African Diaspora in Italy: The Black Mediterranean and the Unfinished Reckoning

When most people think of the African diaspora in Italy, they think of the headlines: overcrowded boats crossing the Mediterranean, desperate migrants landing on the shores of Lampedusa, and a far-right government vowing to stop them. But this narrative—dominated by crisis, spectacle, and victimhood—obscures a far deeper and more complex story.

Africans have been present in Italy for centuries. They were depicted in Renaissance art, they lived in the courts of the Medici, and they were integral to the cultural fabric of the Italian peninsula long before unification . Today, Italy is home to over 5.2 million officially registered migrants, with African communities constituting a significant and growing portion of that number . But the African diaspora in Italy is not a monolith. It is a community shaped by colonialism, post-war migration, and the contemporary Mediterranean crossing—a community that is simultaneously ancient and new, visible and invisible, Italian and “other.”

This is the story of the Black Mediterranean—a concept that reframes the sea not as a barrier but as a bridge, and Italy not as a frontier but as a crossroads .

1. A 400-Year Presence: From Renaissance Courts to Colonial Conquest

The African presence in Italy is not a recent phenomenon. It predates the modern Italian state itself.

The Renaissance: Hidden in Plain Sight

In recent years, scholars and artists have begun to uncover the deep history of Black life in Renaissance Italy. A 2022 documentary, The Black Italian Renaissance: African Presence in Art, reveals that Africans and people of African descent were “integral parts of the Italian Renaissance”—depicted in sculpture, painting, and archival records, yet “hidden in plain sight” . These were not merely enslaved people or exotic curiosities; they were diplomats, servants, musicians, and even members of the nobility.

Yet this presence was systematically erased from the national narrative. As scholar Angelica Pesarini notes, the work of contemporary scholars seeks to “expand the field of Black Italia” by focusing on the dynamics of race, gender, identity, and citizenship that have shaped the Afro-Italian experience across centuries .

The Colonial Era: Conquest and Atrocity

Between 1882 and 1941, Italy waged a brutal campaign of conquest across the Horn of Africa. Eritrea was colonized in 1890, becoming the first and longest-held Italian colony. Somalia was transformed into a plantation colony dependent on forced labor and land confiscation. And Ethiopia—one of the few African nations to resist colonial rule—was invaded in 1935 and subjected to a systematic “policy of terror and extermination” .

The atrocities were staggering. The 1937 Addis Ababa massacre alone claimed 19,000 to 30,000 lives in three days. Italian forces employed chemical weapons, including mustard gas, and destroyed villages, bombed Red Cross hospitals, and executed prisoners . The fascist regime entrenched racial hierarchies, land expropriation, forced labor, and cultural suppression across the region.

Italy has never fully reckoned with this legacy. Although Presidents Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (1997) and Sergio Mattarella (2016) expressed sorrow during visits to Addis Ababa, no formal parliamentary resolution or reparative policy has followed . The 1947 Paris Peace Treaties contained reparations provisions that remain unimplemented to this day.

2. The Modern Diaspora: Three Waves of Migration

The contemporary African diaspora in Italy is the product of three distinct waves, each driven by different forces.

The Horn of Africa Wave: Colonial Ties

The first significant post-war wave came from the Horn of Africa—Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia—driven by political instability, war, and the lingering ties of colonialism . As the documentary Asmarina (2015) shows, this community offers “another vision of the African diaspora in Italy,” one that demonstrates the long-standing presence of Eritrean and Ethiopian communities and their contributions to the development of Italian postwar national identity .

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The West and North African Wave: Labor and Family

From the 1970s onward, migrants from West Africa (Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire) and North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria) arrived in search of economic opportunities. By the beginning of 2025, over 1.2 million migrants from North Africa resided in Italy, making them nearly a quarter of all migrants . Many work in agriculture, construction, and the service sector, often under precarious conditions.

The Mediterranean Crossing: The “Crisis” Wave

Since the 2010s, the Central Mediterranean Route has become one of the world’s deadliest migration corridors. Countless migrants—from sub-Saharan Africa, the Horn, and beyond—have crossed the sea to reach Italy, often fleeing conflict, poverty, or environmental disaster. Scholar Alessandra Di Maio has theorized this phenomenon as the “Black Mediterranean” —a framework that exposes how “today’s global capitalism exploits labor from Africa, reinforcing the power-unbalanced European-African axis, perpetuating and perpetrating violations of basic human rights, reminiscent of the slave-trade era” .

