5th International Congress on “Science and technology for the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage in the
Mediterranean Basin” (Istanbul 22nd-25th November 2011)
D.3- Museum Systems. Mediterranean civilizations: cultural relationships and their fruition for
North African migrants in Europe.
ITALIAN MUSEUMS AND CULTURAL MEDITERRANEAN INTEGRATION (IMCMI). NEW DATA AND
DEVELOPMENTS
Lorenza-Ilia Manfredi1;Antonella Mezzolani2;Fiammetta Susanna3
1
Istituto di Studi sulle civiltà Italiche e del Mediterraneo Antico (ISCIMA)-CNR, Rome, Italy, e-mail
lorenza.manfredi@iscima.cnr.it; 2 PHD in African antiquities -Pesaro, Italy, e-mail antonella.mezzolani@poste.it ;
3
Specialized in Phoenico- Punic Archaeology - Roma, Italy, e-mail fiammetta_s@libero.it ;
The recent democratic revolution that has upset the Maghreb and the resulting migration flows that
have invested Italy, make the North African problem particularly relevant and crucial for Europe.
Moreover, intercultural dialogue has long been of interest to the European Community, which
promotes projects to encourage integration, for instance, the one regarding Cultural Routes
proposed by the European Council.
In this context, the IMCMI project, presented in 2009 at the 4th International Congress on "Science
and Technology for the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage in the Mediterranean Basin" is in line with
European directives and important because of Italy's strategic role in the management of regular
and irregular migration flows in the Mediterranean Basin. It has been observed that during certain
periods of the year, these flows have an almost daily arrival rate. Moreover, the phenomenon is on
the increase, as the data on landings in 2011 illustrates: from the beginning of the year, almost 8
thousand new arrivals have been counted, which was also the final total reached at the end of
2010.
It is interesting to analyze the trend for population growth. The most indicative data seems to be the
increase of North African students in European schools, in Italian State schools in particular, and
their incidence compared to other foreign students and on the total number.
Analyzing the time span from 2004-2010, we can see that the growth trend remains constant: the
incidence of foreign students compared to the Italians has almost doubled in percentage from 3.50%
to 7.00%.
In particular, starting from nursery school to secondary school (II), the data shows that the
percentage rises with the age of the students, in other words, the number of foreign students
attending secondary schools (II) has undergone the largest increase. Focusing specifically on the
analysis of Maghrebian schools in the year 2009/2010, it is evident that more than 20% of foreign
students come from the geographical area under review in this study.
It follows that:
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Foreign citizens who experience the greatest social problems and who have difficulty
integrating with the citizens of the host country are those who, compared to the past year,
increase in percentage at a faster rate;
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The highest number of foreign students that have to repeat the scholastic year occurs at level
II of secondary school, with peaks of above 80%, so a worsening of the current situation can
be expected if innovative approaches to integration are not introduced;
The percentage of North African students, already quite significant, is expected to increase
as a result of the recent so-called "democratic uprising".
Analyzing the same period 2004-2010, a significant fact can be enucleated through the analysis of
the university trend. There is an increase of about 50% regarding the incidence of North African
students compared with the total number of foreigners and even 100% of the total number of
students enrolled in Italian universities. In 2004, the incidence of Maghrebian students on the total
number of foreign students was 2.06%, and 0.09% on the Italian ones; in 2010 this number
increased with 2360 Maghrebians enrolled; i.e., an incidence of 3.02% in the first case and of 0.22
in the second.
It follows that:
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Maghreb residents in Italy are 562,726 and the incidence of the university students is only
0.42%, a very low percentage, indicating a poor cultural level or a different career choice as
opposed to the trend among Italian students. This value shows the distance between cultures
which also denotes a lack of integration, emphasizing the necessity for an immediate change
in their relationship;
In 2010, 2360 men and women from North and sub-Saharan Africa enrolled at Italian
universities, people who certainly had no difficulties in terms of integration, taking, on their
arrival in Italy, a cultural journey which was the password into the host country.
This data clearly underlines the need to intervene with a different type of integration, capable of
favouring a meeting point between migrants and cultures of origin, through the testimonies of the
ancient North African civilizations kept in the Italian public and private collections. Moreover, this
offers us an excellent opportunity to experiment new strategies for the valorization and fruition of
this particular archaeological heritage.
