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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Family fortunes: aspects of the history of the Italian community in Malawi
Author:McCracken, JohnISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:The Society of Malawi Journal
Volume:61
Issue:1
Pages:5-25
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Malawi
Central Africa
Subjects:immigrants
entrepreneurs
social history
Italians
minority groups
colonial period
1900-1949
History, Archaeology
Malawi--History
Italians--Malawi--History
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/29779252
Abstract:Among the various immigrant minority groups that established themselves in Central Africa during the colonial period, the Italian community in Nyasaland (now Malawi) was one of the smallest. Individual Italians were resident in the territory from the 1890s but an identifiable Italian community dates only from the mid-1920s, achieving its clearest definition during the wartime decade from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. Even in this period there were never more than 70 Italian residents in Nyasaland, but this does not imply that the community is unworthy of historical study. Three features are important in this respect: the Italian community's economic role between the wars was disproportionate to its size; the available sources on their social and economic activities are more revealing than comparable material relating to other immigrant groups in inter-war Nyasaland; an investigation of the Italian community throws light on the shifting relationships between class, race and ethnicity that are integral to an understanding of colonial societies. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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