Returning and Sharing Memories”. Genesi e sviluppo di un progetto per l’uso del “passato comune” italo-etiope (1935-1941)

Abstract. This paper introduces a pilot project aiming at returning Ethiopian people the historical memories about the Italian ephemeral “Empire” in the Horn of Africa (1935-1941). The “conquerors” took away a lot of historical documents and images, taking advantage of their technological superiority. For instance, unlike Ethiopians, many Italian soldiers had cameras, which were popular and affordable back then. Thanks to technology now we can duplicate documents – producing exact copies of originals – without displacing them or changing ownership.Our starting point is to duplicate the visual memories collected in Modena and donate them to Addis Ababa University, making them available to researchers and students. Our aim is approaching colonialist studies in a different way, sharing the historical memories with the former enemies, encouraging a joint study of Ethiopia and Italy’s common past. Our hope is to create a lean working method that can be used by others, able to stimulate similar initiatives not only from private people but also from the Italian public archives and institutionsItalian colonialism; photographic sources; Ethiopia; Modena