The Recovery of the Historical Memory is in the interest not only of the South but of Italy as a whole. In this context, we can understand the roots of the problems that afflict Italy as a nation and not just the South. Because those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Only this can lead to a national reconciliation that requires the abandonment of the “historical amnesia” by many, and by calling things with their own names: racism, apartheid, and organized theft against the South.
Reaching out back to the actual history of Italy as a national entity is not a sterile exercise for the following reasons:
- Grasp the truth about how Italy was created and the endemic problems that afflicted the nation since its inception.
- Understand the tears and blood it costed to the people living in the South, at the hands of an invasion army descended from the northern state of Piedmont.
- Understand how the stage was set for a bloody civil war that lasted about 10 years (1860-1870), for mass emigration by the millions from the South, many directed to the US, and for policies and behaviors based on racism, and apartheid that in different forms still exist today.
- The truth will set people free. Only then a process of reconciliation between norht and south can take place.
Truth and reconciliation are the way. But reconciliation can only happen if all the honest Italians are willing to embrace their actual history without embellishments and take responsibility in the name of a truly unified nation.
See Truth and Reconciliation (South Africa). See also the related Facebook group Our Italian Roots, inspired by the Movimento 24 Agosto Equita’ Territoriale (territorial equity) which is a grass-roots movement born in Southern Italy in 2019.
