The Conquering Heroes and East Africa, Jorge Bonsenor

This exhibition attempts to convey what impact of colonization east Africa had Italian national identity and does it reasonably well. As you walk into the gallery space you encounter a sign that describes the general theme of the exhibition and a general sense of what’s on display which are mostly propaganda items related to the colonization of east Africa. In 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. This is during the reign of Benito Mussolini, a fascist leader who would later lose these colonies and be killed at the end of World War II. 

 To the right of this sign are maps and aerial photographs of colonized areas.  In front of this are a series of pictures. There are two rows, the top being Italian planes flying over iconic historical Italian buildings signifying advancement and progress. Below this are a series of pictures of an education complex commissioned by Mussolini in an attempt to build a third Rome to advance Italian society. In this portion of the exhibition one can start to understand the Italian motivation for colonization as a method of advancement and expansion of the empire as Rome once did using advanced technologies such as airplanes to move the country into the future which meant a smaller and more unified world.

Moving up the right side of the exhibition you would encounter a series of propaganda posters promoting the purchase of government subsidized radios so everyone can listen to government run programming. Right below this is a table displaying various objects one of which is a board game that was originally from one of the colonized lands but was redesigned to promote Italian nationalism. It is very important to understand the impact of these two objects on Italian citizens. The radio was one of the few methods of long distance communications.  The radio shrunk the world in a manner of speaking because messages could be transmitted across the entire empire. The board game took something that was a part of the culture of the land they conquered and subsequently altered its message to show Italian colonialism in a positive light. Especially since this was geared towards children this gave them the impression that the empire was all powerful and they lived a privileged life as a citizen in that country.

Most of the other works in the exhibition were propaganda paintings, sculpture, and craft ware but the most interesting piece was a small display of a model train. This train represented the establishment of modern train service in Italy in 1930 and then began in Eritrea soon after. This connected the countries by way of technological progress and allowed for Italian citizens from the mainland to visit the new territory. The most important thing about this is the Italian citizens who visited Eritrea thought of themselves as conquering heroes. This reveals the most about how colonization affected Italian national identity.