Italian Eritreans (or Eritrean Italians) are Eritrean-born descendants of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

settlers as well as Italian long-term residents in Eritrea.

History

Their ancestry dates back from the beginning of the Italian colonization of Eritrea at the end of the 19th century, but only after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935 they settled in large numbers. In the 1939 census of Eritrea there were more than 75,000 Eritrean Italians, most of them (53,000) living in Asmara. Many Italian settlers got out of their colony after its conquest by the Allies in November 1941 and they were reduced to only 38,000 by 1946. This also includes a population of mixed Italian and Eritrean descent; most Italian Eritreans still living in Eritrea are from this mixed group. Although many of the remaining Italians stayed during the decolonization process after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and are actually assimilated to the Eritrean society, a few are stateless today, as none of them were given citizenship unless through marriage or, more rarely, by having it conferred upon them by the State.

The Italian colony of Eritrea

From 1882 to 1941 Eritrea was ruled by the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

. In those sixty years Eritrea was populated - mainly in the area of Asmara - by groups of Italian colonists, who moved there from the beginning of the 20th century. The Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. Italian administration of Eritrea brought some of their own methodes in the medical and agricultural sectors of Eritrean society (i.e. other access to sanitary and hospital services in the urban areas). Fiat tagliero, 08

Furthermore, the Italians employed many Eritreans in public service (in particular in the police and public works departments) and oversaw the provision of urban amenities in Asmara and Massawa. In a region marked by cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity, a succession of Italian governors maintained a notable degree of unity and public order. The Italians also built many major infrastructural projects in Eritrea, including the Asmara-Massawa Cableway and the Eritrean Railway. Benito Mussolini's rise to power in Italy in 1922 brought profound changes to the colonial government in Eritrea. Mussolini established the Italian Empire in May 1936. The fascists imposed harsh rule that stressed the political and racial superiority of Italians. Eritreans were demoted to menial positions in the public sector in 1938. Eritrea was chosen by the Italian government to be the industrial center of the

Italian East Africa Italian East Africa ( it, Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire, conquered in the S ...

. The Italian government continued to implement agricultural reforms but primarily on farms owned by Italian colonists (exports of coffee boomed in the thirties). In the area of Asmara there were in 1940 more than 2000 small and medium-sized industrial companies, concentrated in the areas of construction, mechanics, textiles, electricity and food processing. Consequently, the living standard of life in Eritrea in 1939 was considered one of the best of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

for the Italian colonists and for the Eritreans. The Mussolini government regarded the colony as a strategic base for future aggrandizement and ruled accordingly, using Eritrea as a base to launch its 1935–1936 campaign to colonize

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. In 1939 nearly 40% of the male Eritreans able to fight were enrolled in the colonial Italian Army: the best Italian colonial troops during World War II were the Eritrean Ascari, as stated by Italian Marshall

Rodolfo Graziani Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli (; 11 August 1882 – 11 January 1955), was a prominent Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy's '' Regio Esercito'' ("Royal Army"), primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and durin ...

and legendary officer

Amedeo Guillet Baron Amedeo Guillet (February 7, 1909 – June 16, 2010) was an officer of the Italian Army and an Italian Diplomat. Dying at the age of 101, he was one of the last men to have commanded cavalry in war. He was nicknamed ''Devil Commander'' a ...

Asmara development

Asmara was populated by a numerous Italian community and the city acquired an Italian architectural look. Today Asmara is worldwide known for its early 20th-century Italian buildings, including the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

Cinema Impero, "Cubist" Africa Pension, eclectic Orthodox Cathedral and former

Opera House An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

, the

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

Fiat Tagliero Building The Fiat Tagliero Building is a Futurist-style service station in Asmara, Eritrea. It was completed in 1938 and designed by the Italian engineer Giuseppe Pettazzi. Historical background The Fiat Tagliero is noted as one of the foremost Art De ...

, the

neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Asmara The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Asmara ( it, Chiesa della Beata Vergine del Rosario) is a Roman Catholic church built in the early 1920s in Asmara, when the city was the capital of Italian Eritrea. Often called "the cathedral", it is a large ...

, and the neoclassical Governor's Palace. The city is littered with Italian

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

s and

mansions A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property la ...

. Most of central Asmara was built between 1935 and 1941, so effectively the Italians designed and enabled the local Eritrean population to build almost an entire city, in just six years. The city of Asmara had a population of 98,000, of which 53,000 were

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

according to the Italian census of 1939. This fact made Asmara the main "Italian town" of the

Italian 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 dependenci ...

in Africa. In all Eritrea the Italians were 75,000 in that year. Numerous industrial investments were done by the Italians in the area of Asmara and Massawa, but the beginning of

put a halt to the Italian industrialization of Eritrea. Italian East Africa map 1936

The following Italian guerrilla war against the Allies was supported by some Eritrean colonial troops until the Italian armistice in September 1943. Eritrea was placed under

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

military administration after the Italian surrender in

. The Italians in Eritrea started to move away from the country after the defeat of the

by the Allies, and Asmara in the British census of 1949 already had only 17,183 Italian Eritreans on a total population of 127,579. Most Italian settlers left for Italy, with others to United States, Middle East, and Australia.

