Sudanese Studies in Italy: a General Overview*

By Massimo Zaccaria

(University of Pavia)

A concise historical note about the Italian presence in the sudan is necessary in

order to understand what happened and is still happening among Italian scholars

in this field. A good starting point for understanding the historical relation

between Italy and the sudan can be the Biographical dictionary of the sudanby

Richard Hill. Among the many profiles presented, 85 names can be traced as

Italians, although ofcourse the calculation is not easy because ltary was a

geographical entity in progress, and a quite volatile concept, in the 19th century.

some of those names are quite famous. Recently, for example, attention has

been devoted to Daniele comboni (1831-188r),r the first catholic Bishop ofCentral Africa and the founder, in 1867 and lB72 respectively, of two

missionary Institutes for men and women (the comboni Missionaries and the

comboni Missionary sisters, i.e. the verona Fathers and sisters). some others

will also remember Fr. Giovanni Beltrame, in sudan from lg53 to 1g62, who

wrote extensively on the sudan and particularly on the Dinka language. Fr.

stanislao carcereri (1840-1899) was another missionary who left a valuable

series of notes on the Jabal Nuba. The list of missionaries might continue, but

the presence of Italians was not exclusively made of priests and nuns; a large

number of travellers, employees, explorers visited the country and in many cases

left us a record of their experience. Names like that of the excavator of

antiquities Giovanni Battista Belzoni ( I 778- 1823), or the naturalist Giovanni

Battista Brocchi (1772-1826), or the doctor who turned into an archeologist,

' This paper offers a briefoutline of Sudanese studies in ltaly; past, present and future. Itdescribes broad tendencies, avoiding the detailed discussion ofarticies or specific subjects.

I St. Daniele Comboni was canonised on 5 October 2003.

25

with dubious and devastating results, Giuseppe Ferlini (1800-1876) are well

known. Approaching the Mahdist period names like Carlo piaggia, Romolo

Gessi, Messedaglia Bey and Gaetano Casati are similarly well known.

Hill's biographical dictionary is an outstanding reference work but like a[

reference works it is open to improvements; so when I first approached

sudanese studies I set as my priority the updating of the profiles of Italians in

the dictionary, and the inclusion of new profiles where needed. The fact that I

never accomplished that task gave me a hint of the difficulties entailed in such a

project and showed me once more the incomparable ability of Richard Hill. In

my favour I can only claim that before giving up I was able to track down other

names, setting up a new list of some 350 names, all of them in the sudan in the

lgth century. It was an exacting job. I intentionally limited my research to that

period because I soon realised that the inclusion of profiles from the twentieth

century would have extended my task beyond control.

one of the main feature of the Italian presence in the sudan was its continuity, a

peculiarity that other foreign communities seem not to have enjoyed. From the

inception ofthe Turco-Egyptian period up to the present an Italian presence has

always been recorded in the country. In the 19th century the Italian influence in

Egypt, based on a large community made of thousands of immigrants, was

mimored in the sudan where, especially in the first phase of the Turco-Egyptian

period, the Italian language played the role of linguafranca amongwestemers

living in the Sudan.

Some services that were monopolised by Italians in Egypt ended up under the

same influence in the sudan as well. The postal service is probably the most

striking example. In 1873 the Egyptian Government delegated Casimiro Adda to

extend postal facilities to the Sudan. He then appointed another ltalian, Giacomo

26

Lumbroso, as postal officer and in 1878 Lumbroso acquired the position of

director of the mail service in Upper Egypt and Nubia. The appointment was

made by Licurgo Santoni, then director of the mail service in Upper Egypt and

Nubia.2 Santoni published a book about his experience in Egypt and the Sudan,

in 1905. In 1980, santi and Hill noticed that the original joumal by santoni was

more spontaneous than the printed book and decided to publish it.3

Also in the Mahdist period, during which the sudan pursued a policy of radical

isolation from the western world, a tiny group of around a dozen Italians was

forced to stay in the country, adding their names to the list of the famous

"Prisoners of the Mahdi". Compared to the number of other Western captives

the Italian group was exceptionally large, but failed in giving a proportionate

contribution to the literature of the "Prisoners of the Mahdi". Mrile the other

Westem captives were strongly encouraged to put down their memoirs the

Italians remained unusually silent and, apart from Fr. p. Rosignoli,a showing a

surprising restraint.5

More or less in the same period in which Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abdallah

