"'Faccetta Nera'" ("Little Black Face" or "Pretty Black Face") is a popular

marching song A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's ...

of Fascist Italy about the

Second Italo-Ethiopian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...

. It was written by Renato Micheli with music by Mario Ruccione in 1935. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a fascist Italian

Blackshirt The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...

soldier during the invasion of Ethiopia. In the song, the Italian narrator tells a beautiful young enslaved Abysinnian (Ethiopian) girl that she will be liberated from slavery and ruled by a new regime. She is invited to parade with the fascist Blackshirts in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where she is promised a new and better life.

Themes

Slavery in Ethiopia Slavery in Ethiopia existed for centuries, going as far back as 1495 BC. There are also sources indicating the export of slaves from the Aksumite Kingdom (100–940 AD). The practice formed an integral part of Ethiopian society, Ethiopians from th ...

is a prominent theme in the song. The song follows the trend of Italian fascist propaganda portraying the invasion not as a war of conquest, but as a war of liberation to abolish Ethiopian slavery. The song also contains heavily implied themes of interracial romance. The song is noticeably focused on the freedom of only Ethiopian women, and the Italian is fixated on the physical beauty of the young Ethiopian woman. The lyric "La legge nostra è schiavitù d'amore" ("Our law is the slavery of love") suggests that the Italian desires intimacy with the Ethiopian woman besides liberating her from slavery. This is part of the overall trend of Italian media exoticising and sexualising the women of Ethiopia to portray them as objects of sexual conquest who must be rescued from "uncivilised" Ethiopian men.

History

The hymn is said to have been inspired by a beautiful young Abyssinian girl, who was found by the Italian troops at the beginning of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. During the invasion, the song was hugely popular in Italy and caused national fervor.Forgacs, David (2014), Italy's Margins: Social Exclusion and Nation Formation since 1861, , pp. 80-81 During the fascist occupation of Ethiopia, Ethiopian women cohabited with Italian men in a system of

concubinage Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubin ...

known as ''madamato''. The implicitly erotic song was, however, somewhat of an embarrassment for the Fascist government, which had, starting in May 1936, introduced several laws prohibiting cohabitation and marriage between Italians and native people of the

Italian colonial empire The Italian colonial empire ( it, Impero coloniale italiano), known as the Italian Empire (''Impero Italiano'') between 1936 and 1943, began in Africa in the 19th century and comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions and dependencie ...

. These efforts culminated in the Italian Racial Laws of 1938. The Fascist authorities considered banning the song, and removed all picture postcards depicting Abyssinian women from Roman shop windows.

Lyrics

References

External links

Recording as sung by Carlo Buti

Italian East Africa Italian-language songs 1935 songs Italian fascist songs {{1930s-song-stub

Themes

History

Lyrics

See also

References

External links