Diventare artista

I am Sadja, I am 27 years old, I come from Guinea Bissau, I am becoming an artist”. Saja Fatì has a proud look when he begins to tell his story. Sadja left Guinea Bissau eight years ago headed for Italy. To get to our country, Sadja crossed several countries, the desert, before ending up in Libya. After two months of captivity, he managed to embark for Italy. In 2015 he ended up in a reception center in Campania. In those years he began to work in the fields in Basilicata together with 20 other migrants. They all sleep together in a dirty shed, they work hard without being paid.

Then Sadja decides to return to Naples. He enrolls in an Italian course, meets a teacher, Carmela, who will change his life. Carmela introduces him to the association “Samb e Diop APS” and, while he continues to work in street vendors and on construction sites to support himself, Sadja begins to frequent the “Officina Sociale Avventura di Latta”, an artistic metalworking workshop founded in 2013 at the instigation of the Compasso d’Oro architect Riccardo Dalisi. By attending the course, Sadja gradually went from being a participant to an apprentice, he began to carry out his first commissioned works and now participates in the design and has become a tutor and trainer as an expert craftsman in various school and extracurricular projects with private and third sector entities. “Naples is my home, I no longer think about Africa”, says Sadja joyfully and smiling. “My need now is to bring my family, my wife and my son to Naples”