For this reason, the IMCMI project is divided into three different levels of research, already
highlighted in 2009, which are able to offer innovative tools for integration and the development
of multicultural programs.
1st LEVEL
As already highlighted in 2009, a study period is necessary for this project as is research of common
roots that have always bound the peoples of the Mediterranean, with particular attention to the
Phoenician civilization which, long before the Romans, made cultural and economic koine from the
Near East to the Far West of great historical importance that have especially affected the Maghreb.
The imperialist action of Carthage to the West produced a strong African imprint from the ethnic
point of view, with a territorial model of occupation that sees the North African populations
involved in the colonization of the conquered regions. Europe's interest for this pre-Roman
civilization increased considerably in 1800 thanks to colonial policies, and the result was the
creation of important art collections .
The archaeologist A.Mezzolani, involved in the realization of the IMCMI project, presents the first
results of research concerning the collections and the figure of travellers, from ancient to modern
times, evidence of the interest in cultural diversity and useful for the creation of intercultural
workshops.
2nd LEVEL
The collected evidence and the analysis of the problems related to pre-Roman cultures in Maghreb,
become a decisive vehicle of multicultural programs that, adequately prepared, could be offered
to end-users: the migrants, with particular attention to children, teens and adolescents. For this
reason, F. Susanna, archaeologist and peer educator for the IMCMI project, has designed and
implemented the activities aimed at the enhancement and enjoyment of the North Africa cultural
heritage by focusing on second generation migrants. The aim is to prepare training modules and
set up appropriate intercultural routes, flanked by recreational activities, including specifically,
games and theater performances whose themes are the result of scientific research in progress on
Ancient Mediterranean History.
3rd LEVEL
The results of the two levels of research mentioned above are part of the planning, delivery of
services and IT applications that will ensure growth and enrichment of the key project on a web
portal, a specific social network, dedicated to a defined community which shares the precise interest
in the study of the origins and history of North African peoples, and a portal for interactive distance
learning through the use of a technology platform (Learning Management System LMS).
1st LEVEL> Study of antique collecting and of the figure of the traveller from ancient to
modern times (A. Mezzolani).
Following the first level of the project, looking for common roots, one immediately encounters what
is closer to us, looking at the figures of the Italian traveller in North Africa in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, retracing the route with their eyes, and following their emotions in the
encounter with the Punic monuments. This gives us significant evidence of interest in cultural
diversity and a starting point for intercultural workshops.
The Mediterranean, since ancient times, the centre of a network and of encounters among peoples
of different customs, language, religion, furrowed by fast ships that drew routes between East and
West and North and South, became, in modern times, the background for training trips (The Grand
Tour) and education, undertaken by young Europeans of high rank. Interest in North Africa fits into
this scenario, part of the mythical Far East which is the key to a mental process of construction,
acknowledgement and understanding of "the Other" and the ancient traces hidden within it. In
this framework, particular Italian figures emerge, who have encountered, for different and varied
reasons, the Roman antiquities of the Maghreb, but their spirit of curiosity and desire for knowledge
have been able to valorize even the pre-Roman cultures.
It is interesting to draw attention to the ruins and artifacts in this documentation, intercalated with
news about local customs, on the relations with other Europeans in the Maghreb or with researchers
interviewed in order to obtain further information on objects and monuments seen in the same land:
a broad perspective, which makes the ancient antiquities part of an overall framework, in which
history, archeology, ethnography, and environment participate so as to gain understanding of a
different world.
Among the characters who left Italy for North Africa, we remember, firstly, Luigi Melchiorre
Balugani (Bologna 1737 – Gondar 1771), architect of the Academy Clementina of Fine Arts in
Bologna. The young Balugani was called to Rome in 1765, to follow the Consul of the United
Kingdom in Algiers, Lord James Bruce of Kinnaird, on a journey from Algiers to the Near East,
with the aim of portraying classical antiquities (Fig. 1). In fact, after a first trip along the shores of
the Mediterranean, which brought Lord Bruce and Luigi Balugani up to Palmyra and Baalbec, the
English nobleman planned a second trip that would cross Abyssinia to search for the springs of the
Blue Nile: during this journey, L. Balugan, at the beginning of 1771, met his death in Gondar, the
capital of Abyssinia, perhaps due to dysentery, or perhaps by a violent death, as some ambiguities
of Lord Bruce regarding the merits of the enterprise and the attribution of the botanical drawings
would suggest.