captured Khartoum, the Italian presence in North-East Africa took a more

definite shape rvith the landing of the Italian army at Massawa (1gg5). For the

next 56 years Italy and the sudan shared common borders and a series of mutual

interests but, especially in the beginning, this relation was turbuient. The drive

of Khalifa Abdullahi toward Massawa and the plans of the Italians to control the

2 R.L. Hill, Eg)lpt and the Sudan 1820-i881 (London and New york, 1959), pp. 129-l3l;

l 57-1 58.3

P' santi *9,Rr.Hill (eds.), The Europeans in the sudan, 1834-lBTB. some manuscripts,mostly unpublished, written by traders, christian missionaries, fficials, and others loirordandNew York, 1980).a

Paolo Rosignoli, I miei dodici anni di prigionia in mezzo ai Dervisci delsrdan (Mondovi,r 898).

' I tti"d to investigate the many reasons for this silence in my doctorate : M. zaccaria, Iprigioníeri del Mahdi, tesi per il Dottorato di ricerca in storia dell'Africa, vII ciclo,università di siena, coordinatore Marco Mozzati, tutore Marica Milanesi, a.a. 1993-1994.

27

trade routes of eastern sudan were clashing and generated a climate of tension

that culminated in a series of military confrontations marking the last ten years

of the nineteenth century. The Italian army confronted the Khalifa's troops

successfully, and on one occasion it inflicted on them a heavy defeat: in

December i893 a force of some 10,000 Mahdists was routed during the battle of

Agordat. seven months later the Italian army took Kassala and maintained that

position for the following three years. The defeat of Adwa twisted Italian plans,

forcing them to hand back Kassala to the British whom, for their part, had to

authorize the advance of Egyptian forces into Dongola.

The Anglo-Egyptian condominium represented a period of intense activities for

the Italian community as well. verona Fathers and sisters went back to their

missionary activities that were mainly focused in the Southern area.

Nevertheless a strong missionary presence was also based in Khartoum and a

small number of other northem towns. In this phase the verona Fathers Institute

had successfully overcome the difficulties marking the period following the

death of comboni and a growing number of missionaries reached the Sudan.

This growth was paralleled by that in the number of other Italians employed in

many of the public works that were promoted by the govemment. In this phase

the Italian presence in the Sudan amounted to a several hundred.

After Independence, when the economy of the country weakened, most Italians

left, following a pattem that was common also to other foreign communities. ofcourse the missionaries did not share this destiny,6 yet the passing from colonial

to independent government required a complete reshaping of the relationship

between them and the state. The Sudanese authorities interpreted the christian

presence in the country as a left over ofthe colonial period and a major

hindrance to national unity. This simplistic view offered an effective scapegoat

6 In 2003 there were 203 comboni missionaries (fathers, sisters and lay brothers): G.

Franzelli, Mondo combonlano (Bologna, 2004), pp. 16-17 .

28

for the sudanese politicians who blamed the missionaries for inciting southern

hostility toward the regime. The nadir in this troubled relationship was reached

on22nd February 1964 when the govemment ordered the expulsion of all

foreign missionaries from southem Sudan. Nevertheless missionaries in the

Nodh were allowed to remain in the country and to continue in their activities.

since then the missionaries have helped in the formation of a more stabre

Sudanese church, a church that celebrated her first Saint, Giuseppina Bakhita,T

in oct. 2000, and that three years later saw the Archbishop of Khartoum, Gabriel

Zubeir 'Wako,8 elevated to Cardinal.

This historical introduction to the Italian presence in the sudan is necessary,

since sudanese studies in ltaly have focused throughout the years almost

exclusively on the Italian presence in the sudan. of course this was in part due

to the importance and abundance of the documentation that resulted from this

contact. The amount of existing books and articles linked to this presence can be

easily guessed perusing through two bibliographies, the first compiled by R.L.

