Museo civico l'Italia in Africa — Attraction in Ragusa

There is, of course, no such thing as an objective history: any retelling of past events is inevitably influenced by the storyteller’s present ideas and opinions. This museum, however, makes no attempts at presenting an unbiased account of Italy’s colonial history. Instead, it provides a one-sided and sanitised version of these events.

Here, the story of Italian colonialisation is distorted in two ways. First, by willingly omitting large pieces of important historical information. And second, by reproducing narratives from the colonial period which present the Italian colonialists as purely a force for good in Africa.

In the first instance, primary historical sources are presented without any contextual information. For example, on the wall hangs an original government-controlled newspaper reporting Mussolini’s speech given after the capture of Addis Ababa in 1936 (i.e. a piece of propaganda), which describes the event as a ‘mission to secure peace in the region’ (like Putin’s ‘special military operation’ to bring peace to Ukraine). No other information is given about the Italian occupation of Addis Ababa, such as the Yekatit 12 massacre of thousands of citizens there just eight months later. Nor was mention made to the mustard gas and chemical weapons Italy used in contravention of the Geneva Conventions in the weeks before it. Further, the 1896 Battle of Adwa was described by the tour guide as an act of Ethiopian aggression toward the Italians in Eritrea. However, Italy was not highlighted as the aggressor, when describing events in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War that it initiated without provocation in 1935.

In the second case, the tour guide (who was himself very polite and attentive) took great care in highlighting that the Italians, as opposed to the French and English, were kind colonisers. This claim was evidenced by photos of an Italian soldier lighting a cigarette for an African, images of African children attending Italian schools and public buildings built for the benefit of the colonised population. Highlighting the good deeds of Italians during colonialisation purposefully masks the great deal of crimes committed by Italians in this period, and was a tactic that was repeatedly used by the fascist government to justify its actions. Presenting these stories over again without any contradicting or opposing voices (of which there is many) intentionally inaccurate.

My great-grandfather was born 40km from Ragusa and went to Eritrea in service of the Italian colonial army. If you want to honour the memory of those who participated in this piece of history, then he, as well as the colonised Africans, deserve a more balanced account of these events – not a purposefully...

Un museo che di per sé potrebbe essere interessante perché vi si trovano documenti rari del periodo coloniale, fotografie che illustrano la vita nelle colonie, le uniformi utilizzate , articoli di giornale dell' epoca. Purtroppo però in questo museo non si accenna minimamente al lato oscuro delle guerre di colonizzazione italiane in nord Africa. Gli attacchi con i gas contro la popolazione inerme, i massacri, la violenza contro le donne, nulla di tutto questo traspare nell'esposizione e chi non fosse informato potrebbe sembrare che la colonizzazione italiana in Libia Etiopia ed Eritrea sia stata una vicenda positiva e meritevole. Ma oltre alla costruzione di strade, edifici, e quant' altro, ci sono aspetti del colonialismo italiano, che evidentemente si preferisce dimenticare. Invito chi volesse avere un quadro più completo e onesto della nostra avventura coloniale a leggere i libri di Angelo Del Boca, uno dei massimi studiosi In questo campo (ad esempio il libro " Italiani brava gente") o il romanzo "Sangue giusto" della Melandri. Questo museo che lo voglia o no, così com'è, purtroppo non contribuisce alla conoscenza della storia italiana e finisce anzi per essere una forma di pura apologia...

The museum is free and you will be guided through the different rooms by the very nice staff. Although it is full of history and important memories, this museum comes off as a gadget of procolonialism. Some comments were made about how Italians were nice to the people of Africa which feels a very ignorant way to...