Abstract

Italian “Race Laws” against “non-Aryans” were promulgated by Fascism (1922-1943) in the late 1930s (see: “Manifesto della razza”, 1938). In 1937 a first law grounded on a racial and racist base prohibited in the colonies a local concubinage between Italian men and African women (“Madamato”). In 1939 life in the colonies became completely segregated. For several reasons, Italian historiography tended to exclude colonialism and colonial racism from national history. Until the end of XXth century, Italian colonialism (that lasted from 1880s to 1947 in East and North Africa) was not the object of study and public discussions in Italy (there were some exceptions though: Del Boca, Rochat, etc.). Italian “Race Laws” were not only the result of political alliances, but also the product of XIXth and XXth century anthropological theories (such as: the Aryan idea and the Mediterranean idea). The different theories of anthropologists Giuseppe Sergi and Lidio Cipriani depict the changes that occurred in the 1930s, as far as the categorization of Africans and their legal status are concerned. Colonial fictional literature may help us to highlight this complex cultural phenomenon. Even if not much studied yet, novels set in an African colonial background (“letteratura coloniale”) were written by relevant writers (Marinetti, D’Annunzio, Bacchelli, etc.). By studying interconnections between anthropology, historiography, literature, and legislation, we can understand how Italian attitudes towards Africans changed during the 1930s, and why some representations of Africans persisted in XXth century Italian culture and literature (see Emanuelli, Pasolini, Lucarelli). By picturing East Africa as a land full of possibilities, Fascism made the African “adventure” appealing to young Italians. The expectation of meeting sexually available women was an important factor. “Erotic-love novels” set in colonial Africa were widespread in Italy before the promulgation of “Race Laws”. Their forgotten authors (Mitrano Sani, Dei Gaslini, etc.) embraced different racist or race-oriented perspectives, envisaging “carnal knowledge” between “white men” and “black women”. When “Race Laws” banned “mixed race” unions, the African “erotic-love novels” disappeared, but left some latent heritage in Italian culture.