Hill and published in 1939 with the title A Bibtiography of the Anglo-Egtptian

sudanfrom the Earliest Times to /937,e the second presented by Fr. stefano

santandrea almost ten years later with the title: Bibliografia di studi africani

della Míssione dell'Africa centrale.to Joining the information contained in the

two bibliographies a fairly accurate idea of the kind of books and articles that

Italian laymen and missionaries produced up to the 1940s may be easily

obtained. Two more works help us identi$,ing archival sources related to the

Italian presence. The ftrst is Guida delle fonti per la storia dell,Africa q sud del

? Beatified 17 May 1992; canonized I October 2000.o

Elevated to cardinal on t2 October 2003.

' R.L. Hill, z bibliography of the Anglo-Egptian sudan from the earliest times to I 9J7(London, 1939).t0

stefatro Santandrea, Bibliografia di studi africani della Missione dell,Africa centrale(Verona, 1948)

The bibliography by Santandrea is the first volume of the series .,Museum combonianum,'.

since then more than 50 books have been published under this series. Authors include: L.Bano, F. Giorgetti, B. Kohnen, A. Nebel, A.pazzaglia, s. santandrea and G. vantini.

29

sahara esistenti in ltqlia edited by carlo Giglio and Elio Lodolini,rr a useful

resource for locating African documents stored in hundreds of archives and

libraries in ltaly. The scope of the second guide is much more limited but it does

provide a precise insight into one of the most precious archives containing

material about the Sudan located in ltaly. In the 1980s Fr. Leonzio Bano

concluded the reorganization of the archive of the Missionari comboniani

(Verona Fathers) in Rome. Fr. Bano carefully annotated the thousands of

documents that were entrusted to him and arranged a card index organized by

name and subject. He then prepared a cletailed inventory based on which the two

volumes or Fonti comboniane per la storia dell'Africa nord-orientale edited by

Silvia Luciani and Irma Taddial2 were written. The "archivio centrare" of the

Comboniani is a first class research source for scholars and, in my opinion, it

has so far partially been neglected and underutilized.

The first generation of Italian scholars that started to take an interest in Sudanese

affairs was characterized by two attitudes. The first, as already mentioned, was

an almost exclusive interest in Italians living in the sudan. confusing the history

of Africa with the history of the Europeans in Africa was a quite frequent

shortcoming among scholars of that period, but the insistence of Italians on their

"heroes" deserves some explanation. Much of this insistence had to do with the

inferiority complex that Italy felt towards other European states and thaî also

invested the colonial sphere. For the sudan the British could celebrate the

glories of Bruce, Browne, Baker, and Gordory the Germans Nachtigal, Junker

and schweinfuilh; and even the French could claim Marchand. To the Italians

the fact that the intemational arena was extremely cautious in paying attention to

't Guida delle fonti per la storia dell'Africa a sud del Sahara esistenti in ltalia,a cura di CarloGiglio e Elio Lodolini (zug, c. 1974). T'he books are volume 5 and 6 of the Guide des sourcesde l'histoire de I'Afrique.

" Fonîi comboniane per la storia dell'Africa nord-orientale,a cura di silvia Luciani e IrmaTaddia, Bologna (Università degli studi di Bologna, Dipartimento di politica istituzioni storia,1 986), 2 vols.

30

the Italian contribution sounded like a conspiracy, and this prompted a stream of

publications that glorifred the first-rate contribution ofa plethora ofltalian

explorers, missionaries, philanthropists and slave redeemers.

During the Fascist period this attitude assumed a more articulated form and lead

to the appearance of what seems today a literary genre, made of the biographical

dictionaries of the "Pionieri dell'Impero" (Pioneers of the Empire) and of the

biographies of the most famous among them. Emphasizing this contribution was

instrumental to the Fascist project of building an African Empire, and the stress

laid on Italians was intended to prove the legitimacy of the Italian claims on

Ethiopia, The civilizing mission promoted by Italians since the beginning of the

colonization of Africa was the most striking evidence in favour of the Italian

candidature.

The "Pioneer syndrome" affected both scholars and missionaries and up to the

end of the second world war studies devoted to the sudan took the form of a

series of biographies and biographical dictionaries. only a few of these works

actually add something new to our knowledge and deserve being mentioned:

carlo zaghi is probably the scholar that contributed most in this direction. His

impressive production includes his biography of Romolo Gessil3 and a rater

contribution on the same period consisting of a bulky collection of reports

written almost daily by Gessi and addressed to Gordon during the campaign

against sulayman ibnzubayr.ta zaghithenturned his attention to the diplomatic

and military activity that led to the occupation of Kassala. This topic has

attracted a lot of attention, partially because the Italian army had successfully

rr Carlo Zaghi, Vita di Romolo Cessi (Milano, 1939).

