From anti-colonialism to anti-imperialism: African student associations and activism in 1960s Italy

Abstract

After the end of European colonial rule, the presence of university students from the newly independent countries increased on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Although the students were involved in political activities both in the Eastern bloc and in Western Germany, France and Great Britain, there is a gap in academic research on this involvement in the Italian case. This article offers the first reconstruction of African student activism in Italy in the 1960s, tracing the modalities of association and mapping the links of this activism with various Italian organisations, in particular anti-colonial student organisations and the Catholic Ufficio Centrale Studenti Esteri in Italia. The article shows that throughout the decade, the African students’ interests shifted from anti-colonialism to anti-imperialism and that their associations underwent a process of radicalisation, partly linked to the concurrent transformations of the Italian student movement, and partly to developments in African politics.