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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Italian educational policy in Eritrea during the fascist period: praxis and legacy
| Panel |
18. Education and Social change in Eastern and Southern Africa
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| Paper ID | 546 |
| Author(s) |
Palma, Silvana
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Fascism represented a historical turning point in the development of educational system both in Italy and in Eritrea: the Italian-Ethiopian war and the creation of the Empire, in particular, coincided with the highest level of the cultural policy built by the regime during the previous fifteen years. Fascism paid also a special attention to children who became in Italy the target of a special ‘colonial pedagogy’ nurtured by and built around the imperial dream.
While Africa and African images and representations invaded pupils’ world and imagery, children became the privileged target of propaganda but also protagonists in a multiplicity of roles and colonial representations.
In Eritrea, where the dual system of education did not allow Eritreans to attend Italian schools, a new set of regulations were issued in an effort to make the African child a “conscious propagandist” of Italian civilization and a fascist “militia man”.
The ‘africanization’ of Italian children universe vs the italianization of the Eritrean one, the image of the ‘other’ conveyed during the fascist regime and its surviving legacy is what the paper will seeks to explore.
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