ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the history of the regulations of mixed unions between Italian men and African women (the so called madamato) in the Italian colonies of the Horn of Africa, from the beginning of Italian colonialism to its end, which occurred with Italy's military collapse during the Second World War. Its primary purpose is to highlight a legal history perspective that takes into account the social context toward a broader understanding of the law. In the colonial context, the politicization of the private sphere was particularly strong, involving pervasive attention to interracialized relationships. However, social control could prove feeble under certain conditions. The chapter suggests that the rules on colonial concubinage and sexual mixing can be understood only by considering the particular social context of the colonies and including non-state norms produced by Italian settlers. The fascist aggression to Ethiopia of 1935–1936 and the following racist legislation were a true watershed for the regulation of colonial concubinage, but also represented a centralized intervention of the state law against a ‘living law’ that was no longer acceptable to fascist ideology.
