Eritrea under the Italians. This is what real "Colonialism" looks like:
Modern Italy
Vol. 16, No. 3, August 2011, 275–293
Education in the Italian colonies during the interwar period
Matteo Pretelli* Universita `di Trieste, Dipartimento di Storia e Culture dall’ Antichita `al Mondo, Trieste
Received 7 April 2008; final version accepted 6 June 2010
Furthermore,while in African colonies ruled by other European powers educational provision for native populations was improved in order to foster new local administrations, Fascist Italy reduced the number of schools and assigned all aspects of colonial power to the ruling white populations (Labanca 2008b, 50–51). Racist practices were not, however, an invention of Mussolini’s regime. In 1897, new regulations in the colony of Eritrea had stressed the importance of emphasizing the supposed European racial superiority to the African population, but also of protecting the latter from abuses committed by their Italian rulers (Barrera 2003b, 89). In 1905 the segregation of Italians and Eritreans was established, based on the alleged ‘lesser degree’ of civilization of the latter; thereafter, inter-racial marriages could only be authorized by the Italian Governor (Sorgoni 2002, 44–45). Labanca (2002, 414–20) has delineated three forms of racism in Italian Africa: a ‘political’ racism, aimed at exploiting the divisions and tensions between indigenous populations to rule the colonies; a ‘diffused’ racism, which characterized colonial society in general, and was seen in discrepancies such as differences in earnings and housing conditions; and an ‘institutional’ racism, which found form in the aforementioned race laws passed after the establishment of the Empire. While the third was a particular expression of Mussolini’s regime, the first two characterized liberal Italy as well. Local women were particularly affected by the practice of ‘diffused’ racism; for example, in the pre-Fascist period sexual relationships between Italian men and African women were not necessarily indications of respect and inter-racial tolerance.
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This essay aims to reconstruct aspects of educational ideology and practice in theItalian colonies both before Fascism and, more particularly, in the interwar period. In thefirst part, I analyse the role of education in the Italian colonies from the liberal era throughto the eve of the Second World War. This section is primarily based on a review of contemporaneous studies by Italian scholars and observers of colonialism, as well as onsecondary sources. The second part draws on the secondary literature that examines therole of Italian publications and propaganda in forming the image of Africa among Italianyouth. Textbooks in use both with indigenous populations and with Italians outside theirnational school system are then analysed in terms of their political narrative.Educational policy in the Italian colonies was suffused with racism, whose accentu-ation – ultimately through its ‘institutionalisation’ in East Africa in the race laws of April1937 – progressively reduced the access of indigenous populations to education. This sortof institutionalised racism was a peculiarity of Italian Fascism: under pre-Fascist Italy, andin other colonised countries such as Kenya and Algeria, racism was embedded in everydaypractice rather than made explicit in written norms (Barrera 2003a, 2008). Furthermore,while in African colonies ruled by other European powers educational provision for nativepopulations was improved in order to foster new local administrations, Fascist Italyreduced the number of schools and assigned all aspects of colonial power to the rulingwhite populations (Labanca 2008b, 50–51).Racist practices were not, however, an invention of Mussolini’s regime. In 1897, newregulations in the colony of Eritrea had stressed the importance of emphasising thesupposed European racial superiority to the African population, but also of protectingthe latter from abuses committed by their Italian rulers (Barrera 2003b, 89). In 1905 thesegregation of Italians and Eritreans was established, based on the alleged ‘lesser degree’ of civilisation of the latter; thereafter, inter-racial marriages could only be authorised by theItalian Governor (Sorgoni 2002, 44–45). Labanca (2002, 414–20) has delineated threeforms of racism in Italian Africa: a ‘political’ racism, aimed at exploiting the divisions andtensions between indigenous populations to rule the colonies; a ‘diffused’ racism, whichcharacterised colonial society in general, and was seen in discrepancies such as differencesin earnings and housing conditions; and an ‘institutional’ racism, which found form in theaforementioned race laws passed after the establishment of the Empire. While the thirdwas a particular expression of Mussolini’s regime, the first two characterised liberal Italyas well. Local women were particularly affected by the practice of ‘diffused’ racism; forexample, in the pre-Fascist period sexual relationships between Italian men and Africanwomen were not necessarily indications of respect and inter-racial tolerance. In Eritrea the