Luigi Balugani, therefore, arrived in Algiers on the 20th March 1765 as a secretary, to help the
English nobleman in the composition of the drawings with the use of the dark room, but also in the
daily recording of events and courses. Although Lord Bruce always minimized Luigi Balugani's
contribution, taking all the merit himself for the illustrations produced in the course of his travels,
the most recent critical studies attributed most of the drawings kept in the Windsor Royal Library to
L. Balugani, two portfolios of antiquities of Africa in Moroccan red, entitled “The antiquities of
Africa collected in several Journeys (sic!) through the two Mauritaniae Africa proper Numidia
Gaetulia and Lybia”, donated to King George III.
Among the various works regarding the monuments of Algeria and Tunisia, the representation of
the circular mausoleum Medracen, near Constantine is of particular interest: the facsimile of the
original published by R. L. Playfair (Travels in the footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis) in 1877,
the caption notes , even if in a minor role defined by the parenthesis, L. Balugani (Fig. 2). Equally
interesting is the simple pencil drawing of the Punic mausoleum of Dougga, attributed only to Lord
Bruce, who retains the image of the monument before the destruction carried out by Sir Thomas
Reade, the British consul in Tunis, in order to extract the Punic inscription now preserved in the
British Museum.
In Dougga we find the 'footprints' of another Italian traveller, who undertook, in a more or less
amateurish way, research on antiquities in Tunisia, Count Camillo Borgia (Fig. 4): born in Velletri
in 1774, from a family which was particularly concerned about antiquities, where the figure of his
uncle, Cardinal Stefano Borgia, stood out. He dedicated himself to a military career, but then the
fall of Joachin Napoleon Murat, in whose army he served as general, made him retire into exile in
Tunisia from 1815 to 1816. Here, Camillo Borgia rediscovered his love for antiquities and obtained,
by way of exception, permission to travel within the regency from the Bey of Tunis and to make
excavations in Utica. Among the numerous drawings and completed notes drawn up by the Count in
the course of his explorations, preserved in the archives of the Musée Royal des Antiquités of
Leiden, there are, for example, the Punic mausoleum of Dougga, with a final report of the voyage,
observations of architectural nature and a series of watercolor paintings of the east façade (Fig. 5),
of the internal plan of rooms and of the inscription (Fig. 6), or of the mausoleum of Djaouf Hench,
in the Zaghouan region, clearly recognizable as a product of Punic architecture, for which Borgia
provides a description and a drawing (Fig.7).
Interest in the North African Punic Culture by Italian travellers is not just limited to travel reports,
but also to creating a network among the leading experts of Phoenician and Punic culture, giving
rise to correspondence that ideally binds North Africa to Italy, Sardinia in particular, as was the
case for Lazare Costa, Italian antiquarian resident in Constantine, who discovered the shrine of ElHofra, and owner of several Punic stelae found there, who was in contact not only with the Cabinet
of Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum in Paris, but also with Canon Giovanni Spano, a fine
connoisseur of Phoenician and Punic culture in Sardinia. Our countryman sent him the cast and
copy of Punic inscriptions.
If, until now, we have only spoken about Italians on the road among ancient Punic North African
antiquities, the figure of the Canon Giovanni Spano offers us the opportunity to present some Italian
collections of Punic material from North Africa.
The reference to Canon Spano is justified by the presence of a series of Punic Carthaginians
inscriptions, donated to him by the Rev. Nathan Davis, amateur archaeologist, who had the
opportunity to dig in Carthage (Fig. 8). The two men were bound by a bond of friendship, as Davis
pointed out in his work: “Carthage and her Remains” of 1861.
The presence of three Punic stelae in the Pepoli Museum of Trapani is due to the trade in
antiquities: the votive inscriptions, probably from the tophet of Carthage, bought by Joseph Polizzi
in October 1884 and August 1876 for the Biblioteca Fardelliana in Trapani, passing later to the
Pepoli Museum. In the same building, a cast inscription (CIS 166) was also recently recovered,
found in Carthage in 1872: the stele was fallen upon by the Vice-Consul of Italy, Angley, and three
plaster casts of it were made, stored at Paris, Trapani and Torino while the original disappeared.
