Being an Afro-descendant woman, the path of Sabrina Onana

Class of ’98, Sabrina Onana was born in Naplescity in which she lived until the age of 16, when she moved to France where, initially, he joined his father, a Cameroonian.

In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower he studied at the Sorbonne and, during the three-year course in Social and Political Sciences, he decided to shoot a documentary, entitled Crossing the color line, to tell the various worlds that inhabit it. Over the years she has since made an update with Crossing the color line – Healing from the past which will soon present in Italy.

Hearing it on the phone, a feeling of belonging emerges that he likes to define as “multiple” due to the many steps he has gone through so far and to the places he has called home over time. These elements are repeated in the stories she collected in her documentary, where she highlights, in particular, the resilience and courage of “Afro-descendant” women and boys.

For the young director, the turning point, and an important watershed, was undoubtedly the arrival at
Paris. “There is a Sabrina before and after Naples” she explains, starting from the anecdotes related to her childhood, and going so far as to express hopes and aspirations. Her path, between sociology, art and video-making, is steeped in strong cultural and emotional roots that make her the person she is today.

What are the most vivid memories?
«I grew up, together with my brother, between VHS and Zecchino d’Oro songs, and watching
Misery and Nobility or Superquark with my grandfather, What’s the weather like with his grandmother, Sicilian, e
You’ve Got Mail with my mother. In the summer we traveled a lot, more in Italy than abroad: Lazio,
Calabria and Sicily. Pieces that may seem insignificant, but it is simplicity itself
of everyday life to shape the character, to constitute our personality, to deliver us a certain type of habits and therefore of disposition and mindset. Once in Paris, I had to find my place in the world, recreating a sense of familiarity and integrating myself into a homeland I did not know ».

What is hidden in this passage?
«It was a kind of laceration, even if I wanted to have new experiences and I don’t regret the choice. In
The moon and the bonfires Cesare Pavese writes that “A country is needed, if only for the sake of
go away ”and that’s what I felt: even now, a piece of me is trapped there, in the streets, in the flavors, in the bonds I have formed, in the schools I have attended. The day I returned to Italy for the first time after the transfer, my eyes were full of tears, my heart was beating fast, the thrill of getting off the plane and hearing the language that has accompanied you since childhood. In Paris, I realized how much I was shaped by the place where I had grown up. Some ways of doing and thinking for me were practically objective, but I suddenly realized that they were quite relative and influenced by my vision of things, by the tastes I had matured. An Italian spirit that reveals itself not only in the accent, but in my overall identity. Thus began a profound metamorphosis and a long period in which I did not see my family. I felt alone, I had to understand local customs, make friends and in the meantime I felt a condition of marginalization ».

Difficulties that have given rise to a change, towards goals and heights that up to that
moment seemed unattainable …
“I’ve had a chance to expand who I am. And while in Italy they frequently asked me where I came from, because of my phenotype, here I look like a passionate nationalist because they notice the strong attachment I have for the beautiful country. In France, Afro-descendants are more numerous, a context in which I managed to make the synthesis of which Hegel spoke in his dialectic, that is, that inner work that allows us to overcome negativity ».

Values ​​at the base of his strong passion, photography.
“For years I was a model, between Italy, France, the United States, England and Germany until I stopped showing myself and preferred to show. At the same time, I realized that I cannot bear the Eurocentric, sexualizing and artificial image of women because it makes them less authentic and in fact excludes those who are Afro-descendant. The intention is, still, to give space to a minority type of beauty, true portraits, very rare in the era of Instagram filters, facelifts and mantras that feed the complexes created by society. Yet it is precisely through the face, the labyrinth of the gods
feelings and receptacle of the soul, which shine through dreams and silent battles… ».

Like those of the documentary …
«Being the daughter of an Italian mother, I have never experienced the paradox linked to the gap between belonging and
legal status. Giving the floor to younger generations was for me a concrete way to highlight the contradictions of controversial laws and the absence of a collective and structured voice,
concerning Afro-descendants, without exploiting them. Listening to
problems such as hyper-sexualization in love affairs, racial prejudices and the stereotype that Afro-descendant women are only inclined to do housework “.

In 2015 the trip to Cameroon and the meeting with the paternal grandmother. What did it mean?
«I have recreated my“ Africanity ”through books, songs, films, and for example I understand better the Lingala language of the Congo just as I prefer the dishes of Senegal. This is why I cannot define myself as an Italian-Cameroonian because it is a heritage with which I came into contact later, however, with great amazement, I found a part of myself. I would like to borrow the words of the writer Leonora Miano: “I live in an interior land. A space without limits. Three languages, the echo of four cultures. I live in multiple ancestors, an individual word, central because it is peripheral. I wear my scars with elegance. I do not claim, I affirm. I’m. I’m not looking for my place. I create it, and I also create yours ».

What, specifically, does an Afro-descendant woman have to face?
«First of all, colorism, a form of internalized racism that pushes us to prefer women
“Lightskin” that is, with a lighter complexion and Caucasian features. Signals that, above all
in adolescence, when one tends to define oneself according to the gaze of others, they undermine
building a positive and dignified identity. Although I don’t like to refer to the condition
Afro-descendant female only looking into negatives. Sometimes we see an “activism
of anger ”, characterized by the constant search for a scapegoat, which nevertheless ends up in
foment hatred, because you are convinced that you are on the right side and that you are morally superior.
I would like to conclude with some lines by Maya Angelou: “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear,
I rise. In a dawn that is wonderfully clear, I get up ».