Our project will reassess the history of Italian colonialism in the Horn of Africa by re-signifying the vast collections of objects, archival documents and photographs amassed by geographer and explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti (1855-1926) and tracing their afterlives. Bricchetti's is an emblematic case study which we use to illuminate and uncover the complex transnational networks of early European imperialism. We are interested in how early Italian colonialism was promoted through Bricchetti's collections and displays, writings and public lectures during his lifetime, but also why this story does not (yet) form part of public memory either in Italy or the countries he explored.
To this end, our research involves people from various communities and countries implicated in Bricchetti's collecting, in the hope of co-creating new, more inclusive histories of African-Italian relations for the present and for the future. Based in Oxford and Pavia, and working in partnership with colleagues in Egypt and Ethiopia, our team is working at the interface of public history, memory studies, and museology. We want to transform historical consciousness of how and why Italy became a colonial power through a range of self-reflexive and imaginative outputs, including workshops, public exhibitions, learning materials and teacher training opportunities, a decolonial walking tour app, and an online open access repository.
