Mancini is with the children disguised as Osimhen: “But what racism? You are giants”

“Where some see racism, I only marvel.” Roberto Mancini replies to the Nigerian writer Sabrina Efionay, who felt annoyed to see children in black painted Napoli shirts and with the Osimhen mask to praise their favorite who is dragging them towards the Scudetto and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. “Sport is inclusion and you children are giants”, comments the coach in an Instagram story accompanied by a lot of applause emoticons at the photo of five of these kids dressed ‘alla Osimhen’.

Efionay: “There is nothing celebratory about dressing up as Osimhen”

Sabrina Efionay, who a year ago published the book ‘My incredible true story’ which talks about her difficulty of being a Nigerian born and raised in Italy with two mothers, one of whom is a victim of trafficking, had thus stigmatized in a post on social media the episode: “Believe me, it’s not celebratory at all. It really gives goosebumps if you think it’s supportive, funny, a mask or an endorsement for the Nigerian footballer.”

“It’s hard to fight certain stereotypes”

To then explain, in an interview granted to Corriere del Mezzogiorno’, that “while trying to understand this tribute to a very good footballer who is also Nigerian like me, at the same time there is a very fine line between celebrating an idol and make a rather strong gaffe among black people. There is a racist background towards us black people. The issue is linked to blackface, the mask used in the theater as a tease towards Africans, to emphasize somatic aspects by way of speck, such as large lips, or in women the prosperous breasts and very wide hips, like the “mami” of Gone with the Wind. These are all stereotypes that it is still difficult to fight. And I certainly cannot blame the children, but I try anger and annoyance at hearing adults justify things like this, as if the children were the ones to decide”.