'' c. zaghi, Gordon Gessi e Ia riconquista del sudan, con documenti inediti e sconosciutidegli archivi italiani e stranieri, raccolti e illustrati con introduzioni, note ed appendici(Firenze,7947).

This rare volume has been reviewed by Richard Hill in sudan Notes and Records (vol. XXX(1949), pp. 288-290). In his review Hill focused almost exclusively on the faults ofthe book,paying less attention to the fact that such a collection ofdocuments. written in French is amine of information.

31

I]Jliilffi

confronted the same army that had inflicted so many humiliations on the

Egyptian and British ones. Detailed descriptions of the military campaign on the

Eastem border are easily available, but a study ofthe reasons that forced the

Mahdists to push toward Massawa has never been attempted. In a more general

way, Italian scholars have shown limited interest in the history of the sudanese

people' and in many cases the impression is that they perceived with great

difficulty the existence ofa sudanese historical perspective. They were also very

respectful toward colonial borders and rarely took into consideration the fact

that some subjects demanded a regional approach rather than a national one.

Perhaps this is the reason why many subjects were never dealt with. This is the

case, for example, of the Khatmiyya in Eritrea, a topic which requires a definite

regional approach. Ilowever Italian scholars dealing with Eritrean affairs never

ventured further than Kassala, an attitude warmly reciprocated by the Italians

who wrote about the Sudan.

Another important feature of this early phase of sudanese studies in Italy is the

fact that no matter what the abundance of literature available, both missionaries

and lay scholars carried out their respective researches in what appears as a

perfect seclusion from each other. The history of the catholic Mission was the

exclusive domain of missionary scholars that never ventured outside this field.

The same pattem was followed by lay scholars, who never encompassed the

history of the catholic Mission in their works. The final result was that of two

non-communicating worlds and the consequent appearance of two distinct

historiographies. A few years ago I had the privilege to interview prof. carlo

zaghi: we had a very long and pleasant chat, and I had the chance to ask him

why he never used in his works any document related to the catholic Mission.

He told me that he had a personal dislike for everything that was related to the

church, and throughout his life carefully avoided any mixing with theo,pretacci,,

(damned priests). To the recollection of prof. Zaghi it might be added that, up to

il

32

the 1980s, access to the missionary archives was restricted and almost

impossible for independent scholars.

In my opinion there is only one field that represents a sort of exception to the

rule that we have just identified: archaeology. In this field the legacy of the

"Pioneer of the Empire" or the "Great tradition of the Italian presence in the

sudan", was, for obvious reasons, nonexistent. This particular situation has

favoured the appearance ofa series ofcontributions that are far more in contact

with the intemational scholarly research and a group of Italian scholars has long

taken part in the lively debate about the archaeological past of the sudanrs. At

the moment four universities (cassino, Leege, Napoli and Roma) are working in

the country.

The Second World War heavily affected the great traclition of Italian historical

research on the Hom of Africa, and the effects inevitably extended to the Sudan.

worthy of note is that the two historiographies that we have just sketched

reacted differently to the many challenges of the post-colonial era. The lay

scholars simply disappeared; in Italy the new historiography concerned with

African studies focused on the many new states and various other themes,

displaying an evident lack of interest in the former Italian colonies. sudanese

studies in ltaly, being the periphery ofcolonial studies, reached a standstill that

lasted until recently. Among the missionaries the post-colonial period was an

equally painful phase that resulted in a radical revision of many of their previous

positions. This rethinking involved also historical studies, but instead of

assisting in the virtual collapse of research, the new atmosphere contributed to

the overcoming of many of the downsides that had made their production

unpalatable to many in the past, The archives of the congregation were moved

ts o*an Giovanni, vincenza Grassi, Augusto Trombetta, The book of Khor Nubî. Epigraphicevidence ofan Islamic-Arabic settlement in Nubia (sudan) in the 3.-j. centuries a. h./10.-I l.a. d.,2vols.; see also the works of I. caneva, S. curto, M. Damiano Appia, R. Fattovich, E.Garcea, M.C. Gatto, A. Roccati, G. Vantini and I. Vincentelli.

