The work of art celebrating Nigerian born Italian volleyball player Paola Egonu’s exploit at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been defaced in an apperent racist and xenophobic attack.
Egonu last Sunday led the Italian women’s volleyball team to a famous victory over their US counterparts to win the gold medal for the first time. Egonu was named the most valuable player of the Olympic contest.
Hours after the Games ended, street artist Laika celebrated Egonu with a work of graffiti opposite the Rome headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee. Entitled “Italianness,” the graffiti showed Egonu, with her trademark long ponytail and wearing her Azzurri blue uniform, spiking a ball that had the words “Stop racism, hatred, xenophobia,” on it.
A day after images of Laika’s graffiti celebration began circulating, someone painted over the original work, turning Egonu’s dark skin pink and blurring out the words on the volleyball.
It was a reference to the years of racist abuse Egonu has endured as a Black athlete in Italy, with prominent figures regularly questioning her citizenship and “Italianness.” Egonu is Italian and was even awarded one of the country’s highest civilian honors in 2021 by the Italian president. She was born in Italy to Nigerian parents.
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri denounced the vandalism as a “vile, shameful insult” to both Egonu and Laika.
In a statement that praised Egonu’s athletic greatness and Laika’s commitment to fighting xenophobia, Gualtieri said it was “sad that in 2024 there are still racists who are prisoners of their own ignorance who want to roll back the hands of history.”
In 2022, Egonu threatened to quit the national team after being subject to racist abuse online questioning whether she was Italian, evidence of common assumptions here that anyone who is Black is a migrant.
In a social media post explaining the graffiti, Laika wrote that there’s no place in Italy for xenophobia, racism, hatred or intolerance. “Racism is a social plague that must be overcome. Doing so via sport is so important,” Laika wrote.
The winning Italian volleyball team featured other Black Italians, as well as Ekaterina Antropova, a Russian who has long played in Italy and was granted Italian citizenship by the government last year. With AP reports
