The Mafia

Six years ago, I organised a walking tour for my group in Naples with a local tour guide, as Naples was new to me. She was incredibly knowledgeable and knew a lot of Neapolitans as we walked the tight, colourful streets of the Spanish Quarter, the most characteristic suburb in the historic centre. One of our questions was “Can you tell us about the mafia in Naples?” which caused Sophia to immediately stop in her tracks with a look of warning. “Shhh . . . we don’t say that word out loud. You never know who is watching or listening.”

Now, don’t misinterpret this story. I have always felt safe in Naples and find the people incredibly helpful and friendly. I have loved returning to Naples over the years as there is so much to experience and discover in this city that is raw and gritty and pulsating with energy.

A brief history

The most powerful of the mafia-style organisations are the Camorra from Campania, the Ndrangheta from Calabria and the Cosa Nostra from Sicily.

The term ‘mafia’ is used to represent organised crime around the world, but its origins relate to a single branch of Italian organised crime in Palermo, Sicily, known as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing).

It started in the late 19th century when upheaval in Rome caused by the unification of Italy in 1861 created an environment for criminal gangs to flourish. Changes in land ownership and slack law enforcement gave these criminal gangs an opportunity to offer their own kind of protection. It became a very lucrative business.

In the 1920s Mussolini cracked down on the Sicilian mafia, arresting over 11,000 people and imprisoning more than 12,000. Cosa Nostra wasn’t totally destroyed, but they were certainly crushed, with many fleeing to America.

When the Allies invaded Sicily in 1943, they unwittingly reintroduced the mafia to Sicily. A lot of the infrastructure in Sicily had to be rebuilt after the war and many positions of authority were given to previously imprisoned mafiosi. They gained control of the building contracts and made millions of dollars.

A world shattering event

In the mid eighties Magistrates Falcone and Borsellino began a campaign against the mafia. They arrested key players and used their evidence in what became known as the ‘Maxi Trial’. It lasted almost two years from February 1986 to December 1987. A total of 474 mafiosi went to trial and 340 were convicted.

In May 1992, Magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards were brutally murdered which caused shock waves around the world. The assassination was in retaliation for the mobsters Falcone had put in jail. They were killed on a stretch of road from the airport to the city when a mafia hitman detonated a bomb that had been placed beneath the road. The explosive obliterated the vehicle and caused a crater thirty feet in diameter.

Two months after Giovanni Falcone was killed, his colleague and dearest friend, Paolo Borsellino, also a judge and prosecuting magistrate, was killed as well as his five bodyguards by a car bomb.

A clever initiative

Today, the city is proud to show how the tide is turning against organised crime. The brave and fearless work done by both Falcone and Borsellino resulted in a generation of young Sicilians in Palermo starting a movement in 2005 called ‘Addiopizzo’. Pizzo is Sicilian slang for protection money, so addiopizzo is saying “goodbye protection money”.

Simple ideas are always the best! And it was simple.

Stickers were printed with Addiopizzo which was seen as an anti-mafia slogan saying loud and clear, “we don’t pay protection money”. Shop owners and business owners put the sticker in their windows which looked a little like a “Beware of the dog” sticker. The people of Palermo were encouraged to support these businesses and they did, but the best thing is that the movement grew quickly and the mafia stayed away from any business with a sticker in the window.

The work continues with many ongoing initiatives that include supporting businesses that refuse to pay the extortion money and educational programs within schools to raise awareness about the mafia and create a culture of resistance.

Addiopizzo activists even offer “No-Mafia” tours that showcase Palermo’s anti-mafia spirit and the efforts of those resisting the mafia.

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb