The Yusuf’s blanket: A case study for the analysis of the psychosocial dimension of memorialization and mourning

Since 1990, thousands of people have perished along the Euro-African migration route in the Mediterranean Sea. On November 11th 2020, the NGO Proactive Open Arms run a SAR operation, helping a boat in distress. In the shipwreck, six migrants lost their lives, including Yusuf Alì Kanneh, a 6-months-old Guinean child who died due to the severe injuries suffered. The funeral took place in Lampedusa, the Italian island representing the European external border both geographically and symbolically. The ceremony became the genetic moment for the initiative “The Yusuf’s Blanket” developed by the local association “Forum Lampedusa Solidale”, which called for the citizens to send a 10x10cm piece of cloth, to be sewn together in a collage, with a message to remember and mourn Yusuf. Our presentation will use a psychosocial perspective to analyse how memory emerges at the interface of social and individual positioning, producing a community of civic memory.