School memories from the Eritrean Colony. The Eritreans’ oral testimonies

This article takes as a documentary basis the oral reports from Eritrean witnesses of Italian colonialism that the historian Irma Taddia recorded between 1986 and 1994. The interviews – which were published in 1996 – are particularly relevant for their historical-educational contents. The school memories emerging in the autobiographical accounts are subjected to analysis for the first time in this study: the oral materials collected by Taddia turn out to be of exceptional testimonial value by providing the Eritreans’ retrospective look at their school past during the Italian occupation. The interviewees give their judgement on the colonial educational organization: they express dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of the Italian initiative in relation to school matters and are aware that the lines of colonial educational policy were oriented towards maintaining the status quo. The live voices of Eritrean witnesses are precious as they integrate the Italian written sources used for reconstructing the educational history in the Eritrean Colony.