Italy, 1911. For the 50th anniversary of national unification, the three capital cities of the Kingdom of Italy commence the celebrations for the fatherland’s jubilee. Exhibitions are inaugurated, such as the International Exposition of Industry and Work in Turin, the Italian Portrait Exhibition in Florence, or the Ethnographic Exhibition and the Regional Exhibition in Rome. Foreign countries took part, setting up their own pavilions to showcase products industry, art, and craftmanship [1].

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In Turin, the Padiglione degli Italiani all’estero (Pavilion of Italians Abroad) hosts the colonial exhibitions, including bibliographic and cartographic sections, as well as botanical and ethnographic exhibits of utensils, furniture, weapons and other artifacts coming from the Italian overseas domains—Eritrea and Somalia. Even Somali and Eritrean people, civilians, and colonial troopers (zaptié and ascari) were employed to stage scenes of life in the communities of the Horn of Africa. The organizers thus strove to dispel the widespread belief that the Italian domains were barren and unproductive lands.

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Two ‘typical’ local villages are staged. The Eritrean one, built on the Po River’s banks, hosts some tukul homes, a Dancalian hut, and a Coptic church, with seven men and an old woman showcasing their jewel-making, weaving, braiding and embroidery. The Somali village, presented as the most common settlement found along the Uebi, Scebeli or Juba rivers, is set up alongside the Po. It is animated by women, men, and children of the various clans (cabile), which governed social relationships within Somali society. Among them were ‘indigenous people from notable families’, others from Mogadishu or other coastal territories, and eight ascari. They inhabited fifteen huts built around a mosque, and spent their time working fabrics, practicing archery, and praying. The ascari stood watch and helped visitors navigate the ethnographic exhibits [2].

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Postcard from the 1911 colonial exhibitions in Turin.

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Since the beginning of Italy’s colonial expansion in Eritrea, several colonial exhibitions had been held, and the one in Turin was not the only one to include a ‘human zoo’. The display of members of the dominated populations had indeed played an important role in shaping a ‘colonial consciousness’, necessary to legitimize military involvement in Africa [3] and to favor the “popularization of racial hierarchy” [4]. Nonetheless, the 1911 exhibition was the largest to date, and it coincided with an escalation of the imperialist campaign that had begun in previous years, culminating in the Italo-Turkish war in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in September 1911, while the jubilee celebrations were still ongoing.

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To quote Guido Abbattista, the Turin exhibitions were perfectly aligned with that political and cultural climate. Each of the two indigenous villages had to communicate a specific situation and send a particular message. By showcasing their handicraft skills, the ‘inhabitants’ of the Eritrean village were there to demonstrate their artistry and craftmanship. The exhibit presented them as hardworking people who could easily integrate into the Italian economy and be exploited for the greater good of Italy, while perpetuating the narrative of their cultural and technological primitiveness, which justified Italy’s civilizing mission. On the other hand, the Somali village was meant to highlight the unknown aspects of the recently conquered land, stimulating scientific interest in its natural resources and its newly subjugated people. The exhibit emphasized the picturesque and even unsettling elements of the Somali village, “spectacularized” and triggering reactions of “attraction and repulsion” through the encounter with “a different kind of exotic, still showing signs of an uncivilized condition” [5].

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For most Italians, these exhibitions were the only way to ‘discover’ the overseas colonies, turning them into attractions, as was the case with the Turin exhibition. Many people attended, even though it was well known that not all the ‘inhabitants’ of the Eritrean village were actually from Eritrea (three were Ethiopians and two came from British Sudan), and that the Somalis mostly came from British Somalia, and were contracted by a German trader who imported animals and human beings from Africa and the Orient into Europe [6]. The Somalis attracted the most attention from visitors and the press, intrigued by their somatic traits, their supposedly poor building abilities—counterbalanced by fine navigation skills—and their relative fluency in Italian, which was widespread among ascari [7]. In addition, the Somalis would not return to Africa after the end of the exhibition but instead would embark on a touring exhibition, designed to replicate the Turin effect for a wider public and reinforce consensus around colonial expansion. This was intended to cement Italian national identity by contrasting it with spectacles of alterity.

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Postcard from the 1911 colonial exhibitions in Turin.

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Thus, after the two villages were dismantled and as the Eritreans returned to Africa [8], the Somalis went on a tour of major Italian cities. In Florence, they were included in an ongoing study of anthropometric measurement promoted by the National Anthropology Museum on some non-European population samples [9]. The scientific and political interest in them was compounded by economic motives, as organizers sought to profit from [ displays of those exotic bodies in smaller cities and towns, where the chances of meeting colonial subjects were usually close to zero.

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At the end of March 1912, for example, the Somali group arrived in Macerata, whose population was less than 23,000 people, located far from metropolitan areas and commercial hubs. Evidence of their visit can be found in newspapers, with articles extolling the uniqueness of this event with markedly colonial tones. The local periodical “L’Unione” enthusiastically announced their arrival: “Rejoice, those who seek entertainment, novelty, and variety! […] A hundred Somalians of our African colony will pitch their tents on the stage” of the Marchetti Politeama Theater, and “fresh from the Turin Exhibition”, for just two days “will show themselves and all their costumes” [10]. Other sources pointed out that Somalis were “traditional enemies of the Arabs”, whom Italy was fighting in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica [11]. Though their visit was brief, according to local chronicles, they aroused “curiosity” and “interest” in visitors, contributing to the spread of nationalist pro-colonial war sentiments in another corner of Italy, just as another war was taking place:

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The popular theater was packed last Saturday and Sunday. The Somalians—among whom magnificent specimens of African beauty—showed off all their costumes and crafts […] every once in a while, the tribe convened on the stage to enact the wildest war scenes, accompanied by truly savage yelling […] a truly extraordinary spectacle of remarkable originality [12].