33

from Verona to Rome; in Rome, a new library was created under the supervision

of Fr. Stefano Santandrea, and in a few years it became the most important

research library on the Sudan in ltaly.16 It has kept this role till now, and to have

a quick idea about ongoing research about the Sudan in ltaly, it is sufficient to

pick up the phone and talk to Fr. Cisternino, the current librarian. Comboni's

library in Rome holds the most important Italian historical collection about the

Sudan, while for contemporary and political subjects the best collection is held

by another Comboni library, the Biblioteca Africana in Verona. In 1961 the first

number of Archivio Comboniano appeared, a semi-annual journal dedicated to

the history of the Congregation, still published to date but which remains one of

the best kept secrets of the missionaries. The majority of arlicles published are

of interest for Sudanese studies, but the fact that the journal was intended for

internal circulation has concealed its existence to most scholars.lT New

structures and p new mentality paved the way for a radical change.

Beside the traditional hagiographic works conceming the'ofather of the Mission

in the Sudan",t8 the missionaries sfarted publishing more scholarly works

devoted to the languages and the peoples ofthe Sudan. In 1970 Giovanni

Vantini started publishing a series of works in English on Christian Nubia,

16 A few years ago I published the catalogue ofthe Sudanese collection ofthe library: M.Zaccaria (ed.), Il fondo Sudan nella biblioteca della Curia generalizia dei missionaricombonianí del Cuore di Gesu. Omaggio a mons. Daniele Comboni in occasione della suabeatíficazione, Roma I7 marzo 1996 (Roma, 1996).

The rich and carefully curated Sudanese collection is almost devoid ofmaterials in Arabiclanguage or published by Protestant scholars; an omission disclosing past, and sometimepresent, limits ofthe missionary approach to the history ofthe country.

'/ For example, the only library in Italy that possesses a collection of Archivio Comboniano isthe library of the Ponlificia Università Urbaniana (Rome).tt A g.*. that Fr. Lorenzo Gaiga kept alive with ìhe composition of almost 100

hagiographies. One of the latest is dedicated to the life of Mons. Agostino Baroni, ArchbishopofKhartoum from 1953 to 1981: L. Gaiga, Ilvescovo del dialogo. Agostino Baroniarcivescovo di Khartoum, Bologna, EMI, [20021. See also the recent works: F. Pieli, M.T.Ratti, A.C. Wheeler, Gateway to the heart of Africa. Missionary pioneers in Sudan (Nairobi,1998); and A.C. Wheeler (ed.), Announcing the light. Sudanese witnesses to the Gospel,(Nairobi, 1998).

34

gaining him recognition as one of the major expefs in the field.re rn 1973 the

diary of Francesco Morlang was jointly edited by a teamof missionaries

including: O. Huber, V. Dellagiacoma, G. Vantini, A. Nebel and L. Bano.20

Leonzio Bano published, Mezzo secolo di storiq sudenese, a work influenced by

the French "Nouvelle histoire" four years later. It consisted in the editing of the

birth, marriage and death registers of the catholic parish of Khartum from lg42

to 189821, a quite irmovative work that deserves mention and praise.

The missionaries also fostered their relations with foreign scholars, partially

ending the self-imposed isolation that had curtailed their works for many years.

Taking advantage of their improved linguistic skills, some missionaries also

started working with some of the most prominent scholars of the sudan. In

1974, Elias Toniolo, one of the first Roman catholic missionaries to go through

the colonial Education course in London (1939), published with Richard Hill

The opening of the Nile Basin;22 other documents by catholic missionaries were

published in 198 I by Richard Hill and paul santi.23 The former, in the same

year, wrote an article for a special edition of Nígrizia,2a the monthly magazine ofthe comboniani, commemorating Bishop D. comboni. In the same period

Richard Gray wrote the foreword of the Ethno-geography of the Bahr el Ghazal,

by Fr. Stefano Santandrea.25 Mo.e or less in the same period Dorothea McEwan

re G. vantini, The excavations at Faras. a contribuîion to the hístory of christian Nubia

(Bologna, 1970); oriental Sources concerning Nuóia, collected ané trànsl. by Giovannivantini (Heidelberg and warsaw, 1975); Christianity in the sudan (Bolognu, tett;.'u F. Morlang, Missione in Africa centrale. Diario I85S-lBf-l lnologna, IlZi;.'' L. Bano, Mezzo secolo di storía sudanese, 1842-lB9g. Dail,archiiio porrorihiol, diKhartum (Bologna, 1 976)." R.L. Hill and Elias Toniolo, The opening of the Nile basin. wrirings by members of thecatholicMissionstocentralAfrícaonthegeographyandethnography-ofthesudan, Ig42--1881 (London, 1974.1.

