The Horn of Africa & Italy (original) (raw)
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Il pieno e il vuoto: Visual Representations of Africa in Italian Accounts of Colonial Experiences
Italian Studies, 2012
Abstract The article examines the role played by photographs and other kinds of illustrations in accounts written by Italian travellers to Africa from the beginning of Italy’s colonial experience till today. Using sample publications from Liberal Italy, the years of Fascism, and the post-colonial period, it analyses the way in which texts and images interact, constructing complex representations of people and places which cannot be reduced to any ‘realist’ and ‘factual’ interpretation. The insistence on particular images as well as the absence of others played a key role in producing representations which responded to the needs of propaganda, or occasionally managed to signal the author’s self-distancing from the goals and practices of Italy’s colonial politics.
The Horn of Africa and Italy: Colonial, Postcolonial and Transnational Cultural Encounters
Quaderni d'Italianistica, 2019
Recensioni / Book Reviews / Revues des Livres-252-(Quello che l'acqua nasconde). Il libro si chiude con un'intervista molto interessante a Perissinotto nella quale lo scrittore, sollecitato dalle domande di Castagnino, riflette sul processo creativo, sul senso del narrare e sul ruolo dello scrittore. Completata la lettura si può senz'altro sostenere che "Fatevi portatori di storie". Alessandro Perissinotto fra giallo e romanzo sociale è un libro che va a colmare un vuoto bibliografico, che consegna tanto allo studioso di professione quanto al comune lettore interessato a comprendere meglio la narrativa di Perissinotto uno strumento di ricerca prezioso, in cui trovare, ed è questa un'ulteriore nota di merito, spunti per ricerche e indagini teorico-estetiche future.
Featuring personal albums, photographs, postcards, and maps from the early twentieth century to the Fascist period from a rich trove of Harvard Collections, the exhibit investigates the visual, literary and political imaginary that prepared and accompanied Italy’s belated and violent participation in the colonial “scramble for Africa.” As suggested by the title, it explores how colonial ideology relies on a notion of Africa as an exceptional territory, beyond legality, even reality, and tries to redress the ongoing silence and historical erasure that afflicts a still hidden chapter of Italian history.
Colonial Heritage in Italy, Albania, and Somalia
Interventions. International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2024
through architecture in today's post-Communist, democratic society by looking at recent public discussions (2016-2020) about Tirana's football stadium and the National Theatre. The second essay, by Iman Mohamed, examines the material legacies of Italian colonialism in Mogadishu. The study demonstrates how Italy imposed its colonial architecture in its East African colony (1893-1941) and how the Somali government changed the meaning of public buildings and of street names with its own political symbols after gaining independence in 1960. Hence, it becomes evident that the post-independence resignification of Mogadishu's cityscape concealed Somalia's violent colonial past. From the colonies, the issue turns to Italy's geographical peripheries. Valeria Deplano and Alessandro Pes discuss public traces of empire on the island of Sardinia. By asking how fascist colonialism affected a peripheral island like Sardinia through nationalization on the one hand and the direct involvement of its inhabitants in colonial wars on the other, the ambivalent role of Italy's border regions comes to the fore. Starting from the original meanings that such colonial symbols as toponyms, commemorative plaques, and commercial activities bore during their implementation, the authors highlight the public significance of such remnants for post-fascist Italy. They argue that Sardinia is lacking not only a material but also a cultural decolonization. The second border region under investigation is the province of Bozen/ Bolzano, also known as Südtirol/Alto Adige. Sebastian De Pretto looks at the public traces of fascist colonialism in the province's capital city of Bozen/Bolzano. Like in Sardinia, Italianization and colonialism went hand in hand in Italy's northernmost province. De Pretto points out that the regime used monuments, reliefs, and street names not only as propaganda tools to celebrate its supposedly successful overseas expansionism but also as symbols of authoritative central state power in a contested border region. The fifth contribution, by Victoria Margaret Witkowski, examines the monument that has most significantly shaped the public debate on fascist but also colonial traces in public space in the last ten yearseven though it was not constructed during fascist rule but only in 2012 (!): the monument to Rodolfo Graziani in Affile. Witkowski is the first to deliver an in-depth analysis of both its histories of construction and reception, thereby revealing the ambivalent public memory of Graziani. The posthumous and neo-fascist heroization of the warmonger by Italian right-wing groups and parties is a powerful example of how the Italian public, whose imagination is still dominated by the myth of the brava gente (Del Boca 2014), has not come to terms with its violent colonial past. The sixth and seventh essays investigate Italy's capital. Serena Alessi sheds light on Rome's colonial memory sites, such as the Stazione Termini, the Quartiere Africano, and other public squares and streets, by following the
How to use Colonial Photography in Sub-Saharan Africa for Educational and Academic Purposes
2018
From 1884 to 1914 Togo was under German colonial rule. An essential part of the country's colonial history is illustrated through photographs, which can be accessed online in German archives 1. In colonial times, photography was used for propaganda and other activities by presenting and interpreting photographs only according to colonial ideology. Even today, despite debates, they are most often presented only from a European cultural perspective, because most pictures are archived without any comments on the cultural realities that they illustrate. Consequently several cultural and pedagogical aspects reflected in the colonial photography escape generations years after political independences in Africa. This situation is an obstacle in intercultural relations between Europe and Africa. Because today's fast pace of globalization leads to increasing contact between cultures, it has become necessary for African youths to have varied perspective on their own cultural history. Therefore, these pictures need to be critically interpreted according to the cultural and social contexts in which they were taken, so that the African written history may be completed. This chapter presents such an ap-1