Postcolonial Italy's new projections towards Africa

This essay deals with an issue little addressed by contemporary historiography: Italy's policy towards Africa in the years of decolonization. During the 1960s and 1970s, as perceptions of a colonial crisis, considered irreversible, took shape, emerging forces of various orientations brought about a new commitment to the newly independent countries and their leaders, with new roles and interventions being tried out not only in the former colonies of the Horn of Africa, but also in different areas of sub-Saharan Africa, up to the development of a policy of cooperation within the new Euro-African relations established with the Treaty of Rome of 1957. This setting saw the increased involvement of new actors and politicians of various orientations, who in the name of party affiliation, or in institutional form, dedicated a major commitment to the new season in Africa. Beside them, a new projection by the Holy See, youth movements of solidarity and missionary organizations, took shape under the impetus of the Second Vatican Council.