By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
Italian Fascist Ideas on Education for “Natives”
In concluding this extended series of articles on Ethiopian
education, reference may be made to the Fascist attitude to education
for “natives”, which had a profound effect on education in Ethiopia in
the period after 1936.
Fascist policy was, generally speaking, opposed, to the creation of
an educated “native” elite, and to any kind of training, which would
enable “natives” to compete with “nationals”, i.e. Italians.
The Philosophy of Benito Mussolini Himself
The philosophy behind this policy was stated, in 1938, by the Fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini, in the official Italian publication
“Etiopia”. He declared that racial problems found “a definite relation
to the conquest of the
Empire, because it is necessary to realise that
the Empire is conquered by the sword but is held by prestige. To
maintain prestige we must have a strict and clear racial consciousness,
which will stabilise not only the difference of race but also our
absolute superiority.”
The application of this thesis was expounded by a prominent Fascist
luminary, Guiseppe Fabbri, the editor of the publication. He argued
that, in the ancient Roman empire, when Agricola had educated the native
chiefs of Britain he had “betrayed Rome”. To prevent a similar fate
befalling Mussolini’s East African empire “the office and the
administration should”, he declared, “seem mysterious to the native, a
place where white people stay, as at the altar.” He added:
“To affirm the superiority of our race, and to join it to the idea of
domination is the basis of life in Fascist Italy . . . our power,
spiritual, political and military, should, and must, forever rid the
Empire of other peoples weaker and inferior to us . . .
“We abhor the invasion of the colonial office by officials who employ
natives, because that constitutes a formidable danger. The mentality of
the natives is spoilt; they believe themselves equal to us when they
see themselves invested with functions we are accustomed to fulfill.
Moreover, the native mass tends always to admire this kind of
aristocracy of their race; to forment this evil germ is to destroy our
empire.
“Where White People Stay as at an Altar”
“The office and the administration’, he continued, “should seem
mysterious to the native, a place where white people stay as at the
altar; the documents locked in the cupboards should have the odour of
sacred papers which natives must not touch. It is when natives are put
in contact with such instruments of civilisation that they cease to be
sensible of the difference between themselves and us. It initiates, in
fact, a gradual process of assimilation, which finally develops
consequences grave, if not fatal, to our supremacy, because, in order to
retain our natural race superiority and to preserve it from being
undermined we must maintain our prestige.
“The employment of natives in the administration must not be resorted
to even though they might be useful to us before we have created staffs
of Italians who know the local language and the habits and customs of
the subject people. When we have developed such Fascist experts they
will be the watchful vanguard of our prestige.
“Our expansion in Africa must have a totalitarian character, and one
of racial integrity; it must not aim at disseminatory culture, as the
illustrious magnates of Africanism, who poison the air with their
literary baggage, perniciously desire.”
So much for such “magnates” and their “literary baggage”!
General Guglielmo Nasi
The above Fascist principles were embodied in an important Government
directive, of 1938, which deserves quoting at some length. It was
issued by General Guglielmo Nasi, the Italian Governor of Harar, on 5
June, 1938, and declared:
“… I notice that Commissioners and Residents have above all an
ambition to extend elementary education for natives, and to teach our
language to as many children as possible.
“This is a fundamental political mistake that tends to put
individuals out of their class who, solely because they possess a veneer
of education, will refuse to work in the fields, as we know by our own
colonial experience and by that of other countries. They are attracted
to the towns, ask for Government employment, compete with the nationals
in trades that should be reserved to the latter, forming a class of
discontented, or even worse, rebellious people.
“As I have already said on other occasions, we should reserve
strictly necessary education to the sons of chiefs and more important
notabilities only, because these can subsequently succeed to the duties
of their fathers, serve us as interpreters, and hold modest positions in
offices.
“However, while for obvious reasons, we cannot altogether close the
door of public education to the youth of the lower social classes, we
can, and we ought to, close the door tightly on special courses, e.g.
for interpreters; and in general we should avoid propaganda, and, still
worse, pressure on families to send their sons to Italian schools.
“This principle, which can be absolute in the country, ought, of
course, for obvious reasons be subjected to many exceptions in the
larger towns (Harar and Dire Dawa).
“Also, with regard to native orphans it is a mistaken policy, for the
same reasons as mentioned above, to establish orphanages, because
there, in the end, you will always give them habits that do not belong
to their race or social class.
