Darkness Before Daybreak : African Migrants Living on the Margins in Southern Italy Today

This riveting book chronicles the lives of a group of fishermen from Ghana who took the long and dangerous journey to Southern Italy in search of work in a cutthroat underground economy. A story that illuminates the nature of high-risk migration around the world, Darkness before Daybreak reveals the challenges and experiences of these international migrants who, like countless others, are often in the news but are rarely understood. Hans Lucht tells how these men live on the fringes of society in Naples, what the often deadly journey across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea involved, and what their lives in the fishing village of Senya Beraku--where there are no more fish--were like. Asking how these men find meaning in their experiences, Lucht addresses broader existential questions surrounding the lives of economic refugees and their death-defying struggle for a life worth living. He also considers the ramifications of the many deaths that occur in the desert and the sea for those who are left behind. Contents......Page 9 Preface......Page 11 Acknowledgments......Page 23 PART I. LOSSES AND GAINS IN NAPLES......Page 25 1. Clandestino......Page 27 2. Migrant Work Situations......Page 52 3. Suffering in a Globalized World......Page 90 PART II. THE JOURNEY TO EUROPE......Page 141 4. The Mediterranean Passage......Page 143 5. The Maghreb Connection: Libya and a Desert to Cross......Page 184 PART III. IN THE VILLAGE OF THE LOST CAPTAINS......Page 201 6. The Guan of Senya Beraku......Page 203 7. The Body Stays, but the Soul Returns......Page 240 Conclusion......Page 283 Epilogue: Living on the Moon......Page 294 References......Page 297 This title chronicles the lives of a group of fishermen from Ghana who took the long and dangerous journey to Southern Italy in search of work in a cutthroat underground economy