Gender and Sexual Abuses during the Italian Colonization of Ethiopia and Eritrea —The “Insabbiatti”, Thirty Years after
Abstract
This paper explores the singular role of cross-cultural couples of Italian men and Abyssinian
women during the fascist colonies in East Africa (Eritrea and Ethiopia). This article is based on an
inquiry driven ethno-historical research conducted 30 years ago in Ethiopia among ex-Italian colonial
actors in Ethiopia and their concubines. These ex-colons were calling themselves insabbiatti
a very original term locally employed. To be an insabbiatto is to be stuck, shipwrecked, stranded
in the sand. It means to be forgotten in Far-South Italian colonies (such as East Africa or Libya).