Usually at the end of July I spend a weekend working at the international music festival WOMAD. This is my first July away from the festival and it's in my thoughts. A few years back we were squeezing out the last drops of the party after an amazing WOMAD weekend. It was late enough on Sunday night to be early on Monday morning and I was on the last dance floor in the last cafe, having the last dance before the authorities came to shut our sound system down.
The girl I was dancing with flashed a wicked smile and skipped the music to a track with a contagious beat and a naughty vocalist. We danced like crazy things. One minute later the security men arrived and the party was over for another year. I left with that song running through my head and moving my feet. It was about a little monkey who plays the bongos and I later found out it was by the legendary Manu Chao.
That WOMAD night was in my thoughts again this evening, also a warm Sunday in July, but earlier in the afternoon I had very different things on my mind. My friends and I had heard that a huge squat called Mount Zion was about to be evicted and that lots of people were heading down there. Also known as El Nave, Mount Zion consists of a block of abandoned warehouses and is a home to hundreds of people - mostly immigrants with no papers, mostly African - in an area of Barcelona called Poblenou.
The girl I was dancing with flashed a wicked smile and skipped the music to a track with a contagious beat and a naughty vocalist. We danced like crazy things. One minute later the security men arrived and the party was over for another year. I left with that song running through my head and moving my feet. It was about a little monkey who plays the bongos and I later found out it was by the legendary Manu Chao.
That WOMAD night was in my thoughts again this evening, also a warm Sunday in July, but earlier in the afternoon I had very different things on my mind. My friends and I had heard that a huge squat called Mount Zion was about to be evicted and that lots of people were heading down there. Also known as El Nave, Mount Zion consists of a block of abandoned warehouses and is a home to hundreds of people - mostly immigrants with no papers, mostly African - in an area of Barcelona called Poblenou.
"It is the youth of all the countries of Africa who must give with their hands to construct a stable and viable Africa"
On a Sunny Barcelona afternoon Mount Zion feels like an African village. Groups of people sit together chatting, kids play football in the dust, greetings and conversations are carried out in French, Spanish, English, Mandinka, Urdu, Arabic and more, weed is smoked, food cooked, and items of scrap are sorted and bartered over.
Collection
Mount Zion a home and a base of operations for approximately 800 of the city's Chatarreros. These are the people who walk the Barcelona streets collecting all the abandoned metal, broken furniture, electronics, shoes and other detritus. They gather the materials, sort them and sell them to whoever has a need. They provide an extremely efficient street clearance system for the city which costs the government nothing, and which benefits the companies who buy from them at criminally low prices.
The people in Mount Zion live efficiently from the city's waste. Using discarded materials and based on an abandoned site they have built a community here, and they form an important cog in the machine of the city.
The people in Mount Zion live efficiently from the city's waste. Using discarded materials and based on an abandoned site they have built a community here, and they form an important cog in the machine of the city.
Sizzla's House
When I came here for the first time I spent the afternoon relaxing with a some of the residents, chatting in broken Spanish and enjoying the afternoon sun. My second visit I spent with a smiling woman who took care of the kitchen in one of the big rooms where the collected scrap is sorted. She told me how much harder things had become since the water was cut off. Their electricity was also disconnected recently in advance of the eviction action.
In The Kitchen
As far as I understand it the Ajuntamento (the city council) intends to kick this entire community onto the streets this week. There does not appear to be any plan to rehouse them or to offer any kind of support to the soon-to-be-homeless. Maybe they will all end up in detention centres, or maybe just left to find a new building or to join the multitudes already sleeping in the parks and church doorways of the city.
So we headed out this afternoon, expecting to bear witness to the human tragedy of eviction, but we had misunderstood the situation. Eviction was not the plan for this evening. Today Mount Zion was saying goodbye. This was the last fiesta, the people were squeezing out the their last drops of the party in freedom before the authorities come to shut them down.
Artists were setting up stalls and exhibitions, people were selling beers, food and soft drinks. A crowd of visitors arrived, cameras were being wielded and rumours started to fly, 'Manu Chao is coming', 'Manu Chao is here', then he was being pointed out in the crowd. Then he was on the stage made from a carpet rolled out in the street, he was chatting to the people around him, he was surrounded by musicians.
So we headed out this afternoon, expecting to bear witness to the human tragedy of eviction, but we had misunderstood the situation. Eviction was not the plan for this evening. Today Mount Zion was saying goodbye. This was the last fiesta, the people were squeezing out the their last drops of the party in freedom before the authorities come to shut them down.
Artists were setting up stalls and exhibitions, people were selling beers, food and soft drinks. A crowd of visitors arrived, cameras were being wielded and rumours started to fly, 'Manu Chao is coming', 'Manu Chao is here', then he was being pointed out in the crowd. Then he was on the stage made from a carpet rolled out in the street, he was chatting to the people around him, he was surrounded by musicians.
Daily Commute
When the music started, a hitch in the sound system meant that they were un-amplified. Manu Chao's singing was taken up by the people closest around him and then by the people around them, until the whole crowd was singing along or clapping their hands to the rhythm. The music was being generated by the party, it was a joyous, democratic, living sound system.
I have been extremely lucky to have seen some fantastic musical performances before, but this was possible the most inclusive, the most shared. After the first three songs the sound system kicked in and Manu Chao's voice rang out over the smiling, dancing crowd.
As I write this back at my home, it is late enough on Sunday night to be early Monday morning. The music is still running through my head and moving my feet. I imagine the fiesta is still going on there. Thank you again Manu Chao, thank you Mount Zion, thank you to all those musicians and DJs and percussionists and MCs and singing people and artists and cooks, thank you for making such a beautiful party.
Shine on.
I have been extremely lucky to have seen some fantastic musical performances before, but this was possible the most inclusive, the most shared. After the first three songs the sound system kicked in and Manu Chao's voice rang out over the smiling, dancing crowd.
As I write this back at my home, it is late enough on Sunday night to be early Monday morning. The music is still running through my head and moving my feet. I imagine the fiesta is still going on there. Thank you again Manu Chao, thank you Mount Zion, thank you to all those musicians and DJs and percussionists and MCs and singing people and artists and cooks, thank you for making such a beautiful party.
Shine on.
Read a brilliant article about Mount Zion written by Carlos Delclós here.
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