More than positive, fun and great sharing, the Italian stage to tell about Italians in Kenya and that strange syndrome called 'Africa-sickness' in music.
The evening of 23 May at the Andrea Villa theatre in Milan represented one of the many variables that Freddie del Curatolo proposes, both in his country of residence and in his country of origin. To do this, the journalist and writer, who has just won an award at the Turin Book Fair, has been working for more than ten years with musician and friend Marco 'Sbringo' Bigi, now a regular visitor to Malindi and Kenya, despite the fact that (as Freddie himself recalled during the performance) he has never 'contracted' the syndrome that binds so many Italians to the African 'world'.
In the Milan evening, a 'unicum' given Freddie's brief Italian appearance, in addition to Sbringo, Freddie's son Furio took to the stage. Furio was already present as a multi-instrumentalist in the duo's album 'C'erano una volta gli italiani in Kenya', some of whose most representative songs were presented.
But it was the poetry that took centre stage, and the excursus by the director of Malindikenya.net: from the very famous monologue on Africa-sickness, to the interminable blues sequence of reasons why the Italian presence can sometimes be grotesque, as well as the reasons to love/hate Kenya, up to the most moving moment of the evening, the poem 'Non sarebbe Malindi' with a chilling finale of keyboards and saxophone, after a truly passionate recitative.
The audience, as heterogeneous as ever in terms of both age and Kenyan affiliation, including newcomers, 'old glories' and curious forthcoming guests from the African country, showed their appreciation with thunderous applause and requests for encores.