Relocating Violence: A Reflection on the Mapping of Colonial Traces in Italy

Abstract

In Italy, colonial history and its consequences are often overlooked in public debates or confined to academic research and anti-racist activist movements. However, the Italian colonial empire left a large number of material traces across the country, among them street names, monuments, and buildings. Initiated in Florence in 2018 by myself and fellow researcher Markus Wurzer, “Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage” is an online project that captures and documents these traces, with the aim of raising historical awareness and stimulating debate about Italy’s colonial past and its legacies.