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Contribution short abstract:

European African studies can survive as a discipline only if it becomes a true convivial space. Karima Lazali and Angelo Del Boca’s works can be an example of a virtuous way of understanding European African studies by developing a shared space of histories and experiences between North and South.

Contribution long abstract:

Karima Lazali and Angelo Del Boca embody two virtuous examples of researchers that contributed positively to the development of European African studies. As a matter of fact, their work proved that it is possible to overcome the debate about North-South knowledge production and actively contribute to rewrite a collective global history based on shared memories and experiences, developing a new way to understand colonialism and its effects not only in the Global South, but also in the Global North. Through a psycho-political approach inscribed in a wider historical framework, Lazali (2018) traces the effects of colonialism on the postcolonial subjectivities of both Algeria and France, highlighting the connections between the two countries and developing a new space for confronting shared memories. Del Boca (1992, 1993, 2005) investigated the perception of Italian colonial institutions of both Italian colonizers and the colonized people of Libya and Somalia through the contextualization of the law-in-context analysis in a wider global history framework, being then able to include Libyan and Somali experiences in the broader field of Italian African studies. Lazali and Del Boca have shown that it is possible to overcome mere specialist knowledge production in favour of a rereading of people’s experiences, therefore contributing to the creation of a shared history between North and South. Eventually, Lazali’s work on Algeria and France and Del Boca’s studies on former Italian colonies can represent the starting point of a new virtuous way of understanding European African studies.