A young man from Gambia was peacefully talking on a street corner with friends from his native Gambia when a mafioso-type jerk from the neighborhood came up to them and started insulting them. Usually, the immigrants will turn and run. But Yusupha Susso, a 21-year-old Gambian stuck up for himself and for his friends. Because he would not back down in the face of his bullying, the thug went and got the local chief of jerks, Emanuele Rubino, 28, with a long criminal record. Street cameras caught video of him walking up to the group of Africans in Via Fiume, on a corner of Via Maqueda, with a gun in his hand. A fight ensued, four shots were fired, one hit Yusupha Susso in the head. Because his friends testified against the mafioso, cops were able to arrest Rubino and charge him with attempted. Meanwhile, doctors put Susso into a medical coma. He has since emerged from the coma. The people of Ballaro` protested the violence and Mayor Leoluca Orlando joined them, saying that Ballaro`, the Palermo home of many African and Asian immigrants, is the future of their city. The police say racism had no part in the crime, just the same old mafia crude moves showing "ownership" of a piece of the neighborhood, like dogs marking their territory.
THen a friend of Susso's wrote about him on a Facebook page.La notizia ha presto il giro del Web. Un amico palermitano, Sergio Petrona Baviera, scrive su Facebook:
Yusupha was born in The Gambia in 1995 and came to Italy with enormous bravery after having crossed the desert to north Africa and affter having worked for a time in Libya. In his yung life he has already been a construction worker, a miner, a cook, a carpenter. He is a singer. Yes, he is a great singer. Here at Palermo after he finished middle school he chose to attend the hoteliers trade school/high school. When he lived in The Gambia and then in Mali he was already possessed of an exceptional culture, the kind you do not learn in schools. My friend is a jali, a nomadic singer. His family travels around western Afric playing the kora and singing. This young man knows all the traditional songs of the mandinka and bambara languages. But when we met he told me he was happy to be in Italy. He is happy because he said he can finally go to school and study. And he loves to study. Despite the fact that he already works with the court system as a cultural mediator because of the five languages he speaks, he still wants to study. Every time we are together, we study. It is he who never gets tired but he forgives me when I am tired and he tells me that the next time we will study something else. Not mathematics because he knows that I am not good at it. When I am too tired we talk about Africa, he tells me he will take me to The Gambia or maybe we talk about music , and he tells me about Toumani Diabate, who maybe is related to him. Here at Palermo not many people have the kora. But last week I met a guy who plays that instrument and we agreed he would come with a drummer and they would jam. As a matter of fact, indeed they will."
Yusupha has awoken from his coma. He says he remembers everything. He spoke to police for an hour from his hospital bed. Last Saturday afternoon he and some friends had to Ghanaian barbershop and were just standing around talking when this guy they did not know came up to them, started shouting insults and pushed one of his friends. Then the fight, then being shot at by a guy who hid behind a potted plant. The doctors do not want to say Yusupha is out of danger, but he has omproved remarkably in the last 24 hours, according to a report in La Repubblica.
THen a friend of Susso's wrote about him on a Facebook page.La notizia ha presto il giro del Web. Un amico palermitano, Sergio Petrona Baviera, scrive su Facebook:
Yusupha was born in The Gambia in 1995 and came to Italy with enormous bravery after having crossed the desert to north Africa and affter having worked for a time in Libya. In his yung life he has already been a construction worker, a miner, a cook, a carpenter. He is a singer. Yes, he is a great singer. Here at Palermo after he finished middle school he chose to attend the hoteliers trade school/high school. When he lived in The Gambia and then in Mali he was already possessed of an exceptional culture, the kind you do not learn in schools. My friend is a jali, a nomadic singer. His family travels around western Afric playing the kora and singing. This young man knows all the traditional songs of the mandinka and bambara languages. But when we met he told me he was happy to be in Italy. He is happy because he said he can finally go to school and study. And he loves to study. Despite the fact that he already works with the court system as a cultural mediator because of the five languages he speaks, he still wants to study. Every time we are together, we study. It is he who never gets tired but he forgives me when I am tired and he tells me that the next time we will study something else. Not mathematics because he knows that I am not good at it. When I am too tired we talk about Africa, he tells me he will take me to The Gambia or maybe we talk about music , and he tells me about Toumani Diabate, who maybe is related to him. Here at Palermo not many people have the kora. But last week I met a guy who plays that instrument and we agreed he would come with a drummer and they would jam. As a matter of fact, indeed they will."
Yusupha has awoken from his coma. He says he remembers everything. He spoke to police for an hour from his hospital bed. Last Saturday afternoon he and some friends had to Ghanaian barbershop and were just standing around talking when this guy they did not know came up to them, started shouting insults and pushed one of his friends. Then the fight, then being shot at by a guy who hid behind a potted plant. The doctors do not want to say Yusupha is out of danger, but he has omproved remarkably in the last 24 hours, according to a report in La Repubblica.