Open ‘Hearing’ in a Closed Sea

Abstract

In the early 2000s migration towards Italy, both as a destination and transit country, was on the rise and gained increasing importance on the political agenda. In this context, enhanced security measures of border control in the Mediterranean became a priority. Meanwhile, new forms of postcolonial resistance have emerged as Italy has been compelled to face its long-standing colonial amnesia. The 2012 documentary film Mare Chiuso (Closed Sea) captures a slice of the entangled discourses, politics and practices in the Mediterranean. It recounts the story of boat migrants who set off from Libya in May 2009 and were forced back to their point of departure by Italian authorities. Engaging with the testimonies of the migrants involved, as well as with the legal discourses surrounding the case, Mare Chiuso brings to the fore the emerging contradictions at play in dominant discursive practices. The film offers alternative perspectives from the margins, problematizes official narratives and instigates fruitful debates on the Mediterranean as a geopolitical and cultural site. Traversing postcolonial and cultural studies, political science and law, this essay proposes an analysis of Mare Chiuso as an instance of postcolonial resistance. Independent and separate disciplinary approaches have failed successfully to map and investigate complex phenomena such as migration; thus, this essay brings into contact cultural theory and legal discourses with the aim of better understanding the burgeoning postcolonial phenomena in contemporary Italy.

• borders
• counter-narrative
• discourse
• mediterranean
• migration
• postcolonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 ‘Push back’ is a patrolling practice whereby boat migrants are interdicted in the central Mediterranean Sea and forced back to the point of departure in North Africa.

2 Our translation from the official document of the treaty.

3 Our translation from the official document of the treaty.

4 The apology to Libya is Italy's only acknowledgement of its colonial past; no other apologies have been made to its other former colonies. This colonial amnesia still profoundly affects contemporary politics in Italy. It is telling that an influential political figure such as Berlusconi only recently claimed that ‘Mussolini's biggest fault was the racial laws (against Jewish people). In many other things he did well’ (Repubblica, 27 January 2013).

5 The migrants who appealed to the ECHR were no longer twenty-four because, ‘according to the information submitted to the Court by the applicants’ representatives, two of the applicants, Mr Mohamed Abukar Mohamed and Mr Hasan Shariff Abbirahman (nos. 10 and 11 respectively on the list appended to the judgment), died in unknown circumstances after the events in question’ (Case of Hirsi 2012, 4).

6 This extreme act echoes the thousands voluntary deaths at sea of Africans forcefully traded across the Atlantic during the slave trade.

7 The changes that swept across North Africa in 2011 marked a significant break in the migration patterns both within North Africa and between North Africa and the EU. The UNHCR defined 2011 as the deadliest year in the Mediterranean, which turned out to be a sort of postmodern cemetery. In the deadliest year many African migrants could not reach Italian shores alive, often not due to weather conditions or shipwrecks.

8 In the case of what is now referred to as the “left-to-die boat”, seventy-two emigrants fleeing Tripoli by boat on 27 March 2011 were left to drift for fourteen days, without water or food, until they reached Libya again – sixty three of them died. Migrants’ distress calls went unanswered for days, despite the significant naval and aerial presence in the area due to the military intervention in Libya; Italy received their S.O.S. calls. A nine-month investigation by the Council of Europe has brought to light human and institutional performances that condemned the boat's occupants to their deadly fate.

9 ZaLab's counter-discourse strategies are reinforced and enhanced by its alternative approach to the distribution and exhibition of Mare Chiuso, as well as many others of its visual works. The film was screened in non-mainstream venues across the peninsula and the rest of Europe and distributed via its website only, removed from larger global distribution channels.