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A Colonizing Agricultural Company in Somalia: The Duke of Abruzzi’s Società Agricola Italo-Somala in the Italian Colonial Fascist System

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Exploitation and Misrule in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa

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Abstract

Cauli offers a new summary of Italian colonialism in Somalia in the 1920s and 1930s. Focusing on colonial farming policy, the chapter draws attention to the activities of the Società Agricola Italo-Somala, established by Luigi Amedeo of Savoia, the Duke of Abruzzi, in 1920. As well as providing a detailed reconstruction of the history of this experimental farming company, Cauli explores how its activities affected colonial Somalia and Somalis. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the relationship between the fascist regime and the Duke’s company, showing how fascist propaganda presented both Luigi Amedeo of Savoia and his Società Agricola Italo-Somala as icons of colonialism and successful models to be imitated throughout the Italian colonial fascist system.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    R. Bosworth and G. Finaldi, “The Italian Empire,” in Empires at War: 1911–1923, ed. Robert Gerwarth and Manela Erez (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 47.

  2. 2.

    Angelo Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. Dall’Unità alla marcia su Roma, 4 vols., vol. 1 (Milano: Mondadori, 2001), 867.

  3. 3.

    Ioan M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali. Nation and State in the Horn of Africa, 4 ed. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002), 92.

  4. 4.

    Del Boca, 1. 868.

  5. 5.

    Giampaolo Calchi Novati, “Studi e politica ai convegni coloniali del Primo e del Secondo Dopoguerra,” Il Politico 55, no. 3 (1990), 503.

  6. 6.

    In 1910, the government appointed the Italian agronomist Romolo Onor as agricultural consultant for Somalia. Onor carried out several experimental studies on the agricultural potential of Somalia, which helped to establish the Azienda Sperimentale di Genale along the Uebi-Shebeli river in 1912. Loredana Polezzi, “Description, Appropriation, Transformation: Fascist Rhetoric and Colonial Nature,” Modern Italy 19, no. 3 (2014), 293. Onor’s work was part of the government colonial programme to promote agriculture in Somalia. Del Boca, 1, 830.

  7. 7.

    Polezzi, 294.

  8. 8.

    Ufficio Storico Marina Militare, Roma, “Nave Volturno”, busta 2256, Rapporto di Navigazione. Henceforth USMM. 

  9. 9.

    At that time the sultan of Zanzibar ruled over the Benadir region. In 1886, he signed a treaty with the merchant Vincenzo Filonardi, who later would establish the Compagnia Filonardi, to acquire the rights to the Somali harbours of Merca, Kisimayo, Mogadishu, and Brava. In 1889, Filonardi was also able to sign treaties with the sultans of Obbia and Mijjertein, which appointed Italy as protector of those territories. See in Nicola Labanca, Oltremare. Storia Dell’Espansione Coloniale Italiana (Bologna, Italia: il Mulino, 2002), 88.

  10. 10.

    Clelia Maino, La Somalia e l’opera del Duca degli Abruzzi (Roma: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa, 1959), 65–66.

  11. 11.

    USMM, “Nave Volturno”, Missione lungo la costa del Benadir, 1 December 1983, pp. 12–13, busta 2256.

  12. 12.

    As General Enrico Caviglia reported in his diary, the Duke was removed from office because of a disagreement he had with Camillo Corsi, who was his chief of staff. The Duke sent a letter to Admiral Leone Viale, who was the Minister of the Navy at that time, asking for Corsi to be dismissed. However, Viale was forced to resign because of incidents that occurred involving two Italian warships at the same time. Thus, Corsi become the new Minister of the Navy. He found the Duke’s letter and instead dismissed him. Enrico Caviglia, Diario. Aprile 1925–Marzo 1945 (Roma: Gherardo Casini Editore, 1952), 113–114.

  13. 13.

    R. Bosworth, J., B., Mussolini’s Italy. Life under the Dictatorship 1915–1945 (London: Allen Lane, 2005), 375 and Del Boca, 1. 870.

