But We Built Roads For Them The Lies, Racism and False Memories around Italy's Colonial Past

In the fiery political debates in and about Italy, silence reigns about the country’ s colonial legacy. Reducing European colonial history to Britain and France has effectively concealed an enduring phenomenon in Italian history that lasted for 80 years (1882 to 1960). It also blots out the history of the countries it colonized in Northeastern Africa. Francesco Filippi challenges the myth of Italians being “ nice people” or “ good” colonialists who simply built roads for Africans. Despite extensive historiography, the collective awareness of the nations conquered and the violence inflicted on them remains superficial, be it in Italy or internationally. He retraces Italy’ s colonial history, focusing on how propaganda, literature and popular culture have warped our understanding of the past and thereby hampered our ability to deal with the present. Filippi’ s unique approach in which he deftly pits historical facts against popular myths provides a model that can be adapted to countries everywhere, including the United States and Canada.

Robin Philpot is publisher of Baraka Books and author or co-author of seven books in English and French including Rwanda and the New Scramble for Africa and A People's History of Quebec. He lives in Montreal. Domenic Cusmano is a Montreal communications professional, photojournalist, and translator whose previous translations include books from Italian and French into English. Publisher and editor of Accenti Magazine, he holds degrees from the Université de Montré al and McGill University. His work as a photojournalist has taken him throughout Europe, Africa and South America. Francesco Filippi is a historian of mentalities and an educator who has specialized in the relationship between memory and the present. He is co-founder of Deina, an association that organises trips of memory and training courses all over Italy. Filippi is the author of five books including the Italian bestseller Mussolini Also Did A Lot of Good Things (Baraka Books 2021). He lives in Trento, Italy.