Report on collective memory practices concerning the right-wing
Far-Right and memory practices in Italy
Introduction
The report about attitudes towards the collective memory of resistance against far-right regimes or practices and specific narratives in collective memory in Italy traces the impact of these in the current society and the social problems it’s facing nowadays.
It attempts to give an overview of some scholars and writers’ opinion on this topic, and also their argument on how and if this is treated in our society.
The question it tries to answer is: How are past far-right movements approached today in collective memory narratives, including those cultivated by far-right movements operating in the country? – in this report you can find insights into the actions of oppressed groups and how they are represented in the collective narratives.
Besides, the report provides an excursus of visual elements and symbols of the past history. Since their construction, some of the artistic representations of the protagonist of colonial history have often been the subject of controversy, and there have been attempts to tear them down or modify them.
Memory and Amnesia of Italian colonial past
In recent years, considerable efforts have been made by scholars, activists, and politicians, in Italy to address the gaps in our understanding of the colonial era. As Jacqueline Andall and Duncan1have pointed out, the investigation of the legacy of Italian colonialism is undeniably a complex and extensive undertaking.
It requires an approach that considers a wide range of perspectives, including political, social, cultural, institutional, and economic aspects, while also taking into account the viewpoints of both the colonised and the colonisers. This ambitious and intricate endeavour is currently in progress, but it demands a thorough examination of numerous sources, including those available in archives, oral histories, and monuments.
A recent Italian interest in the colonial past is developing in the fields of Italian Studies, Arts and Cultural Studies with a focus on colonial removal (Post Colonial Studies); actually several scholars felt the need to fill up this ‘memory lapse’ to take their responsibilities and to take action in current times.
A new notion has been developed: that of ‘Difficult Heritage’2, given by S. Macdonald, which usually referred to traumas and memories such as Nazism persecutions, the Jewish Holocaust, and the Eastern Europe or Asian dictatorships. One of the challenges nowadays is to include in this notion also the experiences of colonising countries and the efforts in building the European capitalistic system.
It should remind the two main effects produced by Colonial invasions: a feeling of superiority3 and a revisionist reading that will justify this colonial past.
Several ‘second generation’ Italian artists4raised their voices to deepen this subject. First of all, these authors are Italian citizens with foreign origins, secondly, their works will talk about ‘stories’, so they will study the actual implications of official narratives. These artists show how the Italian colonialist narrative under Mussolini also aimed at creating a sort of ‘new Italian character’ by associating the ‘new Italian man’ to the ancient Roman man, who brought civilization to the ‘savages’. For more than one century, this discourse had a great impact on our Italian society, letting it ignore a piece of history which would have hurt or would have been difficult to deal with.
Far-right movements and discourses
Historical Revisionism
In contemporary far-right parties those ‘positive’ elements of the colonial ventures are romanticised instead of being object of a postcolonial melancholia; some other negative elements are conveniently forgotten5– especially the embarrassing ones. This is what is called the ‘selective’ forgetting of the colonial past.
Actually several interviews to Italian right party (Lega) representatives witness the attitude to deny controversial aspects of the colonial past – such as the denial of colonial brutalities that occurred in concentration camps in Libya by General Rodolfo Graziani.
Is this a form of revisionism? Certainly, it is a kind of minimisation and ignorance of colonial crimes, especially when the Populist radical right refuses to apologise to the former colonies for colonial atrocities; indeed apologies are considered ridiculous and superfluous also occurring that if a government’s representative ever apologised, it was motivated by opportunism.
Hence, a consequence of this attempt to forget this part of the national history is the reformulation of these ideologies in the contemporary far-right wing, nowadays led by the far and centre-right parties of Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), the League (Lega) and Go Italy (Forza Italia) who contributed to spread a negative rhetoric around important social and civic issues.
For instance, the issue of migration and integration of migrants became a key element of their political platforms by means of a discourse that criminalised migrations and asylum seekers, as well as Decrees6and laws adopted after 2018.
Why is this linked to the Italian colonial past? Actually, it is by studying the colonial past that we can understand what discourses are used and how this could be a means to manipulate the population, also through a distortion of the history itself. It is a securitisation framework that has been set in Italy for years: it makes it possible to get the support of the population and the possibility to justify their actions.
It is obvious that by doing this, racial policies will continue to exist and influence society.
