ETH 452
Letter written from a soldier based in Addis Abeba, July 7, 1937 to a friend in Rome. The stationary masthead reads ADDIS-ABEBA COMBAT ZONE.
Price: 60.00
Prints and Ephemera
ETH 451
Cover envelope featuring FACETTA NERA and a beautiful Abyssinian on the cover.
Price: 140.00
Note from Wikipedia: "'Faccetta Nera'" ("Little Black Face" or "Pretty Black Face") is a popular marching song of Fascist Italy about the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. It was written by Renato Micheli with music by Mario Ruccione in 1935. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a fascist Italian Blackshirt soldier during the invasion of Ethiopia. In the song, the Italian narrator tells a beautiful young enslaved Abysinnian (Ethiopian) girl that she will be liberated from slavery and ruled by a new regime. She is invited to parade with the fascist Blackshirts in Rome, where she is promised a new and better life. Slavery in Ethiopia is a prominent theme in the song. The song follows the trend of Italian fascist propaganda portraying the invasion not as a war of conquest, but as a war of liberation to abolish Ethiopian slavery.
Italian notice, signed by General Emilio De Bono, proclaiming the abolishment of slavery in Tigray in Italian and Amharic. The abolition of slavery was one of the first measures taken by the Italian colonial government in Ethiopia. The hymn is said to have been inspired by a beautiful young Abyssinian girl, who was found by the Italian troops at the beginning of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
During the invasion, the song was hugely popular in Italy and caused national fervor. During the fascist occupation of Ethiopia, Ethiopian women cohabited with Italian men in a system of concubinage known as madamato. The implicitly erotic song was, however, somewhat of an embarrassment for the Fascist government, which had, starting in May 1936, introduced several laws prohibiting cohabitation and marriage between Italians and native people of the Italian colonial empire. These efforts culminated in the Italian Racial Laws of 1938. The Fascist authorities considered banning the song, and removed all picture postcards depicting Abyssinian women from Roman shop windows.
ETH 450
Set of 15 German cutouts of Ethiopian soldiers during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Rare.
Price: 450.00
ETH 449
Sheet of Spanish cutouts of Ethiopian soldiers during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Rare.
Price: 300.00
ETH 448
Complete set of 21 Spanish cutouts of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. In original envelope. Extremely rare and complete.
Price: 4500.00
ETH 447
1936 calendar honoring the 12th Artillery Regiment “Sila” in Ethiopia.
Price: 300.00
ETH 446
An appeal for Italians at home and in Ethiopia to join the Colonial Fascist Institute to honor the heroic fighters at Alala, Ethiopia. There is a commandment from Mussolini stating that with some effort, 20,000 members is achievable.
Price: 280.00
ETH 434
Three samples of Italian newspapers published in Eritrea and Ethiopia: Giornale dell’Eritrea (July 29-30, 1954), Corriere Eritreo (December 27, 1936), Il Giornale di Addis Abeba (August 8, 1936).
Price: $250.00
ETH 430
Booklet published by the Istituto Coloniale Fascista titled The Ten Commandments of the Italian Worker in A.O.I. EH
Price: $120.00
ETH 423
Two Spanish children’s cut-outs with Ethiopians, during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Rare. B
Price: $250.00