Soly has been fighting for 26 years for the avenue des Aygalades to be renamed avenue Ibrahim-Ali -
Mathilde Ceilles / 20 Minutes
This Monday, avenue des Aygalades will be renamed avenue Ibrahim-Ali during the next Marseille city council.
Ibrahim Ali is a teenager of Comorian origin who was killed in February 1995 by a Front National poster maker.
His relatives have been asking for this for a quarter of a century.
“There are some who still don't believe it, and who wait until Monday to believe it.
You know, like St. Thomas… ”Soly has been waiting for this moment for twenty-six years.
After a quarter of a century of fighting, at the end of the municipal council on Monday, the avenue des Aygalades in Marseille will be renamed avenue Ibrahim-Ali, named after this adolescent of Comorian origin killed in this avenue in the northern districts of Marseille by a poster collector of the National Front, February 21, 1995.
When asked to evoke this fateful day, Soly takes her eyes off, fixes him on the bar of the building opposite, in the distance.
And it is as if he relives everything in great detail, in a violent teleportation.
An evening initially similar to another for the one who is president of the association group of rap B-Vice, of which Ibrahim Ali was a member.
Instruments and texts to be refined, while awaiting the arrival of "young people", as he says.
"Ibrahim is dead"
Then this group banging insistently on its door.
The amazement of the kids who enter.
The sharp words of one of them: “Ibrahim is dead”.
Disbelief.
Courage difficult to find, the interminable minutes between his building A and building K of Ibrahim Ali, with, on the way, the furious desire to "burn Marseille" that he loves so much.
The feet that falter, the stomach ache, the tears that endlessly flow in front of the teenager's mother.
And finally the promise he made to her not to give in to anger, to honor the memory of his only son, described as "a good dough" without history, and struck down by a bullet in the back at the age of 17 years while he was running, according to witnesses, not to miss his bus.
Then there were the numerous letters to the town hall to rename the avenue, all left a dead letter.
Former LR mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin has always refused to rename Avenue des Aygalades.
A roundabout was, however, renamed with the name of the young teenager, in the 15th arrondissement, as recalled by Catherine Pila, LR leader in the city council.
"We are in the process of aligning with the members of our group to see what we will vote on this subject on Monday," she confides.
"We must run up against the National Front"
"A lousy roundabout, plague Soly."
No one lives at a roundabout.
If we want to perpetuate the memory of Ibrahim Ali, we need an appropriate place.
“Regular speaker in schools, Soly indeed notes that many young Marseillais ignore this event in the history of their city.
“To these kids, I have to tell them that there are people who want to hurt them, because of their skin color.
We have to face our history, both good and bad.
We must admit that something unspeakable happened, committed by people whose ideas were conveyed by a party, the National Front.
"
"Jean-Claude Gaudin had not done it so far, because he did not want to run up against the National Front, accuses Samia Ghali, whose group will bring this report to the city council on Monday.
Me, I say that we have to run up against the National Front because its poster-makers hurt the life of this young man, and a lot through him.
"
The RN against this project
"We will not vote for this report profaning the death of Ibrahim Ali," annoys Stéphane Ravier, RN leader in the Marseille city council.
Some are using this 25-year-old drama to fuel a political fight that does not honor them.
Ibrahim Ali deserves to rest in peace, instead of being used once again by the fine team on the left.
Already, it is not FN poster collector, but a poster collector, who died in prison and who has largely paid his debt.
And the tribute to Ibrahim Ali has already been rendered by justice.
So this political coup is lousy.
"
Words that make the LREM deputy of Comorian origin Saïd Ahamada, a former rapper from the Marseille city Félix-Pyat, who rubbed shoulders with Ibrahim Ali, jumped up before the latter's assassination pushes him to engage in politics.
“The first to have had this demand were friends and family.
Ibrahim Ali was assassinated because he was black.
If it is not a racist crime!
It is not a question of left or right, it is a humanist struggle.
"
“This street, for me, is the beginning of mourning, Soly breathes.
I did my therapy alone.
It was the writing.
But mourning, no, I have not passed this stage.
It was not possible.
There was too much contempt.
Some members of the group, even today, can not speak about this story.
It's too painful.
Ibrahim is dead.
But how many have lived totally crippled behind because of that?
"
Marseilles
Marseille: The town hall refuses to rename an avenue in the name of Ibrahim Ali, killed by FN militants
Marseilles
Marseille: A petition from deputy Saïd Ahamada to "rename the path of the Aygalades in the name of Ibrahim Ali"
National Front
Racism