Colonial memory in populist radical right
Both the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia parties are categorised as the populist radical right: they are the main far-right Italian ones which portray themselves as expressing the will of local population, therefore a society defined on the basis of an ethno-cultural border that tries to exclude the non-normative communities and paves the way to racism.
As it is analysed,7these discriminations date back to the Italian colonial past and the creation of a clear distinction between a rigid Self v. Other: actually it is the ‘Other’ that is seen as a means of dangerous contamination of Italian culture. Especially since 2013, under the leadership of Matteo Salvini8the Italian identity results as grounded in the Ancient Roman and Greek past and as against multiculturalism and outsiders such as migrants, in the party’s construction of the nation, it is a sort of revival of the grandeur of the Roman Empire.
In this case, Salvini’s perpetuation of inferiorising colonial discourse is visible for example when he suggested the black singer Bello Figo to go working on cotton plantations.
Actually, it was under fascism that the Other became embodied by the colonised African (formerly it was symbolised by the Italian southerner) and racism became constitutive of Italian national identity and of the fascist “new man”, in fact it is possible to affirm that it was the expression of Italy’s inferiority complex compared to the Great Powers of that time, as Italy was considered the Europe’s weaker internal Other.
During Italy’s refugee and migrant crisis 2014-2018, both the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia foreign policy discourse witnessed a selective ‘silencing’ of the colonial past.
The author Siddi9analysed parliamentary speeches applying Critical Discourse Analysis: the result is noticing colonial echoes in the Lega’s narratives. There is a criminalisation and an inferiorization of immigrants, especially towards Muslim immigrants by assuming that Italian values would be incompatible with the Muslim ones. That is the practice of Othering, so the migrant will be perceived as an issue, frightening and prone to criminal activities.
Both the criminalization and the inferiorization of migrants are a result of the colonial legacy: recalling the belief that Africans lacked logic, critical ability and progress10, seen in a child like state and not willing to work.
Moreover, there is an uncovered abjectification with the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia which keep on spreading the idea that migrants bring illnesses such as scabies and tuberculosis: it recalls the abjectification of the colonised ‘Other’ through Mussolini’s 1936–Legge Cirenaica per l’Impero11 and a 1940 law12 that were aimed at banning interracial marriages and denied citizenship to mixed-race children.
Here, the strategy is to re-use past narratives without specifying it and reformulate it to manipulate people’s minds. Hence, the country is experiencing a form of Post-fascism by recontextualising fascist ideas: these far-right movements reuse fascist metaphors and mottos, they depict it as a remote past, getting detached from it because it can be a threat to democracy, and also discrediting anti-fascism as an ‘irrational’ logic. It is a paradoxical behaviour that sees the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia following the fascist ideology but at the same time denying the violence of certain actions and the proximity to them.
The Resistance(s)
Some scholars13 mark the fact that it was the anti-fascist movement after the Second World War who was committed to rebuild the nation and put the basis for a new beginning; this means that the anti-fascism should be put at the basis of the discourse on democracy and constitutionality. But first, it is necessary to recognise the existence of this anti-fascism to allow a public debate later, what happens instead is that the parties underestimate or ignore this part of history to not put it under a positive light.
The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni published a letter on the 25th of April 2023, the Italian Liberation Day: the terms she uses are the result of the normalisation of fascism by the far-right: in practice she did not use the terms ‘partisan’ and ‘Resistance’ to refer to the historical occurrences, and that is a way to undervalue them in a such important day. Moreover, she never used the term ‘anti-fascism’ in her letter, always insisting on the distance between current time and that period.
Contemporary oppressive systems
Women
Holding the focus on the far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the society today is witnessing the new debate on her choice to be called ‘il Presidente’ with a male pronoun in Italian, instead of the female one: the Gender Discourse Analysis can explain this choice because it is a way to get her institutional position recognised according to the normative and traditional standards typically associated to a male figure.
Actually this is a way to pretend to receive this political power without ever altering it and respecting the hierarchical and patriarchal ideology already fixed in society. There is a presence of female figures in politics but they are not considered as part of the norm, that is the reason why whenever they get a seat in the institution, they are seen as exceptions to the standards.
Besides, within the women minority, it is noticed the literature produced by afrodescendant authors. Igiaba Scego is an Italian writer with Somali origins, a pillar in the Italian scene who has been analysing the Colonial past of the country and how the fascist period influenced the society itself with heavy prejudices and discriminations.