" See note nr. 3, In 1976 R. Hill translated into English the book by c. conte, Il sudan comenazione (Milano, 1 970).2a

R.L. Hill, "Risalendo iì Nilo", Nigrizia,Mar. l9gl. First published in lgg3, Nigriziatracesback its origin îo the Annali dell'Associazione del Buona pastore, 1g72." s. Santandrea , Ethno-geography of the Bahr el Ghazal (sudan). An attempt at a historicalteconsîruction, with a foreword by Richard Gray (Bologna, l9g1).

35

was granted access to some of the archived materials of the Congregation which

helped her in writing her stimulating book about the relationship between the

Roman Catholic Mission and the Hapsburg empire.26 This intense period of

activity and creativity culminated in an intemational conference on "Africa at

the time of Daniele Comboni". This conference, held in Rome in 1981, fostered

the meeting of a broad group of scholars representing many countries, branches

of learning and approaches. It was the first, and unfortunately last, meeting of

such significance to the Sudan to be held in ltaly, and its proceedings were

published two years later.zj

This, however, was not the beginning of a new era, nor the happy end of a

troubled relation, because, in the same years, the top hierarchy of Comboniani

Congregation decided that it was time to frnalize the beatif,rcation process of the I

founder of the Congregation: Daniele Comboni. That decision had an immediate I

impact on studies of the Sudan. Although more energies were devoted to

research and the best scholars of the Congregation were involved in this long

term project, for the following 20 years almost all resources were focused on a

single subject, Daniele Comboni, and the goal of research was not the history of

the Sudan but a specific phase of a missionary congregation and the virtues of its

founder. From then onward the already rich bibliography on Daniele Comboni2s

flourished further, with major contributions on his life and spirituality. The

writings of Comboni were published in 1991,2e including some 1,200 of his ,

letters, an astonishing mine of information about the Sudan. 1

26 ln'L982 Dorothea McEwan published in Cairo a work on which five year later was based

the book Catholic Sudan: dream, mission, reality. A study of the Roman Catholic mission toCentral Africa and its protection by the Hapsburg empire from I 846 to 1900 (I 91 4). Asrevealed in the cotespondence ofthe imperial and royal Austro-Hungarian consulateKhartoum (Rome, [s. n.], 1987).

" M. Caravaglios (edited by), L'Africa aì tempi di Daniele Comboni. Atti det congresso

internqzionale di srudi africani, Roma l9-21 novembre 1981, [S.1. : s.n.], (1983).

'o L. Franceschini, Mons. Daniele Comboni (1531-1981). Bibliografia (Roma, [s.n.], 1984.

" D. Comboni, Daniele Comboni, gli scrítîi,prefazione del card, Carlo Maria Martini(Bologna, 199 l), 2207 p.

36

The first reward for this collective and breath-taking operation came on the t7h

March 1996, with the beatification of Daniele Comboni by Pope John Paul II30.

The important recognition was also the end of much of the historical work

devoted to that goal. For the following phase, canonizafion, Vatican procedures

require the analysis of miracles that took place through the intercession of D.

Comboni; a task that requires a limited contribution from historians.

In the middle of the 1990s the driving force behind sudanese studies in Italy

had to reformulate its direction, having achieved its main goal after some 20

years of intense work. It is now too early to predict the future course of

missionary studies on the Sudan. Some of the energies will be unquestionably

absorbed by the new process of beatification of Bishop Antonio Maria Roveggio

(1S58-1902).3t It is also clear that a natural development will be the history of

the Catholic Mission after the death of Daniele Comboni, as shown by a first

group ofbooks published after 199632. A certain attention has been drawn to the

plight of the Italian prisoners of the Mahdi, a topic that I explored in my doctoral

thesis and in editing the Italian edition of the joumal of the captivity of Father

Josef ohrwalder.33 some of my conclusions were disputed by camillo Ballin in

30 The phases that let to the beatification ofComboni are dealt in a book edited by p.

Chiocchetta, La causa di beatificazione di Daniele Comboni (Roma, 1996?)

