Reworking Italian colonial rhetoric: the case of Italian newspapers and the Trust territory of Somaliland (1950-1960)

Abstract: At the end of the Second World War Italy, contrary to what happened after the first one, found itself in the ranks of the defeated countries and this implied the loss of the African colonies. The research develops from the need to understand how Italian public opinion was actually involved in the national and international debate regarding the future of the former Italian colonies and how Italy's return to Somalia with the international mandate entrusted to it by the UN was reported, while the19th century concept of colonialism was said to be outdated. An analysis of the newspapers such as La Stampa, Corriere della Sera, l'Unità and Avanti! will reveal whether there was a continuity with the colonial rhetoric of the liberal and then fascist period and whether there was a difference between the narrative made by the national newspapers and the party newspapers.