The author acknowledges that history teaches that the colonial mentality was deeply rooted in Italian minds, not only because of Fascism, actually it dates back to the Unification of Italy14: for, the colony was a way to have a common symbol and nowadays there’s the need to revise the concept of post-colonialism itself with all the stereotypes and the traumas implied.
Another point to emphasise is the impact of the Fascist racial laws of 1938 that targeted Jews and colonial subjects.
Together with the colonial expeditions another discourse turns around a real racialization and sexualization of local women in Eritrean, Libyan, Somali and Ethiopian colonies so the woman was depicted as available and sensual, almost as an ‘object to be used’; this idea was spread in the homeland to fuel the curiosity for those who would be sent to the colonies.
These forms of stigmatisation can be found in current advertisements and commercials as a legacy of colonialism that is tangible and problematic when portraying female figures.
Finally, one of the arguments treated is the issue of the (non)representation through the educational state apparatus: actually Italy has a bad historical memory, they made it to separate Italy from Fascism through the emphasis on the Resistance of partisans, with a denial of the 20 years of dictatorship15. That is the reason why the Italian Colonial period is not taught at school at all, while it could be a means to re-study it and take our own responsibilities also with the new second-generation citizens to revendicate their role.
Furthermore, it is important to underline how the Roma and Jewish groups do not have the privilege to be represented for their culture or their history, while a commemoration of this past is necessary nowadays – together with the memory of the victims of these communities that would be a way to give them a value and a dignity.
Notwithstanding, we can talk about a new configuration of Italianità or Italianness in contemporary postcolonial cultural productions by several migrant and African Italian authors16; a concept elaborated by Igiaba Scego in My place is where I am17 is that of imaginary mappings as the emotional journey through the colonial memory which has been denied for so long.
Actually the concept is related to redrawing and rediscovering the history and the neglected memory of Italian colonialism as the contemporary reconfigurations of race and gender, inscribing a subjective dimension onto geographical and historical spaces and so, personal stories; for, Postcolonial literature refers to a critical perspective of that past that has been rejected, as a result it’s recent the acknowledgement of the Italian colonial archives18 and unmask it.
Roma and Sinti communities
Furthermore, other oppressed groups along recent history are the Roma and Sinti communities. A phenomenon that will be analysed is the anti-gypsyism in the political discourse, there is a clear spread of a narrative towards this community that is dehumanising: the core is the juxtaposition between ‘us’ and ‘them’ where the ‘Other’ is depicted through a series of humiliating stereotypes on Roma and Sinti ethnies, and social media are often the ground where politicians express a combination of racialisation on biological differences, exoticisation and homogenization.
Anti-gypsyism is complex and difficult to understand since the political debate gives the image of a ‘problem’ to be solved. Indeed, at the basis of stigmatisation on one hand there is a community that keeps on maintaining its habits and traditions, on the other hand a kind of pressure to make this ‘Other’ conform to the standards of the society.
Here some examples can help: Salvini, the leader of the Lega, while talking about Roma and Sinti communities19 declared that Roma parents are not able to take care of their children, saying that those kids should be saved by Italian Tribunals; it is an attempt to criminalise these groups by confirming that more inquiries will go deeper in the topic after some alleged claims by locals. The terms used are not correct and are a result of a homogenisation which is typical in these cases, he makes references such as ‘gypsy’, ‘parasites’, ‘criminals’.
Nowadays Roma activists are committed in spreading information about the history of this population, there are several new organisations such as the National Roma Contact point, the Roma ONLUS, that fight to let these communities have a voice in the public debate at first, and to attract the attention of the civil society against anti-gypsyism.
Migrants
As discussed throughout the report, migrants are one of the main subjects of political debates in Italy. The right-wing parties, despite their peculiarities, all share an emphasised attention towards the migration, tackling it as one the major issues for the country. The recent update of the Dublin regulation III, which regulates migration in Europe since 2015, does not fulfil the expectations of the Italian parties and population. Even if the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni presented the agreement as an Italian victory, many analysts point out that the text still has several critical aspects for border countries like Italy.20 The most conspicuous is the fact that the cardinal principle of the Dublin regulation, which places the burden of examining an asylum application on the first country of entry into Europe, has not been touched. “It is a form that penalises Italy almost across the board,” commented Matteo Villa of the Institute for International Policy Studies (Ispi).
