‘…Too Much Sun… It’s Not Good For You.’
Being born African with dark skin, I had never, not once, thought that anyone could mistake my skin colour for not being black, until I met a friend’s mother. All her life, this lady had lived in Sicily – the south of Italy. For health reasons, however, she was moved up north to join her daughter.
On arrival at her daughter’s house, I went to say hello. She saw me and gave me a lovely warm motherly hug. But as a parent, she had something to say!
She held both my hands at arm’s length to look at me carefully. She was quite short and a bit overweight, one eye slightly smaller than the other, with hands of a woman who had worked hard for a very long time, yet with a lovely warm smile. Since she was so short, she had to look up to stare me right into the face.
“Ma, hai preso troppo sole!…non ti fa bene,” she said in her very Sicilian (siciliano) accent with a sincere heart,
“You over sunbathed! It’s not good for you.”
I burst into laughter!
Not because it was hilarious! But who wouldn’t appreciate a nicely told joke by an old lady?
Little did I know she was serious. It wasn’t until I saw the honest look of concern on her face that I too became a little more serious.
Wondering though: Seriously? Can’t you tell I’m black?
“Mamma, lei è africana! Quello è il suo colore,” the daughter, who had heard the exchange from the next room, said.
(“Mum, she’s African! That’s her real colour.”)
Followed by my nodding in confirmation of,
“Si, mamma. Sono Africana.” (“Yes, mum, I’m African.”)
She chuckled, ‘aah, with an up-down hand gesture of ‘get lost ’the good way – Italian style. We all laughed, and the conversation moved on to something else.
To this day, I think back at that moment, hear her voice, rest her soul in eternal peace – and question myself.
Did she make an honest mistake?
Didn’t she know of black or dark-skinned people? Had she never, in her life, met or seen an African? A dark-skinned African? A black?!
I had these questions for some time until I visited the South of Italy, when I realised why this old lady might have thought my colour was the result of over-sunbathing.
Puglia, le Maldive del Salento at the “heel” of Italy, and I imagine in other areas of southern Italy too, there are Italians whose skin colour is just a few shades from looking as dark as a black-skinned person, such that from a distance, you could easily make them out for a person of colour.
Location and exposure to the sun make their skin much darker compared to my home location in Northern Italy. This lady must have thought I was one such person.
Black people, supposedly mostly Africans, that are seen in the area, mainly have an olive-black shade of colour.
Plenty of sunshine and plenty of exposure to it.
So, non-mum, I didn’t get overly suntanned; I’m black!
What about you? What experiences have you had as far as the colour of your skin?