Even more eloquent for its theme of travel and relations with the European collections of North
Africa, is the story of the Punic stelae in the Venturini Museum of Massa Lombarda. Carlo
Venturini, native of Massa Lombarda, doctor and active collector, was able to complete his
heterogeneous collection of five Punic stelae. He was Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Tunis in
Ancona in 1859, and kept this position until 1881. Such was his success in this position that he was
awarded the title of Commander of the Order Nichane al-Iftikhar (Fig.) and nominated
representative of the sovereign of Tunis in the Republic of San Marino. The diplomatic role played
by Venturini allowed him to make frequent trips to Tunis, where he could forge bonds of friendship
with Italians living there. They, in turn, to show their appreciation to him, donated items for his
archaeological collections, such as Punic stelae from Carthage sent to him by the Commander
Falca, general manager of the royal Italian post office in Tunis, by the Cavaliere Disegni and by the
Commander Conversano.
Full understanding was, for Venturini, an important goal, so much so that he addressed Francesco
Elena, recognized expert in the Phoenician and Punic culture in Sardinia, several times, to obtain
precise information on the Carthaginian inscriptions: once again we have confirmation of the circuit
which seems to link Italian collecting with Punic North Africa; through the mediation and the
involvement of Sardinian scholars, who, during that historical period, as well as colleagues from
Sicily like Salinas, had particular knowledge and expertise regarding the Phoenician and Punic
culture.
2nd LEVEL> Design and development of educational and recreational activities, aimed at the
valorization and fruition of cultural heritage of North Africa (F.Susanna).
Among the different design lines outlined above, special attention is given to school-age children
and the second generation migrants in general, through special didactic modules and the installation
of appropriate intercultural routes complemented by recreational activities. This idea seems to be
innovative to us, because for the first time we can present what history has taught us about
integration and intercultural respect in an entertaining and artistic way, as Marcus Tullius Cicero
says, De Oratore , (55 BC) "History is the witness of the times, the light of truth, the memory of
life, the teacher of life, messenger of antiquity”.
Play has a privileged function in the social integration process: it's a magical world with its rules of
space and time and its code of behaviour. Being together, each with his own individuality is a talent
you acquire during childhood, when children start to get to know each other through play.
These fun activities are a valid help for socialization and personality development, because they
facilitate the integration of knowledge, skills and abilities, plus they:
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Stimulate the child to learn, awakening interest and the taste for learning rooted in reality.
Facilitate the introduction of new codes of communication and actions, often neglected by
mainstream culture, which even children can relate to by different ways of communication
and different languages.
They help to openly communicate, to make demands, to make decisions, to help their
friends, to cooperate but also to obtain cooperation.
They promote a greater tolerance for others' opinions and values.
allow one to abandon those defenses that often prevent more spontaneous and natural
relationships.
Reduce feelings of fear and insecurity and facilitate group cohesion.
The idea is to present an interactive game for children between 8-12 years, to be held over several
days in a spacious and equipped place, which will revolve around two key moments:
the reflective and learning one, during which children will learn some background on the
civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean, about their culture and relationships that govern them,
with no mention of cultural influences that have occurred on a cultural level (mainly as a result of
colonialism); and a truly playful moment, during which historical knowledge learned, becomes the
functional rules of the game itself.
In the first phase of the game, an educational testing laboratory can also be combined, during which
the children could materially exchange handmade goods, to be used in the second phase.
Once the children have been divided into groups and made their identity known, through a draw
with one of the peoples of the Ancient Mediterranean (ex.: Eastern Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, etc..) while they are playing, they must demonstrate that they have
understood their learned notions through this new identity of belonging.
With a ship they must sail to the harbors of foreign cities, where children simulate the activities of a
crew, to get in tune with their classmates. The artifacts, made by themselves during the workshops,
"packed" in their ships, will be use for trade once they arrive in the foreign harbors. The trades will
be settled by a moneychanger (an educator) who will give them games, quizzes and ability contests,
to test the knowledge gained.
Who can exchange all his goods and bring goods home from the ports touched wins a prize. The
goal is to stimulate children's curiosity about ancient Mediterranean civilizations, and bring them
closer to the idea of great cultural koine, that has characterized the places where they themselves
live and which, for most people now, the memory is lost. In addition, the same kids, friends or
second generation foreigners can also function as mediators in the same cultural environment in
which they live, at school or among their friends and thus, even within the family.