The importance of a Visual Representation of the past
Therefore, what are the Cultural reminders of the Colonial and Fascist past in Italy? Usually, it is possible to identify those celebrating this past and those celebrating the resistance of oppressed groups against it.
On one hand, recent news witnessed a desire to eliminate certain symbols of colonialism which can be found all over Europe, such as statues of criminal colonisers and others… History teaches us that under Mussolini, the colonial ventures have been used to imprint the Fascist ideology on landscape; these representations have been sanctioned by left or centre oriented parties until the early 2000s with the right-wing’s ascent.
As a consequence, another relevant element in Italian toponomastics is the choice to leave names of Italian soldiers who contributed to build the Italian Empire, for example in Milan and Palermo there are streets dedicated to Vincenzo Magliocco who was responsible for launching mustard gas attacks against Ethiopians, also a street in Rome is named ‘Amba Aradam’ which refers to a violent massacre by Italians occurred in 1936 against the local Ethiopian resistance. Most Italians do not even know where these names come from: according to the historian Labanca21 the reason for this lack of knowledge is that decolonisation was a passive process because Italy lost its colonies after losing the war, it did not fight in an independence war as France or the British Empire. Moreover there is a form of removal from Italian minds22 that will not let a real action to face the colonial past.
Besides, an impressive celebration of Mussolini is in Predappio where his home was turned into a museum; it is a symbol of the normalisation of Fascist ideology and memory and it also implies annual parades where a big part of population takes part in.
For example an impressive event occurred in 2020: multiple protests in Italy occurred to get the Statue of Indro Montanelli removed; Montanelli was a famous journalist under the Fascist regime which contributed to the spread of racist ideologies, the debate focused on his wedding with a 12-years-old Eritrean child in Ethiopia and on the reasons why his image should not be exposed in the city. The question is: is it fair to delete a monument whenever the historical judgement changes?
Nevertheless, there are constructive representations of the oppressed groups such as: The Shoah Memorial in Bologna, built in 2016, with empty cells figuring the void left by the deportees, it was suggested by the Jewish community of Bologna to leave a memory in the city and close to the Jewish Museum.
Then, there is the Memorial to the Partisan woman in Venice, built by Augusto Murer in 1957 to celebrate the partisan women’s efforts during the Resistance: the statue has been damaged in a neo fascist attack in 1961, but later in 1969 the sculptor decided to fix it and to build a dead woman whose body gets out of the sea.
On the other hand, it is clear the necessity of giving a new shape to our history by building new symbols, new monuments and working on the iconography itself and to switch to a positive representation: a significant monument is the Park of Memories in Lanciano which was formerly an internment camp then turned into a place to honour those victims; it hosts a tablet in memory of the Holocaust deaths and a Memorial to the Samudaripen of Roma and Sinti. This latter was built in 2018 by the artist Santeusanio for the genocide of more than 500 000 victims of Roma and Sinti origins by the Nazifascists during the Second World War; it was built in front of the Abruzzo mountains where many people hided to run away from the fascist persecutions.
Another example of memorial to oppressed groups to bring to the light is that if the Gateway to Europe built in 2008 by the artist Mimmo Paladino, situated in the island of Lampedusa to commemorate the thousands deaths in the Mediterranean and to keep the memory alive even in these years of agreements and how Europe should really contribute to this continuous slaughter. This is a strong symbol that will play an important role in the rebuilding of the Italian collective memory.
Finally, it is important to mention the example of the Memorial to Italians fallen in Africa built in Syracuse in the 60s but drawn in 1938: Mussolini wanted it in the city of Syracuse whose land saw several civilizations and whose shores have been formerly connected to the North African colonies and ports; actually scholars23 suggest an artistic intervention to modify it as an alternative to the elimination of this piece of history in order to give it a new life and a new signification.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the documents analysed focus on the colonial and fascist legacy and the impact of certain ideologies in the current society: nowadays narratives still tend to ignore the part of history linked to colonial invasions and terror without really trying to deal with this past.
Actually contemporary far-right parties re-elaborate specific events that occurred under colonial period only in a ‘selective’ way, getting back to episodes or notions that would be advantageous for them or their party but also to spread these beliefs. This is a topic of public interest because it is only by studying historical events that it will be possible to check what arguments are used to manipulate the population and to gain support.