madamato
– the retention of local women for domestic and sexual services – was widelypractised by Italian men living abroad on their own. Within these arrangements womenmight still experience domestic violence and abandonment, especially in the event of unwanted pregnancies. Italian racism was also seen in acts of prevarication, such as notpaying for work done or for eating in restaurants owned by local people, and in unequaltreatment before the law. The colonies attracted many people who considered Italianlegislation as not applicable overseas, and thought of indigenous people as ‘savages’ who‘deserved’ to be exploited (Barrera 1996, 3; 2003a, 430–32; Sorgoni 2002, 46). After 1914,colonial officers wanting to marry local women were forced to resign from their posts(Sorgoni 2002, 45–46). Inter-racial marriages were made completely illegal in 1937, apolicy intended to underline the alleged ‘superiority’ and ‘purity’ of the Italian race. InEast Africa the
madamato
and sexual relationships with local women were also forbidden,
although these Fascist regulations were largely disregarded. After 1936 African subjects nolonger had access to Italian citizenship, or to bars, cinemas and public transport; on theeve of the Second World War, the separation of white from indigenous people wasconclusively established with the definition of people of mixed race – children of Italianmen and African women – as ‘natives’ (Barrera 1996, 37–41; 2003a; Sorgoni 2002).
2
Colonial education and historiography
Scholarship on Italian colonialism has made various contributions regarding the role of education in Italy’s overseas possessions prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.An early study by Roland De Marco (1943) was undertaken before this conflict had evenconcluded. It was not until the 1970s, however, that Richard Pankhurst wrote aboutItalian textbooks in Africa (1970) and completed the first study of Italian education inEast Africa after the Italo-Ethiopian conflict (1972). In the same decade, Leonard AlbanAppleton (1979) examined education in Libya under Italian rule. Thereafter, a number of both Italian and other scholars, such as Negash (1987), Martelli (1989), Ciampi (1996),and Smith-Simonsen (1997), contributed to a deeper understanding of Italian colonialeducation in Africa.Since 2000, various work has addressed the issue of the educational experience underItalian rule of both Libya (al-Tahir al-Jarari 2000; Cresti 2001; Galoppini 2001, 107–08; DiPasquale 2007) and Eritrea (Negash 2005, 109–20; Ventura 2007). Before then, this hadremained a peripheral topic within accounts of Italian colonialism (Del Boca 1992, 227,240; Labanca 1993, 253–54; 1996, 270), perhaps due to the absence of sufficientdocumentation (Ventura 2007, 5).
3
Labanca has included an account of the educationalsystem within his comprehensive account of Italian colonial history (2002, 334–37, 525).Several studies have focused on how Africa was portrayed in school textbooks and otherpublications for young people resident in Italy (Franco 1994; Labanca 2000a, 2003b;Finaldi 2003; Asioli 2004a, 2004b; Bottoni 2006, 2008).
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Brief history: Eritrea under the Italian colonization
Last edited by Roha on 06 Dec 2020, 18:34, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Brief history: Eritrea under the Italian colonization
Thank you Fiyameta for asking. This will educate many. No more Woyanie lies here 
Italian colonialism, like virtually all modern European colonialism, was from its inception inherently at least partially racist. Italy's "first-born" colony, Eritrea — Bairu Tafla's homeland, was thus characterised from the outset by considerable racial discrimination. Italian and "native" housing in Asmara, and other Eritrean towns, thus tended to be separate. The principle of different schools for Italians and "natives" in the colony was officially decreed as early as 1909, and urban segregation in Asmara in 1916. No less significant was the institution of "madamismo", by which Italians officials, soldiers and others, took "native" wives/concubines/mistresses, who had virtually no rights at law.
