ABSTRACT
The existence on the Ethiopian highlands of a Christian tradition, a political system reminiscent of European feudalism, and a written language of Semitic derivation rendered the 'dark Africa' narrative inadequate. In the 1850s and 1860s a number of European explorers scrambled throughout the Ethiopian Highlands to locate the source of the Nile, a controversy that was thought resolved by the 1860s. A composite group of fewer than two hundred Italians with a common interest in the oltremare met in Florence to found the Societa Geografica Italiana (SGI). By the 1860s the figure of the solitary explorer had given way to well-endowed expeditions: the SGI was in fact founded at a time of change, one during which the exploration business had become a burgeoning industry. By founding the SGI and publishing a periodical, Bollettino Della Societa Geografica Italiana, a group of intellectuals, professional travellers, and businessmen were attempting to catch up with their European counterparts and advocate for a nation-state.