'' A lrrst series ofpublications have already appeared onthis subject: sulle antiche orme,Mons. Antonio Roveggio, Roma, 2002; L. Gaiga, Missione senza sconto. Mons. AntonioRoveggio missionario comboniano vicario Apostolico dell',Lfríca centrale (Roma, 2004)." Tarciso Agostoni, The Comboni missionaries. An outline history IB67-1997 (Roma,2004);A. Bertolotti mccj, Il vicoriato apostolico dell'Africa Centrale e I'istituto dei missionari Fíglidel Sacro Cuore di Gesù (i,898-191 9),tesi presso la Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Facoltàdi Storia Ecclesiastica, sotto la direzione di F. Gonzàles Femàndez, mccj (Roma, 1999); M.Cisternino, Passione per l'Africa. Carte missionarie ed imperiali sulla prima evangelizzazionein uganda e sudan, lB48-1923 (citta del vaticano, 2001), 571 p. (an English edition ofthistext will soon appear with Fountain Press, Kampala).On the relation between the early history of the Catholic Mission and its Tyrolese priests Iwould like to signal: G. Seccia, La míssione cattolica in Sudan e i protagonisti tirolesi (Roma,2001), 170 p.tt M. Zaccaria, I prigionieri det Mahdi, op. cit.; J. Ohrwalder, I miei dieci anni di prigionia.Rivolta e regno del Mahdi in Sudan, introduzione e note a cura di Massimo Zaccuia(Bologna, 1998),479 p. In 1996 the Bologna based publisher EMI reprinted (original edition1988) a collection ofwriting by one ofthe nuns: Teresa Grigolini Cocorempas, Iafti

JI

his Il Cristo e il Mahdi,3a a work based on extensive Arabic sources. Linguistic

and anthropological studies, the main area of activity for generations of

missionaries, continue to affract attention, and some linguistic works done by

missionaries in the freld are still published by the University of Trieste

Q)ipartimento di Scienze del linguaggio, dell'interpretazione e traduzione, or

'Department of linguistic sciences, interpreting and translation').35

In the same period there was some recovery of lay scholarship. After the end of

the Second World War Africanist scholars neglected research on the former

Italian colonies in general and the Sudan in particular. As a consequence, most

literature has been the work ofgeographers, experts in exploration history and

local historians who continued their work recovering and editing nineteenth

century travel literature.3u In doing so they displayed a great expertise in

sapevano che ero stata suora, edited by Daniela Maccari (Bologna,1996),207 p. Recently

the memoirs of another nun "prisoner of the Mahdi", Elisabetta Venhrini, were published. Abiography of Ohrwalder was written by Simone Paganini, Il movimento mahdista e p. JosefOhrwalder. Il movimento mahdista e I'esperienza di missione e di prigionia di un pretesudtirolese nel Sudan della fine del I800 (Roma, 2001), I70 p.

'o C. Ballin, Il Cristo e it Mahdi. La comunita cristiana in Sudan nel suo contesto islamico,

con particolare riguardo al periodo della rivoluzione mahdista, IBBI-1898 (Bologna, 2001).

See also: C. Ballin, "The dimmis in the Sudanese Mahdiyyah (1881-1898)", Islamochristiana,27 (2001).pp. 101-129.it

See: A. Pozzafi, Vocabolario ndogo-italiano-ndogo,a cura di Vera Carnielli con lacollaborazione di Stefano Santandrea M.C.C.J (Trieste, 1987); B. Kohnen, Dizionorio Shilluk,

a cura di Manuela Brovarone (Trieste, 199a); A. Pozzatí, Dizionario Glur, [Trieste],Universita di Trieste, Scuola superiore di lingue moderne per interpreti e traduttori; P. De

Angelis, Vocabolario Zande, edited by Franco Crevatin (Trieste, 2002).36

The list of such works will be too long, but some of them deserve a mention. G. Ferlini,Nell'interno dell'Affrica, IB29-1835, edited byWalter Boldrini (Bologna, l98l); G. Rossi

Osmida published the papers of Giovanni Miani, Diari e carteggi, IB5B-1872 (Milano, 1973);

and then a book about Giovaruri Battista Benzoni, Il gigante e le piramidi. Nella Valle delNilo con Giovannì Battisla Belzoni (1778-1823) fondatore dell'egittologia moderna (Torino,

teez).

