Mirabella Imbaccari is a town of almost 5.000 habitants located in the southeast part of Sicily. Since the heavily reported events of mass migration of Africans seeking for asylum, Mirabella and the nearby town of Vizzini, started to host, in allocated governmental structures, only women mainly coming from Nigeria.
Following the old traditions of African hairstyle, which expresses a particular feeling in important and strong occasions such as: weddings, funerals, war events etc.., the photographer asked each girl to create a look that could express their emotions of this unique timeframe of their life of being a refugee.
The aim of this project is to give them back their traditional beauty and to make them feeling like they were at home. It’s a beauty story mixed with strong personalities of women who risked their life looking for freedom, happiness and a better future.
Limitation of this project was of course the lack of original material that they would have needed, but the Sicilian supplies and the already established Nigerian communities helped to create a mix & match of materials and style.
