Antwerp Teacher Confronts Mafias: "My Students Were All Astonished"

Sarah Vantorre, an Antwerp teacher, is taking on the fight against organized crime, not in shadowy backrooms, but within the classroom. Her journey into confronting the mafia began unexpectedly during a six-month internship in Ragusa, Sicily, in 2011. Fresh out of university with degrees in languages and cultural management, she worked with a theater company staging a play about Giovanni Spampinato, an investigative journalist murdered in 1972 for his work on neo-fascism, organized crime, and trafficking.

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The citizens must also become actors in changing the mentality. Explaining and preventing the dangers of corruption and mafias is a collective responsibility.

This Sicilian experience proved transformative. Vantorre engaged with anti-mafia activists and families of victims of the Cosa Nostra, encountering groups like Addiopizzo in Palermo, which campaigns against mafia protection rackets. She also delved into the writings of Giuseppe Fava, a writer and journalist killed by the mafia, whose work explored the social roots of organized crime. Vantorre later based her doctoral thesis on Fava's writings, focusing on his method of staging fictional trials to question readers about the societal factors that drive young people to commit violent acts for criminal organizations.

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I realized my doctoral thesis on his work. In his books, he staged trials where readers took the place of the jury. He questioned them about the social causes of organized crime: why does an adolescent agree to kill a stranger for a few million liras?

Fifteen years later, Vantorre, now a specialized teacher in her thirties, applies these lessons in Antwerp's Seefhoek district, a deprived area marked by precarious living conditions, inadequate housing, and drug-related problems. She notes that while the area is designated a "neighborhood of attention," residents often feel this leads to increased repression rather than preventative support. Vantorre's work aims to address these structural challenges, fostering a change in mentality and emphasizing collective responsibility in preventing corruption and the influence of mafias, inspired by her encounters with those who bravely stood against organized crime.

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The area faces many structural challenges: precariousness, lack of affordable and quality housing, slum landlords, drug-related nuisances.