Although certain industries remained reserves for skilled white labor such as trucking, [Fascist] firms increasingly looked to African workers to provide lowcost, if not free, labor for their enterprises. A 1940 survey reports that about 750,000 Africans were employed in construction, roadbuilding, and agriculture. More were recruited into the military and private businesses as well. Podestà estimates that over 1 million Africans were employed in the [Fascist] colonial machine, about 10% of the African population.¹⁷⁰

Forced, unpaid African labor became an important source of financing for [Italy’s] fascist imperial régime.

(Source.)