The propaganda of Italian colonial imperialism in Africa through postage stamps (1903–1941)

Abstract

Italy had a colonial empire in Africa in the areas of Libya and East Africa during the first half of the 20th century. The postage stamps issued for these areas served as instruments of propaganda for that empire. This paper uses the method of quantitative content analysis to determine which themes and ideological messages appear on the postage stamps of the Italian African colonies. The results show that, although more than half of them have an attitude of respect for the life of the indigenous population or the civilizational benefit of the colonial government, with the purpose of expressing the benevolence of its power, almost a quarter reflect attitudes of domination, especially in East Africa. Overall, an image of exoticism emerges that reinforces the idea of the Italian nation as a new empire that aimed to show itself to the world as such, especially starting in the 1930s.