Italian fascism, which was largely parochial, and Italy-centred, was at first entirely oblivious to questions of race, and did not envisage any specifically fascist racial policy. At the time of the invasion of Ethiopia, in 1935, the fascists permitted the sale of semi-pornographic pictures of Ethiopian women, to popularise their African adventure among the Italian troops. The Italian authorities also gave publicity to the song Faccetta Nera, in which the "piccola abissina", or young Ethiopian girl, was supposedly to be "liberated" by them.
The British Marxist biologist Professor J.B.S. Haldane, hearing of Mussolini's plan to settle a quarter of a million Italians in Ethiopia, wrote to the London Times, a fortnight after the fascist occupation of Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936, to predict that the invaders would "interbreed with the Ethiopians", and thus lead to "a considerable influx of African blood into Italy".
This prediction was immediately falsified by events. On the very day that The Times published Haldane's prediction, the fascist newspaper Gazzetta del Popolo carried an article entitled "The fascist Empire cannot be an empire of half-castes". Fascist propaganda was thereupon launched against the Faccetta nera song.
Less than a year later the first of a series of Italian racist decrees, prohibiting "conjugal relations" between Italian citizens and colonial subjects of the Italian East African Empire, was signed by the "King-Emperor" Vittorio Emanuele III, on 19 April 1937. This edict, which may be said to represent the beginning of official Italian racism, was followed by a succession of further royal decrees strengthening racist practices, as well as by a series of orders, by fascist administrators in East Africa, establishing segregation in almost all fields of life.1
Italian colonialism, like virtually all modern European colonialism, was from its inception inherently at least partially racist. Italy's "first-born" colony, Eritrea — Bairu Tafla's homeland, was thus characterised from the outset by considerable racial discrimination. Italian and "native" housing in Asmara, and other Eritrean towns, thus tended to be separate. The principle of different schools for Italians and "natives" in the colony was officially decreed as early as 1909, and urban segregation in Asmara in 1916. No less significant was the institution of "madamismo", by which Italians officials, soldiers and others, took "native" wives/concubines/mistresses, who had virtually no rights at law.
Italian fascism, which was largely parochial, and Italy-centred, was at first entirely oblivious to questions of race, and did not envisage any specifically fascist racial policy. At the time of the invasion of Ethiopia, in 1935, the fascists permitted the sale of semi-pornographic pictures of Ethiopian women, to popularise their African adventure among the Italian troops. The Italian authorities also gave publicity to the song Faccetta Nera, in which the "piccola abissina", or young Ethiopian girl, was supposedly to be "liberated" by them.
The British Marxist biologist Professor J.B.S. Haldane, hearing of Mussolini's plan to settle a quarter of a million Italians in Ethiopia, wrote to the London Times, a fortnight after the fascist occupation of Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936, to predict that the invaders would "interbreed with the Ethiopians", and thus lead to "a considerable influx of African blood into Italy".
This prediction was immediately falsified by events. On the very day that The Times published Haldane's prediction, the fascist newspaper Gazzetta del Popolo carried an article entitled "The fascist Empire cannot be an empire of half-castes". Fascist propaganda was thereupon launched against the Faccetta nera song.
Less than a year later the first of a series of Italian racist decrees, prohibiting "conjugal relations" between Italian citizens and colonial subjects of the Italian East African Empire, was signed by the "King-Emperor" Vittorio Emanuele III, on 19 April 1937. This edict, which may be said to represent the beginning of official Italian racism, was followed by a succession of further royal decrees strengthening racist practices, as well as by a series of orders, by fascist administrators in East Africa, establishing segregation in almost all fields of life.1
Re: Brief history: Eritrea under the Italian colonization
Roha,
just mind your darn business of telling lies, cheating, deceiving and backstabbing. "ብላዕ ከይበልዎስ 'ጽብሑለይ' ይብል"! ቆማል ዓጋመ!
just mind your darn business of telling lies, cheating, deceiving and backstabbing. "ብላዕ ከይበልዎስ 'ጽብሑለይ' ይብል"! ቆማል ዓጋመ!
Re: Brief history: Eritrea under the Italian colonization
I honestly admire Eritrea people, I have never encountered in my life anyone speaking Italian language after 60 years of Italian occupation. This is incredible many countries around the world colonized by Western colonists lost not only their languages but valuable cultural assets. To me that is amazing.