  14. 14.

    Ferdinando Bigi, Ugo Funaioli, and Vasco Gatti, L’opera della Società Agricola Italo Somala in Somalia. Significato e valore delle realizzazioni, delle esperienze e degli studi compiuti dalla S.A.I.S. nei suoi 44 anni di vita (Firenze: Società Agricola Italo Somala, 1970), vii.

  15. 15.

    Del Boca, 1. 870.

  16. 16.

    Fondazione Sella onlus, Biella. Courtesy Fondazione Sella onlus, Biella, Fondo Vittorio Sella. Serie Patrimoniale - Affari, m.1, f.1, “Relazione Somalia”, IV parte, 1919-1920, p. 1.

  17. 17.

    Ibid, pp. 2–3.

  18. 18.

    Ibid, p. 3. Luigi Amedeo of Savoia-Aosta pointed out that the roads needed maintenance, especially during the rainy season, as the heavy rains destroyed some of them.

  19. 19.

    “La Conferenza di S.A.R. il Duca degli Abruzzi,” La Perseveranza, 10 Settembre 1920, 2.

  20. 20.

    To exploit the Scebeli river’s flowrate for agricultural purposes, a dam needed to be built to divert the water into secondary and service channels to bring it to the parcels of fertile land, where the farming village was to be established.

  21. 21.

    Archivio Storico Unicredit-Banca di Roma, Milano, “Agricola Italo-Somala”, busta VIII.2.1.22.21, ottobre 1920. Henceforth ASUBR.

  22. 22.

    ASUBR, “Agricola Italo-Somala”, Comitato Esecutivo 1920, Verbale Comitato Direttivo, 17 settembre 1920, pp. 18–19.

  23. 23.

    ASUBR, “Agricola Italo-Somala”, busta VIII.2.1.22.21, Statuto Società Agricola Italo Somala, Capitolo I, pp. 3–4.

  24. 24.

    Maino, 87.

  25. 25.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 29.

  26. 26.

    Maino, 89.

  27. 27.

    Stefano Maggi, “Le Ferrovie nell’Africa Italiana: Aspetti economici, sociali e strategici,” in Nineteenth century transport history. Current trends and new problems. (Fiesole, Istituto Universitario Europeo.1994), 9–10.

  28. 28.

    Angelo Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 4 vols., vol. 2 (Milano: Mondadori, 2001), 85.

  29. 29.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 28.

  30. 30.

    Labanca, 318.

  31. 31.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 29.

  32. 32.

    Fondazione Sella onlus, Biella. Courtesy Fondazione Sella onlus, Biella, Fondo Vittorio Sella. Serie Patrimoniale - Affari, m.1, f.1, “Relazione Somalia”, IV parte, 1919–1920, p. 5.

  33. 33.

    Donatella Strangio, The Reasons for Underdevelopment. The Case of Decolonization in Somaliland (Berlin: Physica – Verlag, 2012), 77.

  34. 34.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 40.

  35. 35.

    The acquired lands were in the meander of Balguri and Balano. The SAIS bought the Balguri’s territory to establish the village destined to the European and for building the headquarter of the consortium, while the Balano’s area was destined to the plantations. Ibid., 42.

  36. 36.

    Pablo Dell’Osa, Il principe esploratore. Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duca degli Abruzzi (Milano: Mursia, 2010), 343.

  37. 37.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 41.

  38. 38.

    Strangio, 81.

  39. 39.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 82.

  40. 40.

    Lee Cassanelli, “The End of Slavery and the ‘Problem’ of Farm Labor in Colonial Somalia” (paper presented at the Third International Congress of Somali Studies, Roma, 1988), 275.

  41. 41.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. Dall’Unità alla marcia su Roma, 1. 870.

  42. 42.

    Labanca, 318.

  43. 43.

    Strangio, 80.

  44. 44.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 83.

  45. 45.

    Strangio, 80.

  46. 46.

    Adriano Augusto Michieli, Il Duca degli Abruzzi e le sue imprese (Milano: Fratelli Treves Editori, 1937), 171.

