Dead Angelo Del Boca, pioneer of studies on Italian colonialism – Corriere.it

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Anyone with an interest in the history of Italian colonialism cannot ignore the works of Angelo Del Boca, who died yesterday in his Turin home at the age of 96. Its one of the cases in which the excavation of journalists far anticipated the work of historians. As a non-academic, but extraordinarily passionate and hardworking scholar, he had ventured into that very delicate subject first as a pioneer and then as the most authoritative specialist on the subject, with reconstructions that can be considered authentic milestones. He was recognized by all as the dean of colonial studies.

To understand the moral and civil importance of De Boca’s work it must be remembered that the conquest of Ethiopia had marked the pinnacle of popularity for the fascist regime, which had exalted the enterprise in the most emphatic manner. Then, after 1945, silence fell on that conflict for twenty years. And a very substantial part of the Italians continued to cultivate a positive memory.


It was not a professional historian who violated the tab, but Del Boca, journalist and special correspondent of undoubted talent, who first published a serial survey in the Gazzetta del Popolo, the Turin newspaper he worked for, and then published the volume for Feltrinelli in 1965 The Abyssinian War 1935-1941, destined to cause considerable sensation.

As the title suggests, Del Boca didn’t just rebuild the conquest campaign between 1935 and 1936, but it went as far as the fall of the fascist empire during the Second World War, underlining how Ethiopia had never been pacified under the banner of the lictorium, according to the version of the propaganda of regime, but had instead forced the occupying troops to harsh repressive actions against frequent rebellions.

There was also ample space dedicated to crimes in that essay carried out by the Italian military, including the use of toxic gases prohibited by international conventions. On this point the author would have had a long controversy with Indro Montanelli, a former fighter in the war of Ethiopia, who denied the use of chemical weapons by the Italian: extensive official documentation would finally have closed the dispute in favor of Del Boca, in 1996, complete with self-criticism by the great Tuscan journalist. The gases had been used all right, even if that move had not been decisive for the outcome of a fight that was still too unequal between the Italian and Abyssinian forces.

However, Del Boca had not held a grudge against Montanellion the contrary, he had defended him last year from the posthumous accusations against him regarding his behavior during the Ethiopian campaign, which resulted in the repeated act of soiling his monument in Milan.

After the first works dedicated to the war of Ethiopia Del Boca, with unparalleled alacrity and passion, he had extended his research to other colonial events related to our country, to produce fundamental works such as Italians in East Africa (four volumes published by Laterza between 1976 and 1984, then reprinted by Mondadori) and The Italians in Libya (two volumes published by Laterza in 1986, also re-proposed by Mondadori). He later dedicated an important biography to the last Ethiopian monarch Hail Selassi, The Negus(Laterza, 1995), and another to the Libyan dictator, Gaddafi(Laterza, 1998).

Over the years, his almost militant approach had somewhat weakened, which had often placed him in contrast with the associations of refugees and veterans from Africa. The judgments had become more balanced, as evidenced for example by the collection of testimonies, which he edited, Our Africa(Neri Pozza, 2003). But Del Boca had never ceased to disprove the myth according to which the colonialism of our home would be more humane and good-natured than the others. In 2005, now in his eighties, he took the field again to criticize him in the book Italians, good people? (Neri Pozza), in which he also dwelt on other tragic events.

Born in Novara on May 23, 1925, after September 8, 1943 Del Boca had answered the draft call from the Fascist Social Republic and had trained in Germany, before returning to Italy in the ranks of the Monterosa Alpine Division. He had therefore deserted from Sal’s army in October 1944, to join the partisan formations of Justice and Freedom, close to the Action Party, after a negative experience with the Communist Garibaldians. During the first part of his partisan experience he had kept an extremely interesting diary, published over seventy years later with the title In the night the stars guide us (Mondadori, 2015), edited by Mimmo Franzinelli, accompanied by an explanatory note by Del Boca himself.

The balance sheet must be added to the historiographical work of this author almost as significant as his journalistic activity at the Gazzetta del Popolo and then at the Giorno, with notable investigations (on neo-fascism, asylums, on the press crisis) and reports from all over the world (Israel, Yugoslavia, South Africa) other volumes by his signature. The autobiographical text is important from this point of view My twentieth century (Neri Pozza, 2008).

Even late in the day, Del Boca continued to follow international events with unchanged passion. For example, he took sides against Western military intervention in Libya, which led to the fall of Gaddafi. In his opinion it was a mistake to eliminate the dictator of Tripoli without alternatives, with the risk of favoring the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

July 6, 2021 (change July 6, 2021 | 20:30)

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