After WWII

The British initially maintained the Italian administration of Eritrea, but the country soon became involved in a violent struggle for independence (from the British in the late 1940s and, after 1952, from the Ethiopians, who annexed Eritrea in that year). During the last years of World War II, Vincenzo di Meglio defended the Italians of Eritrea politically and successively promoted the independence of Eritrea. After the war he was named Director of the "Comitato Rappresentativo Italiani dell' Eritrea" (CRIE). In 1947 he supported the creation of the ''"Associazione Italo-Eritrei"'' and the ''"Associazione Veterani Ascari"'', in order to get an alliance with the Eritreans favorable to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in Eritrea. As a result of this support, he co-founded the ''"Partito Eritrea Pro Italia"'' (Party of Shara Italy) in September 1947, an Eritrean political party favorable to the Italian presence in Eritrea that obtained more than 200,000 inscriptions of membership in one single month. Indeed, the Italian Eritreans strongly rejected the

n annexation of Eritrea after the war: the Party of Shara Italy was established in Asmara in 1947 and the majority of the members were former Italian soldiers with many Eritrean Ascari (the organization was even backed up by the government of Italy). The main objective of this party was Eritrean independence, but they had a pre-condition that stated that before independence the country should be governed by Italy for at least 15 years (as happened with Italian Somalia). Since then the Eritrean Italians have diminished as a community and now are reduced to a few hundreds, mainly located in the capital Asmara. The most renowned of them is the professional cyclist Domenico Vaccaro, who won the last stage of the Tour of Eritrea in Asmara in April 2008.

Language and religion

Most Italian Eritreans can speak

. The last remaining Italian-language school, the Scuola Italiana di Asmara, renowned in Eritrea for its sports activities, closed in 2020. Italian is still spoken in commerce in Eritrea. Until 1975, there were in Asmara an Italian Lyceum, an Italian Technical Institute, an Italian Middle school and special university courses in Medicine held by Italian teachers.http://www.ilchichingiolo.it/cassetto26.htm Memories 1968–1976 of Lino Pesce, an Italian School Director in Asmara (in Italian) Gino Corbella, an Italian consul in Asmara, estimated that the diffusion of the Italian language in Eritrea was supported even by the fact that in 1959, nearly 20,000 Eritreans were descendants of Italians who had illegitimate sons/daughters with Eritrean women during colonial times. The assimilated Italian Eritreans of the new generations (in 2007 they numbered nearly 900 persons) speak Tigrinya and only a bit of Italian or speak Italian as second language. Nearly all are

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

of the

Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church '' sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

, while some are converts to other denominations of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

Prominent Italian Eritreans

* Ferdinando Martini, the first Governor of the Italian Eritrea. *

Luciano Violante Luciano Violante (born 25 September 1941) is an Italian judge and politician, Member of Parliament from 1979 to 2008. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia and institutional reform. Biography Viola ...

, former President of the Italian chamber of Deputies. * Bruno Lauzi, singer-songwriter. * Italo Vassalo, footballer. *

Lara Saint Paul Silvana Savorelli (30 April 1945 – 8 May 2018), professionally known as Lara Saint Paul, was an Italian Eritrean singer, entertainer, impresario and record producer. Sanremo Music Festival Saint Paul's first public performance was in 1962 at ...

, designer. * Marina Colasanti, writer. *

Remo Girone Remo Girone (born 1948 in Asmara, Eritrea) is an Italian film and stage actor. He is best known for the role of Tano Cariddi in the epic TV mini-series ''La piovra'' (''The Octopus''). He appeared as an Italian-American mob boss in '' Live by Ni ...

, actor. * Melissa Chimenti, actress. * Ines Pellegrini, actress.

Notes

Bibliography

* Bandini, Franco. ''Gli italiani in Africa, storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943''. Longanesi. Milano, 1971. * Bereketeab, R. ''Eritrea: The making of a Nation''. Uppsala University. Uppsala, 2000. * Killinger, Charles. ''The History of Italy''. Greenwood Press. 2002. * Lowe, C.J. ''Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940''. Routledge. 2002. * Negash, Tekeste. ''Italian colonialism in Eritrea 1882–1941 (Politics, Praxis and Impact)''. Uppsala University. Uppsala, 1987. * Shillington, Kevin. ''Encyclopedia of African History''. CRC Press. London, 2005.

External links

Website of the Italians of Eritrea (in italian)

Website of the Italian school of Asmara (in italian)

Italian Art-Deco architecture of Asmara

Website with documents, maps and photos of the Italians in Eritrea (in Italian)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150924033638/http://www.ilcornodafrica.it/st-sci01.htm "1941-1951 The difficult years" (in Italian)
Italian industries and companies in Eritrea

Italian Emigration to Eritrea (in Italian)

{{authority control Catholic Church in Eritrea Ethnic groups in Eritrea Eritrea

Eritreans Eritreans are the native inhabitants of Eritrea, as well as the global diaspora of Eritrea. Eritreans constitute several component ethnic groups, some of which are related to ethnic groups that make up the Ethiopian people in neighboring Ethio ...