  47. 47.

    At the beginning of its activities, the SAIS built a clinic, both for Somali and Italian workers, to supply them with basic medical care. Later, when the village grew, the company decided to turn the clinic into a hospital for Somali (1921) and then for Italians in 1924. The society had two hospitals, the “Antonio Cecchi” and the “Luigi di Savoia”, which respectively supplied medical care for indigenous personnel and for the Italians. The medical personnel conducted scientific research on the health conditions at Villabruzzi, studying malarial fever and other subtropical illnesses of Somalia. By 1929, the medical assistance increasingly focused on the company’s village health conditions, where the main part of the company’s manpower lived. Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 141–143, 256.

  48. 48.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 83.

  49. 49.

    On 28 June 1930, the Geneva Convention n. 29 concerning forced labour was adopted. Article 2 stated that a nation could use forced labour in particular situations, such us: building structures of military importance; conducting works related to special events as earthquakes, floods, famines, or epidemic diseases; or conducting works of public utility. However, this clause was adopted even before 1930, especially by those nations that had colonial possessions.

  50. 50.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 83–84.

  51. 51.

    Ibid, 73.

  52. 52.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 55.

  53. 53.

    Ibid, 55.

  54. 54.

    Ibid, 56.

  55. 55.

    Ibid, 242.

  56. 56.

    Ibid, 241–243.

  57. 57.

    Labanca, 319.

  58. 58.

    Italian Somaliland was divided into Commissariati Regionali (Regional Commissions) for administrative purposes. These included the Regional Commissions of Upper Scebeli, Lower Scebeli, and Mogadishu. Del Re was the Commissioner of the Lower Scebeli Region and its capital was located in Merca.

  59. 59.

    Archivio Storico del Ministero Affari Esteri, Roma, “Archivio di Personalità – Guido Corni 1928–1931”, Pacco 24, Realzione di Del Re a Gudio Corni, pp. 3–5. Henceforth ASMAE.

  60. 60.

    Ibid, Circolare di Del Re ai Concessionari di Genale, 26 agosto 1929, p. 2.

  61. 61.

    Angelo Del Boca, Italiani, brava gente? Un mito duro a morire (Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 2005), 157.

  62. 62.

    The Consiglio Superiore Coloniale was a branch of the Ministry for the Colonies. It was divided into three departments, among which was the Department for Financial and Economic Affairs for the colonies. As per the bureaucratic procedure, all financial requests from the colonial companies had to be sent to the local Governo Coloniale, then to the Ministry for the Colonies, which eventually sent the application to the Consiglio Superiore Coloniale.

  63. 63.

    ASMAE, Ministero Africa Italiana Vol. V, Archivio Consiglio Superiore Coloniale, busta 3, “Deliberazione del Consiglio Superiore Coloniale – Mutuo suppletivo a favore della S.A.I.S.”, 12 settembre 1923.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Although the SAIS was one of a number of private companies operating in Somalia in colonial activities, the government economic support that it received was quite different to that received by other societies. ASMAE, Roma, Ministero Africa Italiana Vol. I 1857-1939, busta 89/17, f. 66, “Imprese ed Aziende agrarie, industriali e commerciali in Somalia”, Relazione del Governatore Giovanni Cerrina Feroni al Ministero delle Colonie, 16 giugno 1920.

    Among the societies operating in Somalia was the Società Romana di Colonizzazione in Somalia (est. 1909). It was based in Margherita (Italian Somaliland) and by 1922 in Mogadishu. The Società Romana was one of the first companies to attempt cotton cultivation in the Jubba region. It received 5000 ha of land from the government and in 1909, it was also financed with 360,000 Lire (approximately € 1,517,000). Later, the Società Romana di Colonizzazione in Somalia “became one the most important sister companies of the SAIS, especially in banana production”. Strangio. 93.

  66. 66.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 103–104.

  67. 67.

