Paper long abstract:

Asmara is often portrayed by the media and remembered by tourists as a beautiful city, famous for its "Italian features". That the Italian imprint marked the shape of Asmara is almost indisputable and certainly not surprising, considering the long period of Italian colonial domination in Eritrea (1890-1941). Through the imposition of a European (or Italian) model of urbanism, Italian colonialism attempted to transform Asmara into a "modern" city with features similar to those found in Italian urban centres which could accommodate the need of Italian settlers. While Asmara's beauty and Italian life-style recently captured the attention of scholars, what still remains under-explored is how African men and women experienced the city and its "modernity" during the colonial period, the ways in which they shaped their identities and how they remember Italian colonial past in present day time. Drawing on new archival material found in Eritrea and on interviews undertaken during my fieldwork in the country in 2001-2002, this paper will attempt to demonstrate the limits and contradictions of the colonial notion of "modernity" imposed on Asmara and to examine what has been (and has been not) transmitted of the African experience in the city.