale e che hanno ricevuto anche un supporto dalla scienza, soprattutto antropologica. Ora, queste categorie e stereotipi sono presenti nelle pratiche attuali. I tratti caratterizzanti le danze d’Africa sono così stati definiti e si ritrovano, allora, nei corpi e nei discorsi. Ad ogni modo, i coreografi e gli insegnanti di danza africana sono i veri attori che utilizzano e reinterpretano tali riferimenti. In un processo interattivo, si tratta, allora, di considerare “la danza africana” come una co-costruzione dove s’inseriscono numerosi protagonisti e diversi processi di negrizzazione, di normalizzazione e di idealizzazione. In un contesto post-coloniale, l’ambito della creazione in danza diventa un angolo privilegiato di considerazione delle dinamiche costituite da sguardi e relazioni vicendevoli tra Africa e Occidente, e di legame della storia alla contemporaneità coreografiche.

Kampoer Kampoer, Approche postcoloniale de la musique camerounaise: le cas du Bidéeh / A postcolonial approach to Cameroon music: the case of Bidéeh / Approccio postcoloniale della musica camerunese: il caso del bidéeho, pp. 103-116

Being an Africa in miniature, Cameroon is full of cultures that live in symbiosis among them. In the case of ngúmba culture, it is characterized by the presence of singing in the diverse human activities. So, from birth to death, the ngúmba man is highly involved in the realm of singing. He is particularly sensitive to rhythm, and the corporal and poetic expressions transmitted through the dance that accompany his music. Among the various forms of musical expressions, the most significant is the Bidéeh that is a musical genre, which conveys the identity values and the world vision of the ngúmba man. The Bidéeh, as an ancestral inheritance, continues to celebrate life and regulate human relationships within ngúmba society and in this way remains a privileged means to affirm the identity of this people of South Cameroon in this globalized world of the twenty-first century.

Africa in miniatura, il Camerun presenta una pletora di culture che vivono in simbiosi tra loro. Nel caso della culture ngúmba, essa è caratterizzata dalla presenza del canto nelle diverse attività umane. Dalla nascita alla morte, l’uomo ngúmba è fortemente coinvolto nell’universo canoro. Quest’uomo è particolarmente sensibile al ritmo e alle espressioni corporali e poetiche trasmesse dalle danze che accompagnano la sua musica. Tra questa diverse forme d’espressione musicale, la più rilevante è quella chiamata bidéeh. Si tratta di un genere musicale che esprime i valori identitari e la visione del mondo dei ngúmba. Il bidéeh, in quanto eredità ancestrale, continua a celebrare la vita e a regolare le relazioni umane all’interno della stessa società ngúmba. Vuole infatti essere uno strumento di affermazione identitaria di questo popolo del Sud-Camerun in questo mondo globalizzato del XXI secolo

Esoh Elamé, Insegnare le danze e le musiche etniche/tradizionali/popolari in un approccio postcoloniale ed interculturale: indagine sul campo nella realtà anconetana / Teaching ethnic/traditional/popular dance and music in a postcolonial and intercultural perspective: a field study in the Province of Ancona, pp. 117-135

The present contribution is the result of a field study on ethnic music and dance conducted in the Province of Ancona. The research moves from the assumption that courses on ethnic dance and music can serve to educate to intercultural dialogue. The author sustains that this happens because those who register do not have as an objective the acquisition and development of intercultural skills. At the end what counts is to learn and master the rhythmic, the body language and the art of dancing and music of other peoples without ever sharing and deepening in terms of knowledge the traditions of the societies of origin of these arts. The courses, as they are offered, do not allow to know the cultural foundations of ethnic dance and music which are useful to decipher their rituals, gestures and rhythmic. The data of the research enable the possibility of initiating a more structural reflection on the finality of schools of ethnic dance and music and the formation of their teachers to an intercultural didactic.

Alessandro Maggioni, Gli strumenti di regolazione delle back door policies e il paradigma concentrazionario in Europa / The regulation tools of back door policies and the concentration paradigm in Europe, pp. 137-157

This article analyzes the emergence of a concentration paradigm in the European migration policies, that suggest a minimum modality in a European approach to the regulation of migration flows. This approach tends to spread across the border of the European Union (UE) through the leverage of some informal forums, the influence of some international organizations and the employment of the principle of migratory conditionality. Some tools of back door policy, shared by UE countries, determine its configuration: the border of the Schengen area, the detention camp for migrants, and the acquisition of biometric data that the UE is about to regulate. The article highlights both the characteristics of the border of the Schengen area and the detention camps, and their interaction modality. Moreover it describes the role of migratory conditionality in the proliferation of detention camps in transit and origin countries. Last section analyzes the connection between a systematic biometric data acquisition perspective and the concentration paradigm, concluding that the latter concurs to determine both the choice of each of the single instruments of migration policy and the perpetuation of a security approach to the migration flows as a minimum modality of a global European migration policy.