    Andrea Naletto, Italiani in Somalia. Storia di un colonialismo straccione (Verona: Cierre Edizioni, Centro Studi Ettore Lucchini, 2011), 83.

  68. 68.

    ASMAE, Roma, Ministero Africa Italiana Vol. V, Archivio Consiglio Superiore Coloniale, Busta 3.

  69. 69.

    Ibid, busta 1.

  70. 70.

    Ibid, busta 3.

  71. 71.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, 105–106.

  72. 72.

    In 1923, Mussolini dismissed the liberal governor, Carlo Rivieri, and appointed Cesare Maria De Vecchi as the new governor of Italian Somaliland. He was an influential fascist as he had been one of the Quadrumviro of the March on Rome and was also the leader of the Turin fascists. De Vecchi focused on developing agriculture and reclaiming land in the Genale region, transforming the Genale plateau (40,000 hectares) into a huge farm. It was “the eventual success of the SAIS scheme that encouraged De Vecchi to create a vast irrigation project for plantation cultivation at Genale”. Lewis, 95.

  73. 73.

    Naletto, 87.

  74. 74.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 82.

  75. 75.

    Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. Dall’Unità alla marcia su Roma, 1. 871–872. and Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 82.

  76. 76.

    Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2.82.

  77. 77.

    The duality between Luigi Amedeo di Savoia-Aosta and De Vecchi also emerged in the regime’s public emphasis of the Duke’s “colonizing efforts” in Somalia, without mentioning what the governor general, De Vecchi, was doing in Genale.

  78. 78.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 51.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., 84.

  80. 80.

    Antonella Randazzo, L’Africa del Duce: I crimini fascisti in Africa (Varese: Edizioni Arterigere, 2008),153–154.

  81. 81.

    Benito Mussolini, “La commemorazione del Duca degli Abruzzi (20 Marzo 1933),” in Discorsi, ed. Balbino Giuliano (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1936), 315–316.

  82. 82.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, vi–vii.

  83. 83.

    Del Boca, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. La conquista dell’impero, 2. 82.

  84. 84.

    Strangio,75–78.

  85. 85.

    Bigi, Funaioli, and Gatti, ix.

  86. 86.

    Michieli, 162.

  87. 87.

    ASMAE, Roma, “Archivio di Personalità – Guido Corni 1928–1931”, Pacco 24. On August 1928, the new governor of Somalia, Guido Corni, appointed the SAIS’s agronomist and director Giuseppe Scassellati-Sforzolini to undertake a survey on the possibility of colonizing the Afghoi area using Italian settlers. This project was calledEsperimento di colonizzazione Bianca (Experimental white colonization). The agronomist drafted a detailed report, but he concluded that it was quite difficult to populate the region using Italian immigrants because of the Somali climate and the small income that colonists would have earned cultivating these lands. Despite these considerations, Scassellati-Sforzolini argued that it was worth conducting an experiment in agricultural settlement because if it was successful, the result would lead to a total colonization and reclamation of Somalia.

  88. 88.

    Polezzi, 294.

  89. 89.

    Ibid, 296.

  90. 90.

    “In morte di Luigi di Savoia,” L’Italia Coloniale, Aprile 1933, p. 1.

  91. 91.

    Armando Maugini, “Commemorazione di S.A.R. Luigi di Savoia – 30 Marzo 1933,” ed. Istituto Agricolo Coloniale Italiano (Firenze: Istituto Agricolo Coloniale Italiano, 1933), 18–19.

  92. 92.

    Domenico Seghetti, “Luigi di Savoia colonizzatore ed esploratore in Somalia,” ed. Istituto Coloniale Fascista (Savona: Brizio, 1933).

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  1. University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Alberto Cauli

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  1. Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Kenneth Kalu

  2. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Toyin Falola

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Cauli, A. (2019). A Colonizing Agricultural Company in Somalia: The Duke of Abruzzi’s Società Agricola Italo-Somala in the Italian Colonial Fascist System. In: Kalu, K., Falola, T. (eds) Exploitation and Misrule in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96496-6_10

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