They are the words of a terrible marriage that can only be dissolved by death.

When they are in Aspromonte, in Polsi, a district of San Luca, in the province of Reggio Calabria, the oath takes place under a tree, the tree of knowledge, which is located in a gorge. The ’Ndrangheta has always met and sworn in front of this tree. Once I went inside it; it’s an old chestnut tree with a hollow trunk. The tree represents the hierarchy of the ’Ndranghetisti: trunk, limbs, branches, twigs, flowers and leaves. The leaves, which fall and rot on the ground, represent infamous traitors who betray the organization.

The hierarchies are critical because they are the foundation of the code. The Italian mafias are conservative, traditionalist. The American families on the other hand have become modernized, emancipated. Joe Pistone, the famous Donnie Brasco, says that during the six years he was infiltrated in the Bonanno family, one of the five New York families, he realized that the more Americanized the mafiosi became, the more heavy-handed they were: they didn’t understand that you don’t commit a crime only to get rich, that if you violate the code you also go against the mafia way of life. When they needed to be strengthened again, according to Donnie Brasco, the American families sent for the Italians, who restored hierarchy, discipline, structure. It may seem paradoxical, but it is not. In the 1970s, Vincenzo Macrì, grandson and designated heir of Antonio Macrì, boss of the Siderno family in Locride, was ‘laid to rest’ (that is, ousted from the organization) because his attitudes were not considered to be consistent with those of a good ’Ndranghetista: Vincenzo rode a Vespa, went around in T-shirts and shorts. So he was ‘put to rest’ and one of the Comissos of Siderno was appointed family boss in his place. Even today an ’Ndranghetista must adhere strictly to certain criteria: he must not be a playboy, and must be careful not to get into any scrapes, such as brawls and childish stunts.

The ’Ndrangheta is divided into higher and lower societies. The group of top-ranking bosses is known as ‘Il Crimine’, also called ‘Provincia’. Then there are the locali, confederations of different ’ndrine, ‘families’ which include clans and blood relatives. These are the three levels, but it is between the higher and lower societies that the various ranks are articulated. There is the ritual that we have described, the oath that leads a contrasto onorato or non-associate to become an honourable young soldier, a picciotto d’onore. Then there are the camorrista and the sgarrista, lower ranks in the organization. Often those who are part of this hierarchy don’t even know the names of the ranks: santista, vangelo, trequartino, quartino, padrino, crociata, stella, bartolo, mammasantissima, infinito and conte Ugolino. The last levels have just been discovered and it is interesting that they were not created in Polsi in Aspromonte, but in Milan.