Arianna Caporali, Coesistenza fra immigrati stranieri e autoctoni in Italia: opinioni di giornalisti immigrati / Coexistence between Italians and immigrants in Italy: the opinions of immigrant journalists, pp. 159-182

In the last two decades Italy has been home to a rising number of immigrants. To formulate policies for fostering positive coexistence, it is necessary to gain a better understanding of immigrants’ opinions on living together with Italians. In this study, we give voice to a segment of the foreign population. We analyse the transcripts of 31 semi-structured interviews with immigrant journalists of the press directed and dedicated to immigrants, i.e., newspapers spread nationwide and centred on socio-political as well as cultural topics concerning immigration, and targeting foreign ethnic minorities. We explore how, in these journalists’ opinions, it would be feasible to foster positive coexistence between immigrants and Italians. We explain what it is meant by “coexistence” and describe facts, regulations and discourses about immigration and the press dedicated to this issue in Italy at the time of the interviews. We then discuss the respondents’ views on the following issues: 1) immigrants’ legal and actual access to rights and opportunities; 2) interpersonal relationships among immigrants, and between immigrants and Italians; and 3) interactions between immigration and the Italian social system as a whole. We capture two perspectives: a) the interviewees’ perceptions of coexistence problems between immigrants and Italians, and b) their views on how the coexistence between the two populations might be improved. Together with the facilitation of access to Italian citizenship, our informants insist on enhancing immigrants’ and natives’ mutual knowledge and respect by means of education and media policies.

Lorenzo Luatti, La mediazione linguistico-culturale ad un giro di boa? / Is the socio-linguistic mediation at a turning point?, pp. 183-202

Cultural and linguistic mediation became widespread at the beginning of the 90’s and was subsequently adopted in sectors where migrants arrived for the first time and required assistance in being integrated due to the passing of national and regional laws. Today, cultural and linguistic mediation is the focus of many initiatives set up by institutional bodies that officially recognise the professional status of mediators. To embark on a new era however, cultural and linguistic mediation has to respond to the changing political and cultural climate as well as to the changes that have taken place in immigration issues, the multicultural debate, in social professions as well as in mediation practices. This article seeks to explore the reasons for theses changes, examines the contents and significant aspects of current discussions regarding cultural and linguistic mediation and outlines some possible future employment prospects for mediators. To conclude, using outcomes of the most recent researches carried out in the field, it looks at the difficult relationship between mediation and integration and between mediation and interculturalism.

Tony Paganoni, Politics, ethnicity and the Catholic Church in Australia. Issues of identity and engagement: the case of the Federazione Cattolica Italiana / Politica, etnicità e Chiesa cattolica in Australia. Questioni d’identità e di impegno: l’esperienza della Federazione Cattolica Italiana, pp. 203-226

The essay is an initial attempt to deal with the circumstances that are relevant to the beginning of the lay movement, called the Federazione Cattolica Italiana (FCI), founded in a storeroom adjacent to the Catholic parish of Fitzroy (Vic.), in Australia. It briefly analyses some developments which were occurring within Australian Society, such as the fear of Communism in those years; the policies of assimilation, integration and multiculturalism that concerned both civil society and the churches over the last fifty years; the geographical and cultural isolation of Australia; and the control exercised by Irish clergy over internal matters and development of the Church in Australia. In the concluding sections it highlights some specific features of the organization.

La Federazione Cattolica Italiana (FCI) è un’organizzazione di laici cattolici, con un proprio statuto, approvato dalla Conferenza dei vescovi australiani e sostenuta dai Padri Scalabriniani. L’articolo non esamina le sue vicende, i suoi meriti e gli sviluppi nei suoi primi cinquant’anni di vita. Si analizzano, invece, alcune delle problematiche maggiori che esistevano, nella società civile australiana e nella Chiesa cattolica al tempo della nascita della FCI. Oltre ad offrire alcuni spunti di riflessione sulla realtà sociale dell’Australia, nella parte conclusiva, si mettono in risalto alcune novità che l’organizzazione, fin dai suoi inizi, ha più o meno consapevolmente generato al suo interno, a beneficio dei numerosi emigranti italiani in Australia.