Africo (
Calabrian: ; ) is a ''
comune
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
'' in the
province of Reggio Calabria
The province of Reggio Calabria () was a province in the Calabria region of Italy. It was the southernmost province in mainland Italy and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. The capital was the city of Reggio.
It w ...
, in the Southern Italian region of
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
located from
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...
.
Africo consists of two main centers. The first, Africo Vecchio (Old Africo), is located some in the mainland at the feet of the
Aspromonte
The Aspromonte is a mountain massif in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria (Calabria, southern Italy). In Italian aspro means "rough" whereas in Greek it means "white" (wikt:άσπρος, Άσπρος), therefore the name literally translat ...
. The old town was destroyed by disastrous floods and landslides in October 1951 and abandoned. The second, Africo Nuovo (New Africo), was reconstructed around away, on the
Ionian coast near
Bianco. The remnants of the old town are situated in the
Aspromonte National Park.
[Ricerche Storiche]
Africo.net (''Retrieved January 17, 2010'')
History
The origin of the name is unclear. According to some scholars, the name may have derived from the Latin name ' (airy and sunny) which is from the Greek '. Others believe it comes from the Latin ''africus'' (''ventus''), winds from Africa.
[ Άφρικο (Aphriko) in Greek means deriving from Africa, possibly meaning the South-Westernly wind coming to the region from the ]Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert (not to be confused with the Libyan Sahara) is a geographical region filling the northeastern Sahara Desert, from eastern Libya to the Western Desert (Egypt), Western Desert of Egypt and far northwestern Sudan. On medieval m ...
. The village of Africo was inhabitted by Griko people
The Griko people (), also known as Grecanici in Calabria, are an ethnic Greek community of Southern Italy. They are found principally in the regions of Calabria and Apulia (peninsula of Salento). The Griko are believed to be remnants of the once ...
, known as Grecanici in Calabria. The Grecanici are a Greek ethnic and linguistic minority in the Calabria region of Italy, remnants of a population that has resided there since late antiquity. The Grecanic language was lost in Africo during the late 19th century and was replaced by Calabrian.
In 1571 Gabriele Barrio writes that in Africo the Sacred Rites were celebrated in Greek and that the population also used Greek in family relationships, together with Italo-Romance languages. At the end of the 18th century, the Greek Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Chri ...
was still observed there. In the 19th century the inhabitants of Africo abandoned the Greek Rite as well as the Greek language. The dialect of Africo is of the neo-Latin type, but with several words of Greek origin: for example the name of the stream Aposcipo derives from the Greek Απόσχεπος (Apòskepos = "not protected"). However, Africo is not currently part of the Grecanic speaking area. Its inhabitants are called Africesi or Africoti.
Africo Vecchio
The old centre was founded around the 9th century by inhabitants from Delia or Deri. In 1195 the town became a fief
A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...
of the Archbishop of Reggio Calabria granted by the king of Sicily
The monarchs of Sicily ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130 until the "perfect fusion" in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816.
The origins of the Sicilian monarchy lie in the Norman conquest of southern Italy which oc ...
, Henry VI. It remained so until the end of feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
in Calabria in 1806.[
An earthquake in 1783, partially destroyed the town, killing six people. Earthquakes in 1905 and 1908 again hit the town.][
Africo has become the symbol of hunger, floods, wandering and the dispersion of the inhabitants of inland Calabria. In 1931 the Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro described a famine which had afflicted Africo. In 1946, Umberto Zanotti Bianco published a book on the people of Africo, ''Tra la perduta gente'' (Amongst the lost peoples) describing the dire conditions and hunger.][ At the time the village could only be reached by a 6/7 hour ride on a mule.][Africo, emblema della disperazione]
by Tommaso Besozzi, L’Europeo Nr. 12, March 1948
In 1948 the journalist Tommaso Besozzi and photographer Tino Petrelli
Valentino Petrelli (August 6, 1922 – September 8, 2001), better known as Tino, was an Italian photographer, well known for his documentary photography. He covered Italy under fascist rule, the war and reconstruction, as well as the economic boo ...
published a report in the magazine L’Europeo, showing the misery and hunger of the people of Africo.[Africo 1948, fra la perduta gente]
Biblioteca Pubblica Davoli, 10 February 2023 The article, entitled ''Africo, symbol of disparity'', and the series of documentary photographs produced an outrage from national public opinion which, at the time, was rediscovering the dramatic situation of the " southern question". The inhabitants of Africo left their village from 1949 onwards and moved to new houses built along the Ionian coast, to New Africo.[''Food and Fatness in Calabria'', by Vito Teti, in]
Social Aspects of Obesity
edited by I. de Garine and Nancy J. Pollock, Routledge, 1995,
Africo Nuovo
On October 15–18, 1951, floods and landslides destroyed the old Africo and the nearby hamlet Casalinuovo. People were evacuated to Bova Marina, Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...
and Fiumara di Muro. Africo Nuovo has been constructed around away from the old town, on the Ionian coast, near Bianco.[
The town is home to the ]'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...
, a Mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...
-type criminal organisation based in Calabria. Several of the criminal clans are sometimes involved in bloody feuds.[Africa Nuovo Journal: On the Toe Of Italy, the Shotgun Settles Old Scores]
The New York Times, May 5, 1987
Economy
In Africo Vecchio (Old Africo), the economy of the village was mainly sheep farming, also practiced was the breeding of silkworms, reflecting the Greek origin of the village. In Africo Nuovo (New Africo), the economy is based on agriculture and greenhouses for the cultivation of fruits, the production of cement, and forestry. Tourism is, to date, poorly exploited even though it has enormous potential.[
]
Demographic evolution
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Notable people
* Giuseppe Morabito (born 1934), a notorious 'Ndrangheta boss
* Rocco Morabito (born 1966), a notorious Italian mobster and the boss of 'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...
in Africo
References
External links
Africo, Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy
- Civil Records 1866 to 1910.
Nella tana del brigante Musolino in mezzo ai picchi dell’Aspromonte
by Paolo Rumiz, La Repubblica / L'Espresso, August 6, 2011
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Calabria
Articles which contain graphical timelines