𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐈

The Italian Racial Laws and the War in Ethiopia

As the invasion of Ethiopia neared, Mussolini became obsessed with an anxiety over instances of miscegenation between Italians and Africans, producing mixed-race children. Such instances, though still rare, already occurred in the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Somalia. Mussolini’s state of mind was revealed to Baron Pompeo Aloisi, who when he called on the Duce on April 2, 1934, found him “very upset” by his discovery of a book, Amore Nero (Black Love), that dealt with a love affair between an Italian and a black woman. Mussolini had the book immediately withdrawn from circulation. On August 5, 1936, only several months after the conquest of Ethiopia, a decree was issued outlining the system of racial separation that would now char- acterize Italian East Africa. Beginning with the fundamental provision that “the lives of whites and blacks should be completely separate in Italian East Africa,” it went on to specify the details of this program: “gradual separation of the habi- tations of nationals and indigents”; “avoidance of all familiarity between the two races”; segregation of public space; and the end of “madamismo” (concubines) and “sciarmuttismo” (biracial children). The police were instructed to enforce these provisions with “extreme rigor,” and anyone who was so bold as to live with or act married to a native would be deported. Until the anticipated arrival of Italian women in Africa created the conditions appropriate for proper family life, brothels staffed by Italian prostitutes were set up for the Italian soldiers. Not surprisingly, natives were absolutely forbidden to patronize them.

Mussolini made his intention to initiate eugenics policies apparent even before he entered the government. At a Fascist Congress in Rome held in November 1921, he announced: “Fascism must concern itself with the racial problem; Fascists must concern themselves with the health of the race by which history is made.” Little was done initially to realize these goals, since Mussolini spent his first years in office largely preoccupied with setting up a dictatorship. After this task was largely completed, in 1925, he devoted more attention to accomplishing Fascism’s long-term objectives, including the remaking of the Italian people.

Anti-racist “fascists” will often claim that Mussolini was against biological racism, that he had no concern for race. They will even claim that Italian racism and antisemitism was simply imported from the Germans in an attempt to please Hitler. None of these claims could be further from the truth, let’s see what Mussolini has to say on the subject:

“A Jewish problem exists, and it is no longer confined to that shadowy sphere.”
-Benito Mussolini, The Zionists, 1928

“I have been a racist since 1921. I don't know how they can think I'm imitating Hitler, we must give Italians a sense of race.” 
-Benito Mussolini, Claretta Petacci’s Diary

“However, for Italy - as well as for other countries inhabited by people of the White race - it is a matter of life or death. It is a matter of knowing whether the civilization of the white man is destined to perish in the face of the growing number of yellow and black races.”
-Benito Mussolini, Is The White Race Dying? 1934

“In addition, a system of apartheid was introduced involving segregation in public places and an April 1937 law made sexual relations between whites and blacks a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. A popular Fascist song was ‘Faccetta nera’ (Little Black Face) about a slave girl freed by Italian soldiers so she can go to Rome and wear a black shirt. Eventually, Mussolini banned the song and ordered Badoglio to punish Italian soldiers guilty of “sexual relations with native girls."
-Nicholas Farrel, Mussolini: A New Life

“We Fascists acknowledge the existence of races, their differences and their hierarchy. But this does not mean that we present ourselves to the world as the embodiment of the White race in a war against other races; and we do not intend to make ourselves the preachers of exclusivism and racial hatred.”
-Benito Mussolini, The Irrefutable Fact, 1935

“The forerunner and justifier of anti-semitism is always and everywhere the same: the Jew, whenever he becomes overbearing, as he so often does.” 
-Benito Mussolini, Too Much Is Crippling, 1936

“We then ask the Italian Jews: are you a religion or are you a nation? This question is not intended to give rise to anti-Semitic riots, but merely to bring to light a problem which I know exists, and which is useless to further ignore.”
-Benito Mussolini, Religion or Nation? 1928

“We cannot remain deaf to the struggle for Fiume, we deeply feel the living nature of the ties that bind us not only with the Italians of Zara, Ragusa, Cattaro, but also with the Italians of Ticino, even with those Italians that do not wish to be Italian – with the Italians of Corsica, Italians living across the ocean, with that huge family that we wish to unite under the aegis of common racial pride.”
-Benito Mussolini, First Fascist Congress, Milan March 23, 1919

“The genius of a race reborn, of Latin tradition, unchangingly active in our thousands of years old history, a return to the Roman and simultaneously Christian idea of state, a synthesis of the great past with a radiant future.”
-The Fascist Decalogue, 1938