Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In May 1940, over sixty people—men, women, and children—traveled from Eritrea to Naples under the auspices of the Ministry of Italian Africa. Their purpose was to participate in the opening of a fascist version of a new exhibit space, the Mostra d'Oltremare. According to Mussolini, bringing Eritreans to the exhibit was meant to "breathe life" into the venue and introduce an Italian public to Italy's overseas empire. But in the era of Italy's race laws, introducing Black Africans to the peninsula also presented a possible threat. A contingent from the Italian African Police that was almost as big as the group of Eritreans was also stationed at the exhibit space to carefully control their movements and prevent any possibility of intimacy with surrounding Italian populations.
In this talk, Professor Eileen Ryan (Temple University) explores the tension that this forced confinement in Naples presented to fascist objectives of celebrating imperialism while protecting Italian whiteness. But she also finds gestures of resistance in images of the exhibition space and the Eritreans living there.
Eileen Ryan is Associate Professor of History at Temple University. Her research focuses on modern Italy, European history, imperialism, Black Europe, race and national identity. Her first book "Religion as Resistance: Negotiating Authority in Italian Libya" (Oxford, 2018) investigates how Catholic interests infused Italian colonialism in Muslim North Africa. Ryan's new book project, "Black Italy," looks at the history of blackness as a racial category and lived experience in Italy since unification in the mid-19th century, examining questions of race and the making of national identities.
In May 1940, over sixty people—men, women, and children—traveled from Eritrea to Naples under the auspices of the Ministry of Italian Africa. Their purpose was to participate in the opening of a fascist version of a new exhibit space, the Mostra d'Oltremare. According to Mussolini, bringing Eritreans to the exhibit was meant to "breathe life" into the venue and introduce an Italian public to Italy's overseas empire. But in the era of Italy's race laws, introducing Black Africans to the peninsula also presented a possible threat. A contingent from the Italian African Police that was almost as big as the group of Eritreans was also stationed at the exhibit space to carefully control their movements and prevent any possibility of intimacy with surrounding Italian populations.
In this talk, Professor Eileen Ryan (Temple University) explores the tension that this forced confinement in Naples presented to fascist objectives of celebrating imperialism while protecting Italian whiteness. But she also finds gestures of resistance in images of the exhibition space and the Eritreans living there.
Eileen Ryan is Associate Professor of History at Temple University. Her research focuses on modern Italy, European history, imperialism, Black Europe, race and national identity. Her first book "Religion as Resistance: Negotiating Authority in Italian Libya" (Oxford, 2018) investigates how Catholic interests infused Italian colonialism in Muslim North Africa. Ryan's new book project, "Black Italy," looks at the history of blackness as a racial category and lived experience in Italy since unification in the mid-19th century, examining questions of race and the making of national identities.
