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Source:
Corriere Musicale Rassegna Fonografica, November 25 - December 25, 1935
Description:
This recording is part of a vast propaganda repertoire of popular songs designed to accompany the political preparation and conduct of the Second Italo-Ethiopian Conflict, followed by the victory of Fascist troops and the founding of the Italian Empire in East Africa. These songs evoke this colonial war and its finality, using a wide range of modes and themes. In addition to the war and the Fascist martyrs, many of these songs assert the legitimacy of Italian colonization of Ethiopia, and more broadly of East Africa, presenting it in particular as a liberating and civilizing mission carried out among indigenous populations who were allegedly enslaved by the Emperor of Ethiopia, the Negus Haile Selassie. Throughout this repertoire, colonized populations are the subject of racist representations. When they evoke the "African woman", these racist representations also become sexual (see Gianpaolo Chiriacò, "Afrovocality – Ethiopia in 1930 Italian Popular Music", https://afrovocality.com/eirpop/ethiopia-in-1930-italian-popular-music/, accessed on February 12, 2025).