L'Italia in Africa, una questione controversa

Italy's relationship with Africa is a controversial issue. Italy, first liberal, then fascist, was responsible for policies of domination, up to particularly large-scale repressive actions, which went beyond the logic of pure military strategy, also motivated by that racist vision of the black spread by fascist propaganda and supported by pseudoscientific interpretations, which left a deep mark on the perceptions of Italians, beyond the end of the colonial era. For those crimes neither Italy nor those responsible were ever tried; nor have they fully entered the public conscience. Having lost its colonies, post-war Italy re-played an important role of mediation between Europe and Africa, outside the neocolonial interests of other European powers, in a perspective of cooperation and partnership, while it began to become, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a destination for growing immigration flows from the African continent. The phenomenon, an expression of that long relationship with Africa, is not grasped with a historical awareness and a vision capable of addressing it in all its implications, while old and contemptuous racist stereotypes about the black danger re-emerge, never completely removed from the public conscience. Italy seems to be stuck in a perspective dominated by feelings of disorientation and fear in the face of external worlds, such as Africa, which are pouring into the country with an unprecedented presence. An unresolved issue, which today demands rediscovering the depth of a historical bond capable of motivating positive and profitable approaches.