COSENZA – “From culture comes the inspiration to pursue freedom,” said judge Marinella Rocca, as she congratulated prize-winner Dr Hawa Abdi at the 8^th annual Mediterranean Culture Prize hosted by the Carical Foundation.

The magnificent prize ceremony held at the Rendano Theatre in the heart of the historic centre of Cosenza celebrates culture across eight categories. This year’s prize highlighted outstanding work across the Mediterranean with winners from Somalia, Croatia and Spain, and also emphasised Calabrian and Italian contributions to the region.

Local-born winner Vincenzo Linarello has been an ambassador for Calabria worldwide for many years in his work to help the unemployed in the region to find jobs in reinvigorating traditional Calabrian industries. Accepting his prize, he said “In Calabria we need to be proud of our roots, we have one of the richest cultures of all Italy.”

Organisers involved local young people in the awards by asking high school classes to judge the Youth Literature Prize, which was awarded to debut novelist Daniele Bresciani for “Ti volevo dire” (“I wanted to tell you”). He spoke of the importance of having faith in the younger generation in his acceptance speech. Representatives from the nine high school classes appeared on stage to speak of the difficulties they had in choosing a winner, and to congratulate Mr Bresciani.

For the main Literature prize, Spanish author Clara Usón won for her historical fiction novel “The Daughter.”

Croatian translator Mladen Machiedo was honoured for his work in bringing Italian literature to a wider audience through his translations. The judges acknowledged the vital nature of this work given the fact that Italian is not an international trade language, and therefore it is more difficult to ensure that the country’s culture is diffused.  

A recurrent theme across the evening was good and evil, and in particular the choices that we face between them. Winner of the information prize, La Stampa journalist Domenico Quirico, was kidnapped in Syria and held hostage for five months in 2013. In his speech, he spoke of the absolute lack of choice for people in war zones. He said, “In these places people do evil things in order to not be killed, there, everyday life is suffering and pain.”

Meanwhile the winner of the Human Sciences prize, Spanish philosopher Fernando Sarater, reflected on what it means to live and make choices in the Western world, he quoted Sartre, “Man is condemned to be free, because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

The undisputed guest of honour was Somali human rights activist Dr Hawa Abdi, whose small women’s health clinic swelled to a 400-bed hospital. With the arrival of war, the land surrounding the hospital eventually became one of the largest refugee camps in the country.

An extract was read from Dr Abdi’s memoir “Keeping Hope Alive” in which she bravely talked down a band of militants who attempted to take control of the camp. When asked what significance international recognition had for her, Dr Abdi replied in Italian, “It gives me the strength to carry on my work.”