The Black Body

By Anna Maria Gehnyei; Translated by Sandra Waters and Eilis Kierans; Foreword by Yvette Samnick

SERIES: Other Voices of Italy

Rutgers University Press

The Black Body is the story of Anna Maria Gehnyei, also known as singer Karima 2G. Anna was born in Rome to Liberian parents, hailing from the Kpelle people -- among the first to leave their native lands for Europe. Despite being born Italian, the people of northern Rome treated her poorly: children made cruel jokes, the teachers ignored the needs of Anna and her twin, employers expressed shock at her prolific (in fact, native) Italian, policemen racially and sexually harassed her. Carrying her through these experiences are the stories about Liberia that her mother told her as a child, of a magical land rich in resources and the hidden rituals of her father's village. Anna Maria, a Black Roman child, dreams of Africa.

The Black Body tells the story of a Black girl's coming of age, marked by continual, painful negotiation of two cultures: the Italian one which does not accept her and the African one to which she does not fully belong. Gehnyei's is the story of a generation made up of those who are seen only as immigrant children, and not as full citizens. Composed of memories, sounds, love, and shame, this political and personal memoir, creatively documenting the increased sophistication of the young Anna Maria's thinking as she grows from girl, to teen, to woman, has been translated into English for the first time by Eilis Kierans and Sandra Waters.

Author
Contents

ANNA MARIA GEHNYEI, also known as Karima 2G, is a singer, rapper, dancer, beatsmith, and producer born in Rome to Liberian parents. She is the founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in Rome, Italy. The Black Body, her first book, delves into her experience growing up as a second-generation Black Italian.

EILIS KIERANS is assistant professor of teaching in the Italian Department at the Pennsylvania State University. She is coeditor of the translation series Other Voices of Italy at Rutgers University Press.

SANDRA WATERS is the managing editor of Italian Quarterly and coedits the Other Voices of Italy series at Rutgers University Press. She is editor of The Spaces and Places of Horror and cotranslator of Porpora Marcasciano’s AntoloGaia: Queering the Seventies, A Radical Trans Memoir (Rutgers University Press, 2023).

YVETTE SAMNICK is a feminist activist born in Cameroon and currently residing in Italy. She is the author of Perché ti amo (Because I love you).

Contents
Foreword
                  Igiaba Scego
Translators’ Note
                  Eilis Kierans and Sandra Waters

1          Seven Years Old
2          African Braids
3          Snakes and Dad
4          Scars on Skin
5          If You Know Your History
6          The Secret Diary
7          All the Relatives
8          The Kpelle People
9          The Initiation
10        La Lingua Parlata
11        Mussolini the Italian
12        The Diamond Princess
13        The Power of Twins
14        The First Sister
15        Rocks in Our Shoes
16        The Sound of Drums
17        The Black Body
18        Pidgin English
19        Roma Nord
20        The 29
21        The Motivator
22        The Guy from CasaPound
23        Fingerprints
24        Federico
25        I Dream of Water
26        Silent on the Surface
27        Mom Doesn’t Want Me to Go to Liberia
28        The Journey to Liberia
29        Oceanic Currents
30        Blessings
31        Italian Citizenship
32        Karima

Notes on Contributors

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