For the realization of this project, institutions that can adequately accommodate the children and
ensure the realization of the project in maximum security have been contacted. The Museums of the
University “La Sapienza of Rome, with the foundation of “gli amici del Pigorini” of Rome are
involved in the realization of the project, and offer classrooms for the workshop and for the game,
schedule schools contacts in the province of Rome and find participants.
The director of the Museum of Sea and Ancient Navigation of Santa Marinella has also expressed
interest in the game. However, the project is still being launched and it is hoped that from these
initial contacts the project will be further emphasized , through the public announcements of the
province and of the regional council.
On this basis, the hope is to have a sounding board on a national level and to enlarge the project
with the inclusion of new ideas such as staging of short theatrical works or films, related to the
theme of integration, made comprehensible through a language closer to that of young people and
spread via means compatible with those used by their generation.
3rd Level>Planning and realization of services and IT applications (L. I. Manfredi)
The vector, which will make the new approach operational, proposed by the IMCMI project, is the
Internet network. Again, the data on the use of the Internet in the Maghreb as recorded in the last
report published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), has shown that the African
average growth rate of Internet use is 9.6 %, which is significantly lower than that of developing
countries, which on average reaches 21% and makes Africa the continent with the lowest utilization
rate of the network around the world.
The rate is, however, increasing exponentially, especially in the Maghreb: Tunisia connections,
quintuplicated in 5 years, was ranked 39th in the world rankings compiled by the International
Monetary Fund on the Nri basis (networked easiness index), by the index of capacity utilization of
the network, and Morocco is the African country with the highest percentage of Internet browsers.
The incidence of the Maghrebian internet users, as African data shows, is 18.5%, and should not be
neglected because in the African continent there are new super-economy (Barhein, Dubai, etc. ..).
It is interesting to note how the data is discontinuous when analyzed sectorially; we go from a
trivial penetration rate, the Libyan 5,40%, to much more consistent data like the Moroccan 41,30%.
However, the exponential growth rate of the phenomenon is evident if we consider that the socalled "Libyan democratic revolution" of 2011 used internet as its principle means of
communication with the rest of the world.
This data underlines how vital the availability of an online cultural message can be and the relative
services this project proposes.
The information makes the importance of a multilingual publication stand out, on a portal which
deals with news, events, the birth of new pages and virtual initiatives, announcements regarding
new museum collections, information referring to web programme schedules, TV etc.. The most
important info, for those who don't use internet frequently, could be sent via mobile phone text
messages (multilingual) in real time.
Another interesting point concerns the percentage of Maghrebian social network users; looking at
the most famous one, Facebook, the Internet usage statistics for Africa has written a report,
according to which over 8 million profiles belong to Maghrebian users. This means that out of 100
Africans who sign up, 28 are Maghrebian, but above all, out of 100 Maghrebian internauts 40 have
signed up on Facebook. The creation of a specific social network dedicated to a particular
community, so as to share the common interest of studying the origins of the history of north
African peoples in a public space and a series of 'private' activities, with a controlled method of
registration, in which only people who are really interested (directly or indirectly) are admitted,
would offer an organized meeting point just like the large existing social networks, but focus on a
single subject, for sharing information, launching proposals, organization and publication of events.
Furthermore, a social network created on the basis of sound historical and cultural knowledge
regarding the Maghrebian peoples, and produced with highly technological instruments would
allow users, cultural mediators and the institutions to become, through cognitive processes of
historical roots, experts in points of contact and the differences between cultures, facilitating and
increasing the integration process of Maghrebian citizens in the host country.
Finally, the increasing number of immigrants forces us to reflect on how to facilitate relations
between foreign citizens who have immigrated to Italy and the Italians who, for various reasons, are
in daily contact with them. For this reason, it would be useful to create a site for interactive
distance learning via a technological platform (Learning Management System or LMS). One or
more learning courses (multilingual) could be created which would allow the user to follow a
specific learning path regarding the cultural origins of north African populations.
Conclusion: The IMCMI project stands out because of the involvement of both the migrant citizen
and the mediator. Through cultural enrichment, they can live an active and cognitive relationship,
and become the inventor and promoter of new opportunities aimed at improving services in order to
cater for specific needs.