This multidisciplinary volume analyses key themes and topics related to the cultural encounters between Italy and its former colonies in the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia). The multi-faceted relations between the Horn of Africa and Italy were initiated during the colonial period but have also been shaped more recently through migration. In eleven chapters by experts in comparative literature, cultural studies, history, migration studies, political philosophy and postcolonial theory, the volume highlights how the legacy of colonialism permeates Italian society as well as influencing the construction of national identities in the Horn of Africa. The analysis of this transnational encounter opens up new possibilities for comparative research and critical synergies in Italian studies, African studies and beyond.
«This collection can be particularly useful for Italian Studies scholars who might not be as familiar with the African perspective on and response to Italian colonialism as they are with the Italian. Furthermore, its call for the colonial legacy to be placed in a transnational framework gestures toward a promising new direction for studies on Italian colonialism and postcolonialism.» (Jessica L. Harris, Quaderni d'Italianistica, 39.1)
«The merit of this book is the attempt [...] to retrace colonial and postcolonial cultural relations between the Horn of Africa and Italy, paying attention to the racial dimension which shaped them and to the interplay of other elements, with all their ambivalence, complexities and nuances.» (Nicola Camilleri, Modern Italy, 2020)
«The merit of this book is the attempt [...] to retrace colonial and postcolonial cultural relations between the Horn of Africa and Italy, paying attention to the racial dimension which shaped them and to the interplay of other elements, with all their ambivalence, complexities and nuances.» (Nicola Camilleri, Modern Italy, 2020)