One year after the death of Nahel, killed by a police officer on June 27, 2023, Nanterre comes together to pay tribute to him during a white march on Saturday afternoon. In the Pablo-Picasso district, life continues with the same daily difficulties, deplore residents and associations.
On a wall in the working-class Pablo-Picasso district of Nanterre, Mohessine and his friends painted a fresco in homage to Nahel. A year later, they say, the police sometimes pin them against the work during identity checks. An allegory of a neighborhood where life has continued, after the murder of this teenager killed by a police officer during a check on June 27, 2023, with the same daily difficulties, residents and associations deplore.
Mohessine Charkaoui, 27, was a “close friend of Nahel”. With four friends, he created this fresco, a reflection of daily life here: the kebab, the café, the motocross bikes, the sunny esplanade at the foot of the famous Nuages towers. Darker images are superimposed on it: the white march, a burned car, the teenager’s desperately empty room where motorcycle helmets and the PSG flag sit.
“Thanks to the mural, we showed that we had talent, (…) moving a few small bricks and in the end, it makes a wall,” enthuses Mohessine. He is one of those who was revealed by the tragedy, he who created a sports association and got involved in the already bustling life of his neighborhood after Nahel’s death and the riots that followed.
With AFP
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