A sample of Italian Fascist colonialism
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The Ethiopian war (also known as the ‘Abyssinian War’) refers to the war waged by Italy during Mussolini's regime against the Empire of Ethiopia in 1935. It led to the proclamation of the AOI (Italian Oriental Africa) in 1936. Through analysis of primary and secondary sources the chapter explores how the Italian Army health care service was organised during the war, and the status of nursing in the Italian Army. From original reports, it was discovered that the male military nurse corps provided the majority of nursing care on the battlefield, in hospitals and clinics and in ambulances and radiological laboratories. Only 384 female Italian Red Cross volunteers participated in the war. They were called “Lady” nurses or Sisters because they belonged to the Italian nobility and to the upper class. These female nurses were joined by 200 missionary nuns of different religious orders. At the end of 1941, during the Second World War, the British Army freed Ethiopia. With reference to the data examined, the outcomes show that, in spite of what the official reports said, the real protagonists of nursing were male nurses.

(Mirror.)

As far as their ‘civilising mission’, or the duty of bringing what was perceived as the great culture of ancient Rome to the African people, was concerned their only legacy was an apartheid system. The propaganda strongly emphasised the construction of roads, schools and hospitals, but even then the practice belied the propaganda. There was a strict régime of separation between the black population and white people. Local population could not attend schools and hospitals for white Italians.

All the major cities, from the capital to Asmara, Massawa and Agordat had both civilian and military hospitals, where respectively colonial and military doctors worked. In smaller towns there were infirmaries, which worked also as pharmacy dispensaries and points for obtaining medication. Segregation between whites and blacks was rigorous and the division in nursing also respected these rules.

Nursing care at military hospitals was guaranteed by military male nurses, while Askari assistants and Ethiopian indigenous nurses took care of African soldiers. Civilian hospitals had the same divisions: volunteer Italian Red Cross nurses and nuns who had been reintegrated after the war attended Italian residents, while Ethiopian women servants performed auxiliary work such as cleaning of the premises; Italian doctors attended locals and, according to […] Fascist literature, were assisted by Ethiopian male nurses.

(Emphasis added.)