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).