“Instead, these derelicts should be cared for by entrusting them to
relatives, or at any rate to native families, who under our control and
for a monthly sum, will bring them up in the very surroundings in which
they afterwards will have to live and work.
“It is superfluous to add that the present directive is of a very
secret character, and should be applied without divulging its real
motives”.
Secret though it was, we publish it in “Addis Tribune”, with Nasi’s self-styled “real motives”!
The Duke of Aosta
A further directive on educational was issued, on 16 October 1939, by
the second Viceroy of Ethiopia, the Duke of Aosta, who has often been
described, in the present writer’s opinion wrongly, as a great
“liberal”, for he was, rather a great racist. It read as follows:
“At the last meeting of the Governors full assent was given to the
principle determining the directions issued several times from this
Governorate-General, that schools of all kinds established for the
subject peoples of Italian East Africa ought above all to aim at this
goal: to train pupils in the cultivation of the soil or to become
qualified workers (not specialised) in order to create gradually native
skilled craftsmanship for all fields of labour where, for reasons of
climate, surroundings, or race prestige, the use of Italian labour is
not admissible or convenient, and for the purpose of reducing the cost
of labour and production in general, by making use of native labour.
“Consequently it is important that the respective Governors, taking
into account the special conditions of their own territories, the native
attitude to work and the demands of the local industries, should
organise schools for colonial natives, assigning to each of them the
specialisation that will most easily lead to the goal indicated above.
“It is also understood that, with the exception of schools for
agricultural instruction, where the greater the number of pupils is, the
greater the economic and social advantages derived from these schools
will be, for all others, vocational schools and ‘cultural schools’
reserved for the sons of native notabilities, the number of students
should be decided, year by year, with regard to employment possibilities
in the industries and local occupations that can be held out to
students leaving the school.
“To the training planned . . . should be added gymnastic-military
exercises, in the form and teaching staff that each Government judges
most convenient”.
Academic type education for “natives”, in Italian-occupied Ethiopia,
as in the Italian Fascist empire as a whole, simply did not exist. The
dispatch of young Ethiopians for study abroad, began by Emperor Menilek,
had entirely ceased (except for some youngsters sent for religious
studies in the Vatican under Roman Catholic auspices).
Eritrea
The Fascist approach to education was likewise seen in Eritrea, in
the mid-1920′s, and 1930′s. It was decided, in 1932, that elementary
school education for Eritreans should be limited to four years, after
which students could go either to a school of arts and crafts (where
there would be great emphasis on the learning of Italian), or to special
schools where an additional two year course would be given to complete
primary studies. So-called “medium schools” for “natives”, i.e.
secondary education, were suppressed.
Professor Andrea Festa, describing these developments, explained that
the objective of the Italian education in Eritrea was to make the
student “know Italy, her glories and her ancient history”, and to teach
him to “become a conscientious soldier in the shadow of our flag.”
“Superfluous” knowledge, such as the history of the Italian
“Risorgimento”, or struggle for independence and unity, should, he declared, be cut out of the syllabus.
The principal schools for “natives” in Eritrea in 1932 were:
1. The San Michele school of arts and crafts at Saganeiti, which was
run by Capuchins and taught carpentry, tailoring, shoemaking and
saddlery to Catholic children;
2. The St. Giorgio school of arts and crafts at Addi Ugri, which was
mainly concerned with agriculture and was attended primarily by
Ethiopian Orthodox children;
3. The Salvago Reggi school of arts and crafts for Muslim children at Keren, which taught printing, woodwork and smithy work.
There was also a Re Vittorio Emanuele III elementary school, founded
in Asmara in 1926 for the training of interpreters and clerks, and
smaller schools at Assab, Ghinda, Addi Ugi, Addi Caieh, and Agordat.
None of them of course offered secondary, let alone academic type
education.
Education for Italian children was of an entirely different level.
Despite the colony’s tiny Italian settlement, there were, in 1932-3, 894
Italian and “half-caste” children in Government schools as against
1,692 “natives.”
The Fascist impact led to the closing of the Swedish and American
Protestant Missions in 1932, though the Swedish Mission School in Asmara
was allowed to continue until 1935, when, as the Rev. Axel Johnson
records, “all its missionaries were expelled.” The state of education in
pre-war Eritrea was an important factor causing many youngsters from
the Italian colony to cross the frontier into Ethiopia in a quest for
education.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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