For example the rigid distinction between a Self v. Other under Fascism was embodied by the colonised African and then inscribed into the national identity. It recalls in nowadays political far-right distinction between native Italians and migrants: fascist ideas are reused by these politicians but at the same time they try to get detached from it and to discredit it.
Besides, the country witnessed several forms of Resistance which made it possible to put the basis for a new nation built on the values of constitutionality and democracy, also spreading a sense of anti-fascism that is present nowadays.
Then, among the Fascist legacy there are forms of sexualisation and racialisation linked to women that are still the target of stigmatisation in the public representation. Scholars such as Igiaba Scego would underline the great importance to introduce topics like colonial history and ventures, Postcolonial Studies in the educational system to let it be subject of research again and to spread truthful information about them.
Moreover, another phenomenon analysed is that of anti-gypsyism which is still studied and activists are trying to introduce within the public debate: it seems a complex path but it is necessary to address the attention to it to give Roma and Sinti communities a value and to get out of the homogenisation process.
Together with educational steps that need to be undertaken, as this project foreseen, a positive attention is drawn by the civilian initiatives, such as the one regarding the monument in Syracuse.24In an effort to contribute to this expanding body of scholarly work, this paper scrutinises how the Monumento ai caduti d’Africa perpetuates colonial narratives of racial superiority and fascist power in what is ostensibly a ‘post-colonial’ Italy.
Author: Francesca Morganella, CEIPES
Notes
1 R. Pergher, J. Andall e D. Duncan (a cura di), Italian Colonialism: Legacy and Memory, on “Polis, Ricerche e studi su società e politica” 1/2006, pp. 113-114, doi: 10.1424/21945 2‘Difficult Heritage’, Sharon Macdonald in 2008.
Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond, Routledge, London.
3 Lombardi Diop, Giuliani, 2013; Lombardi Diop, Romeo, 2014.
4 Artists: Alan Maglio and Medhin Paolos, ‘Asmarina’ (2015); Alessandra Ferrini, ‘Negotiating Amnesia’ (2015); Valerio Ciriaci, ‘If only I were that warrior’ (2015).
5 Gilroy, 2005, p-81.
6 See Annalisa Camilli, “La consulta boccia i decreti sicurezza e il governo ne rimanda le modifiche”, in Internazionale, 10 July 2020.
7 Moffitt, 2020
8 Matteo Salvini, leader of the League (Lega).
9 Siddi, 2020.
10 Cassata, 2008, pp. 231, 234.
11 Galeotti, 2000, pp. 96-98.
12 Giuliani, 2018, p. 78.
13 Interview with Giulio Formigoni, professor of Contemporary history at the Iulm University of Milan, Luca Liverani, Avvenire.it, 2023.
14 Interview with Igiaba Scego, https://nelventredelfascismo.noblogs.org/living-memory/igiaba scego/.
15 Interview with Igiaba Scego, https://nelventredelfascismo.noblogs.org/living-memory/igiaba scego/.
16 Laura Sarneli, Affective routes in postcolonial Italy: Igiaba Scego’s imaginary mappings https://www.roots-routes.org/affective-routes-postcolonial-italy-igiaba-scegos-imaginary mappings-laura-s arnelli/.
17 Igiaba Scego, My place is where I am (2010).
18 Lombardi, Diop 2014.
19 Article on Fanpage.it
https://www.fanpage.it/politica/inchiesta-bibbiano-salvini-bambini-devono-tornare-a-casa tribunali-vadano- anche-nei-campi-rom/ (ultima consultazione: 18-01-2020).
20Annalisa Camilli, Il nuovo accordo europeo sui migranti non è una vittoria per l’Italia, Internazionale, 2023. https://www.internazionale.it/opinione/annalisa
camilli/2023/10/06/accordo-europeo-sui-migranti
21 Labanca, Oltremare (2007).
22 Igiaba Scego, La linea del colore (2020).
23 Sophia Maxine Farmer, Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies, 2023.
24 Lauren Lever, To heal the wounds of colonialism, let’s build monuments to its victims, Voxeurope, 2020
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Available at: <https://riviste-clueb.online/index.php/anpub/article/view/172>. Date accessed: 10 oct. 2023. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1473/anpub.v6i1.172
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