Abstracts of papers: 

The Chimalpahin Conference 2008:

Colonial and Post-Colonial Remembering and Forgetfulness

Antonio M. Morone

Department of Political and Social Studies

Pavia University

Italia

The worldwide projection of Europe progressively designed global economic, social, cultural and political settings and values. The European scramble for Africa imposed new socio-economic relationships in overseas territories and a different distribution of wealth and power with permanent effects on Africa’s endogenous trends. Colonization achieved the insertion of Africa into the World economy, supposing a process of acculturation and institutionalisation inspired by European models with totalizing effects on African societies. Accidentally, colonization also produced different patterns of integrative effects, merging foreign and local strains. These processes went along with deep repercussions on the future of Africa and of Euro-African relationships. 

In comparison with that pattern, Italian Colonialism revealed substantial lack of economic, human and cultural means or recourses to attain his colonial pipedreaming. Italian colonialism ordinarily played his state-maker role in the Horn of Africa but Italy, as middle power, achieved limited or even contradictory outcomes. Italian rule in Somalia substantially contributed to long-term variation and progressively deterioration of Somali society. 

The customary clanic solidarity and Islam have progressively changed their significance from cohesive forces to conflictual or disputed issues. Clanic society degenerated into clanism (i. e. the politicization of conflictual aspects of customary institution) and Muslim faith embarked on political and radical trends, setting aside local traditions of Somali Islam. Moreover, the post-colonially transplanted institutions showed not only their feebleness, but also contributed to the disconnection of power from traditional society and its re-connection, in a problematic, even contradictory way, to the newly modern institutions, which were gradually taken over by the Somali national élite of collaborators. 

By supposing that the transplantation of modern institutions would organize Somali time and space in a homogeneous way, the new state-building process tried to reduce the complexity of Somali society and to manipulate his identity even its history. Nevertheless, the Somali society revealed a great adaptability in facing these changes and, in his long-run, a re-surfacing trend inside the new independent state. 

On the Italian angle, colonial history and his memory were publically neglected and scientifically marginalised in the post-WWII era. The first reason was the defeated of Italian Army, which consequently meant the loss of the colonies, avoiding any confrontation between colonisers and colonized people, as abroad in Africa appends. The second and deeper reason was the increasing manipulation of colonial past and the cultural elaboration of mythological memory through the instrumentality of former colonialist forces and lobbies (the Ministry of the Italian Africa, various colonial associations, the Italian refugees from Africa, even the substantial concert among the newly Italian republican parties). 

The U.N. assignment of the ten-year long trusteeship upon Somalia to the former colonial power, Italy, focuses the relevance of Somali case inside the broader context of manipulation of colonial history and memory. A new wave in the Italian historiography came in the late 1970s only. The public discourse about colonialism in Italy (his memory and his reality) reveals the existence of distinct memories and different histories even today. Indeed, African colonies represented an important question in order to set up the Italianità (Italian identity) not only for the former colonialist Italian regime, but also for the new Italian Republic. Thus, colonial past is still affecting contemporary Italian public discourse and sometimes shows nostalgic expressions. In sum, my proposal intends to analyse Italian Colonialism as identity-maker in both Somali and Italian history, arguing his multi-faced effects during the post-colonial period.

About Antonio M. Morone

On March 2, 2007 Antonio M. Morone successfully defended his Doctorate thesis in Contemporary History (Governo nella Somalia sotto Amministratione Fiduciaria Italiana. Dal trapianto istituzionale all’indipendenza) at the Political and Social Department of Pavia University (doctorate title: “Institutions, Ideas and Political Movements in Contemporary Europe”). Morone’s thesis analyses the case of institutional transplant in Somalia under the Italian Trust Administration, arguing that cross-contamination between local institutions and foreign efforts outlined a synchronic process of clanisation of modern political parties and modernisation of traditional hierarchies. Broadly speaking, he extensively studied the politics and administration of Italian colonialism in Africa and the memory of Italian colonization among Italians and Africans. Morone was visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo (November 2005-Setember 2006) and at the Program of Africa Studies of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (March-July 2007). He participated as convenor in a couple of international and Italian congress and published two papers in as much Italian scholarly journals: “L’Onu e l’Amministrazione fiduciaria italiana in Somalia. Dall’idea all’istituzione del trusteeship”, Italia Contemporanea, March 2006, n. 242, pp. 45- 64 (available also on-line http://www.insmli.it/pubblicazioni/1/ic_242_morone.pdf ) and “La crisi dello Stato in Somalia: una riconsiderazione storico-giuridica”, Il Politico, May-August 2002, n.2, pp. 277-317. Other two pieces are under press, devoting particular attention to the legacy and by-products of colonialism in both contemporary Italian society and politics. From October 2007 up to now, Morone is collaborating with the chair of African History at Pavia University.