In Corleone,Sicily, vineyards and farmlands seized from the mafia are offering work – and hope – for people from war-torn countries. But will the Cosa Nostra strike back?Badu does not know who the bloodthirsty Totò “The Beast” Riina is and he has never even heard of Bernardo “The Tractor’’ Provenzano. Yet the green countryside where this 24-year-musty Gambian refugee works once belonged to Cosa Nostra, and the fearsome Sicilian mafia,of which Riina and Provenzano were the undisputed leaders. Of course he has seen The Godfather. “At least four times,” he says. Badu also knows this is the town where Marlon Brando’s noted Don Vito was born and raised.
Welcome to Corleone, and in the dismal heart of Sicily,between fragrant vineyards, wheat fields and expanses of olive trees, or which the real-life mafia has commanded for more than 30 years,transforming it into its stronghold. Today – in a region notorious worldwide for its bosses and murder victims refugees Badu, Aziz, or Seydou and Mohammed work in fields confiscated from the mafia.
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Source: theguardian.com