Sexually transmitted diseases at the time of Italian colonies: Historical, ethical and medical implications

Italian colonialism has peculiar features when compared with other colonialisms. However, as for the other colonialisms, sexual imagery has played a major role also in the history of the Italian colonialism, contributing to forge and shape customs and rituals. Colonial Africa was perceived as a fertile land, prone to invasion and conquest, as its women, lascivious, and ready to be seduced, loved and abandoned, for use and consumption of white men. At the time of Italian colonies, rhetoric depicted African women as women living completely naked, aiming at attracting young soldiers. African women were characterized by a double dimension of exoticism and eroticism. Dualisms such as male/female, Italian/stranger, white/black, north/south, center/suburbs defined the relationship between Italy and its colonies, delineating a real sexual colonialism, full of violence, occasional relations (defined as sciarmuttismo) and relations more uxorio (termed as madamato or madamismo in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and in Lybia). From a medical standpoint, in the Italian colonies sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were quite widespread and common. Different institutions (“sifilicomio”) for treating prostitutes and concubines suffering from STDs were built: the first “sifilicomio” opened in June 1885. Even though syphilis was endemic in the African continent, medical statistics collected by colonial physicians were rather inaccurate, and the concerns of colonial officers for a decline of protectorate populations due to the spreading of STDs were on one hand exaggerated, on the other not based on scientific evidences. Anyway, based on their ideology, perceptions and personal beliefs, colonial officers introduced “paternalistic” programs. These initiatives, rather than being inspired by medical objectives, were due to concerns over labor shortage potentially impacting on the viability and stability of protectorates and constituted an attempt of “socially engineering” the African continent, interfering with the private sphere. In conclusion, Italian colonialism presents many nuances, which warrant further investigations.