Published in La Repubblica   Q CODE MAG   

                  Corridor Elephant

 

        The runway of a military airfield, disused after the Second World War, has become, for over ten years, and especially in summer, the site of a shanty town hosting hundreds of farm laborers. Borgo Mezzanone runway is an oxymoron, a non place populated by hundreds of African immigrants looking for work in the fields of the Tavoliere of Puglia.

I visited the slum of Borgo Mezzanone led by N., a young Chadian, who introduced me to a reality hard to imagine in Italy, 15 km from Foggia and 100 from Bari.

March is sowing time, the ghetto is under redevelopment, there are many shacks being built with all kinds of materials: doors, doors of cabinets, boxes, panels and banners. My journey continues in the lives of immigrants employed in the South of Italy and campaigns that it is only a small step. Runway Borgo Mezzanone is a surreal country, here  nearly nothing is missing but the dignity of workers.

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