An Italian translation ofAngelo Castelbolognesi's journal appeared in 1988: AngeloCastelbolognesi,Víaggio alfiume delle gazzelle Q,,lilo Bianco), 1856-1857, conillustrazionidell'autore, traduzione dal francese, ricerche, introduzione a cura di Giacomo Savioli,(Ferrara,1988).

F. Surdich has been one of the most active Italian scholars in pubiishing and commenting on

travel literature: "Un Lucchese in cerca di fortuna in Egitto e nel Sudan (1855-1868)", inlaconoscenza dell'Asia e dell'Africa in Italia nei secoli XVilI e XIX,vol.II (f.iapoli, i985), pp.

547-590.

38

managing biographical data but some difficulties in placing the object of their

research in the Sudanese context. I tried to highlight this limit when I decided to

tackle the biography of one of the most famous "Pioneers of the empire":

Romolo Gessi.3? Also the coverage of the political situation has shown a modest

improvement. In the past the missionaries carefully avoided openly addressing

this subject fearing retaliations from the Government. The only moment in

which this policy was not respected was in the months immediately following

the expulsion of the missionaries from the South, a dramatic móve that provoked

an outburst of publications very critical of the government's action.38 Lay

scholars showed an even more rooted distrust for the sudanese civil war and

avoided commenting on this conflict. Recently a new ,,modern history of the

sudan" has been published,3e and a series ofarticles took into consideration the

Turabi years.4o

In general it is clear that the climate of mistrust between missionary and lay

scholars has almost ended. The prevailing atmosphere is one of cooperation and

the missionary's archives are now open to scholars. A few years ago G.

Romanato decided to write a biography of Daniele comboni and his period, a

subject that has for many years been ofexclusive competence ofthe

A collection ofpreviously published works of nineteenth-century missionaries was edited in1996 by Luigi Gaffuri under the title Africa o morte, Viaggi di missionari italiani verso le

lgrgenti del Nilo, 185 l-1873 (Milano, 1996).

'' ,M'zaccaúa, Ilflagello degli schiavisti. Romolo Gessi in sudan, tB74-Igg1 (Ravenna,l 999).18

A. îonfanti, Espulsi dal sudan(Bologna, Nigrizia, 1964); rhe black book of the sudan. onthe expulsion of the missionariesfrom Southern Sudan, an answer, ts.l.] (SAGA, l96a);Yusef el Amin, Cosi va il mondo nel Sudan (Urbania, 1965). And the Italian translation of thebook by J. oduho and w. Deng, The problem of the southern sudan (Milano, 1964). For therole played by missionaries in the political turmoil of southem sudan see the paperby R.Gray in YusufFadl Hasan and Richard Gray (eds.), Religion and conflict in suian. papers

from aninternational conference at Yale, May 1999,$.irairobi,2002i,'.'I.Panozzo, Il dramma del Sudan specchio dell,Africa (Bologna, 2000).a0

s. Bellucci, "Islam and Democracy. The 1999 pàlace coup in sudan", Middle East policy,7, no. 3, (2000); G. calchi Novati and s. Bellucci, "Islamic Govemance. The case of Algeiiaand Sudan', Meditenanean Quarterly,12, no. I (2001).

39

Congregation, But instead of the past diffidence, Romanato experienced a great

deal of collaboration.al

What still remains to be done is implementing a tighter cooperation within a

wider intemational context. Sudanese studies in Italy will certainly improve

their appeal whenever scholars will be able to link their work to what their

colleagues in Kharloum, Bergen, Durham, London and elsewhere are debating,

ar G. Romanato , L' Africa Nera fra Cristianesìmo e Islam. L'esperienza di Daniele Comboni

(l83I-lBBl), with a foreword by R, Gray (Milano, 2003). This book with a slightly differenttitle was published for the first time in 1998 by Rusconi Editore, Milano.

40