A journey through the eternal city in the footsteps of a colonial history that is visible everywhere but has long remained silent.
Just after its unification, at the end of the 19th century, Italy did everything to equip itself, like the other European powers, with a colonial empire; but it arrived late in the “race”… And it was under the impetus of Mussolini’s fascist regime that the conquest of “Italian East Africa” was completed: Libya, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia occupied for a few years. Rome then equipped itself with a new district and typical architecture that exalted the “new Roman empire”: colonial museum, Ministry of Colonies, streets named after Italian possessions…
Today, beyond these stone scars, it is the entire colonial history of the country that has resurfaced in recent years, carried by younger generations and Afro-descendants, despite vigorous resistance. Because the myth of colonization by “good people” is hard to shake, despite historical evidence. Travel through the city through an Italian colonial past populated with ghosts, myths and obelisks…
A two-part report by Vladimir Cagnolari initially broadcast in October 2023.
Learn more :
- Tezeta : a collective whose mission is to raise awareness of Italian history and reveal the Eritrean presence in particular, by offering guided tours of the “African quarter” of Rome.
- The Museum of Civilizations or Museum of Civilization which notably inherited the collections of the former colonial museum, created in 1923 during the fascist era. Today, these collections are exhibited, reinterpreted and distanced through a confrontation with works of contemporary art.
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