The Origin of the MAFIA

In 1962 while I was going to Fairleigh Dickinson University, I took a course in Sociology. During that course the professor told us we had to pick a topic and give a presentation to the class. I was amazed then and I am amazed now as to the misconception the majority of people have as to how the Mafia started . The original information I obtained for the report I made in 1962 I found in The Encyclopedia Britanica printed in 1895, Volume 26.

In 1266 Angevin king Charles took control of Sicily with Papal support. In the year 1282 there became contempt on the part of many of the peasants toward the aristocracy and the French.
It is said that the French soldiers were raping and pilferaging the peasants which was causing decent. On Easter Monday 0f 1282 and the beginning of the evening prayer there began a massacre of the French inhabitants on the Island. This became known as the Vesper-Sicilian conflict. The password was chicheda(chik pea). The French had a hard time pronoucing this word properly in the Sicilian dialect of Italian and if they could not they were immediately killed. There became a phrase " Morte Alle Francese Italia Alte", which is translated into English as "Death to all other French in Italy". If you take the first letter of each word in this phrase what you get is the word MAFIA.

This movement started out in the beginning with a cause similar to the French undergroud during the Second World War, but it went astray. The rebellion started to extort and tried to kill the aristocracy. Peter III of Aragon launched a successful invasion, becoming Peter I of Sicily. I am proud to say that one of my mother's ancestors was appointed by Peter I as the Administor of Justice of Sicily.