The Our Thing - Cosa Nostra

Figure this. "Only Don Lucchesi can reach between these two worlds". "Italian politics have had these kind of men for centuries." Says Al Pacino in Godfather III, "They're, the true Mafia." On the other extreme, Indian media has trivialised this term by labelling every petty criminal, small time hoods, bluff issuers as mafia. So we have today, terms doing rounds in media - coal mafia, wood mafia, video (piracy) mafia, timber mafia, land mafia blah blah. Worse, the title of Don is a commonplace adjective attached to every tom, dick and harry of this 'mafia'. Perhaps, no other term is as grossly misused as this 5 letter word. It is worth looking into what the term exactly stand for, the true meaning of the mafia.

The term, in normal meaning, applies to Sicilian mafia or the Cosa Nostra (our thing). It was meant to be a kind of organized crime being active not only in several illegal fields, but also tending to exercise sovereignty functions – normally belonging to public authorities – over a specific territory. The word "mafia" is taken from the old Sicilian adjective mafiusu, which has its roots in the Arabic mahjas, meaning "sanctuary" (source Mario Puzo's The Sicilian). Sicilian ethnographer Giuseppe Pitre claims "Mafia is the consciousness of one's own worth, the exaggerated concept of individual force as the sole arbiter of every conflict, of every clash of interests or ideas."

Banditry and murder had been fairly commonplace since the Middle Ages but the Mafia has existed as a loose network of local criminals only since the early years of the nineteenth century. Like the nobility, its roots are feudal. From humble rustic origins, not unlike those of Japan's Yakuza, and with its own equally fanciful rites and mythology, the Mafia developed largely as a result of Sicilian social conditions. Despite some charming stories of a medieval origin in secretive sects such as the legendary Beati Paoli, there is no evidence to suggest that the Mafia existed as a hierarchical organization until the latter decades of the eighteenth century. With the abolition of feudalism, it became all the more necessary to control baronial interests through coercion, for with the abrogation of feudal taxes came higher rents. But by the 1850s it was clear that the mafiosi would also represent the interests of an ordinary farmer or tradesman who paid them well to settle a score or reconcile a perceived injustice, giving the popular perception of mafiosi as "Robin Hoods" or even "knights." From being "friends of the friends," the more important mafiosi soon came to be known as "men of honour." In truth, the Mafia code is the antithesis of the code of chivalry, or at least a bizarre interpretation. Many Sicilians' clannish nature, and their instinctive dislike for inconsistent law enforcement and a repressive hereditary aristocracy, created a favorable climate for the mafia.

Another fascinating link to mafia is how and from whom they themselves trace their origin and also consider the greatest amongst themselves. I was astonished when I first stumbled on his name - Alexander Borgia, more popularly, Pope Alexander VI. He was the father (please note, Pope being father) of a man of no ordinary talents - Cesare Borgia, the hero of Nicolo Machiavelli's 'The Prince' and had briefly employed Leonardo da Vinci as military architect and engineer. (source Mario Puzo's The Family)

Giuseppe Esposito was the first known Sicilian Mafia member to emigrate to the United States. Mafia activities, restricted until 1920, exploded because of the introduction of the prohibition. Al Capone's Syndicate in 1920s ruled Chicago. By the end of the 1920s, two factions of organized crime had emerged, causing the Castellamarese war for control of organized crime in New York City. With the murder of Joseph Masseria, the leader of one of the factions, the war ended uniting the two sides back into one organization now dubbed Cosa Nostra. Salvatore Maranzano, the first leader of American Mafia, was himself murdered within six months and Charles "Lucky" Luciano became the new leader. Maranzano had established the code of conduct for the organization, set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes. Luciano set up the "Commission" to rule their activities.
The period also saw rise of non-Sicilian gangsters as well, like Arnold Rothstein (the original Big B or Big Banker) famous for baseball's Black Sox scandal where he fixed the 1919 series. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime and the mastermind of the massive postwar expansion of the international heroin trade. Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, exists even today in US, inspite its biggest name since Luciano, John Gotti getting arrested few years back. (source: Gotti, an HBO original movie)

So the next time this word is used, it needs to be understood that mafia rarely operates in the realm of legality, it operates in the realm of sovereignty. A more careful usage of this word would be appropriate.