Homage was paid to a 42-year-old Ethiopian refugee and farmer who became a symbol of integration in Italy, her adopted home.
Agitu Ideo Gudeta was attacked and killed, allegedly by a former employee, on his farm in Trentino on Wednesday.
Gudeta left Addis Ababa in 2010 after angering authorities by participating in protests against “land grabbing”. Once in Italy, she pursued tenaciously and realized her ambition to move to the mountains and start her own farm. Taking advantage of the licenses that give farmers access to abandoned public land in depopulated areas, she recovered 11 hectares (27 acres) around an old barn in the Möcheni valley, where she founded La Capra Felice (The Happy Goat) company.
Gudeta started with a herd of 15 goats, which quickly rose to 180 in a few years, producing organic milk and cheese using ecological methods and hiring migrants and refugees.
“I created my space and made myself known, there was no resistance to me,” she told Reuters news agency that year.
“Agitu brought to Italy the dream she was unable to fulfill in Ethiopia, partly because of land grabbing,” Gudeta, a singer, performer, novelist and friend of Gudeta, told Guardian. “Her farm worked because she applied what she learned from her grandparents to the field.
“In Italy, many people described their company as an integration model. But Agitu’s dream was to create an environmentally sustainable farm that was more than just a business; for her, it also symbolized the struggle against class divisions and the conviction that it was possible to live in harmony with nature. Above all, she did her job with love. She gave each of her goats a name. “
In a climate in which hostility to migrants was increasing, led by far-right political leaders, their success story was reported by various media outlets as an example of how integration can benefit communities.
“The most satisfying satisfaction is when people tell me how much they love my cheeses because they are good and taste different,” she said in an interview with Internazionale in 2017. “This compensates for all the hard work and prejudices I have had to overcome as as an immigrant. “
Two years ago she received death threats and was the target of racist attacks, which she reported to the police, reporting them in her social media posts.
But the police said that a man who confessed to the farmer’s rape and murder was a former employee who, they said, had acted for “economic reasons”.
The UN refugee agency said it was “sore” with Gudeta’s death and that his entrepreneurial spirit “demonstrated how refugees can contribute to the societies that host them”.
“Despite its tragic end, UNHCR hopes that Agitu Ideo Gudeta will be remembered and celebrated as a model of success and integration and inspire refugees struggling to rebuild their lives,” said the agency.
“We spoke on the phone last week, ” said Ghermandi. “We spent two hours talking about Ethiopia. We had plans to meet in the spring. Agitu considered Italy his home. She used to say that she had suffered a lot in Ethiopia. Now Agitu is gone, but his work must not die. Soon, we will start a fundraising campaign to follow his business expansion plan so that his dream can be lived ”.
Gudeta would be 43 on the first day.