3. The Core Tension: “Afro-Italianness” and the Struggle for Recognition

At the heart of the Italian diaspora experience is a profound tension: being Black and being Italian are still seen as mutually exclusive categories in Italy .

The Second Generation: Citizenship and Belonging

This tension is most acutely felt by the second generation—young people born and raised in Italy, who speak Italian with native accents, hold Italian passports (or not), and consider themselves fully Italian. Yet they are frequently treated as foreigners, subjected to everyday racism and discrimination .

In Milan, a generally hostile political environment has contributed to young African-Italians’ “propensity to identify with the wider black diaspora and to articulate a desire to seek better opportunities beyond Italy” . This “second-generation attitude” reflects a deeper failure of Italian society to integrate its African communities.

The “Black Italia” Movement

In response, a new intellectual and artistic movement has emerged, known as “Black Italia” . This interdisciplinary field of study seeks to “recenter and excavate the Black presence in the Italian and Italian speaking contexts,” encompassing “African, Afrodescendant and Afrodiasporic histories, experiences, and cultural and artistic productions that, despite their existence, have been historically overlooked and marginalized” .

The research project IRIDE (Italian Racial Imaginary Deconstructed), active from 2023 to 2025, aims to “chart the evolution of racist tropes and deconstruct their imaginary” in Italian literature, cinema, comics, and socio-political discourse. It also seeks to deliver an “updated, analytical bibliography of studies related to the Black diaspora in Italy and to emerging Afro-Italian identities” .

4. Economic Footprint: Labor, Remittances, and the “Bridge” to Africa

The African diaspora in Italy plays a critical role in the Italian economy—yet this role is often precarious and exploited.

The Labor Market

Migrants from North Africa are heavily employed in agriculture, where they constitute over 30% of workers in some regions, and in construction, where they make up about 20% of the workforce . These jobs are often seasonal, underpaid, and lacking in basic protections.

Remittances and Diaspora Finance

While precise figures on African remittances from Italy are difficult to ascertain, they represent a significant flow of capital to the continent. The diaspora serves as a crucial economic bridge, sending money home to support families, invest in businesses, and fund community projects.

The Mattei Plan

In a striking development, the Italian government has launched the Mattei Plan for Africa—a flagship initiative designed to reset relations with the continent through “a model that blends development cooperation, trade, and strategic diplomacy” . The plan seeks to address irregular migration by promoting economic stability and job creation across Africa, while also diversifying Europe’s energy partnerships.

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However, critics have noted a profound contradiction: Italy’s engagement with Africa remains haunted by its unresolved colonial legacy . The Mattei Plan’s stated values emphasize “partnership of equals” and reject extractive approaches, yet Italy has continued to refuse to formally acknowledge or apologize for its colonial atrocities—including the use of chemical weapons, mass killings, and systematic exploitation .

5. Cultural Takeover: Music, Art, and the Voices of the Black Mediterranean

Despite the structural barriers, the African diaspora in Italy has produced a vibrant cultural output that is reshaping Italian identity.

Music: Sanremo and Beyond

As early as the 1960s, Black musicians were performing at the prestigious Sanremo Music Festival—including Louis Armstrong, Dionne Warwick, Wilson Pickett, Shirley Bassey, and Eartha Kitt. Scholars have argued that these performances “provided a public space to negotiate questions of race, belonging, and italianità (Italianness), indirectly engaging with Italy’s often overlooked history of colonialism and Fascism” .

Today, Afro-Italian musicians, writers, and artists continue to challenge dominant narratives, using their work to articulate a vision of Italy that is diverse, inclusive, and unafraid of its colonial past.

Literature and Film: The Counter-Narrative

Alessandra Di Maio’s book-length project, The Black Mediterranean, aims to reconstruct a “plural written, visual, and cross-media narrative of Afro-Mediterranean migration” that centers the voices of those who have experienced it firsthand . This work challenges the dominant media portrayal of migrants as “narrated objects rather than individual narrating subjects.”

The documentary Asmarina (2015) similarly offers “another vision of the African diaspora in Italy,” one that highlights the contributions of Eritrean and Ethiopian communities “in the face of current rise in xenophobic attacks against African migrants” .

The Afro-Italian Renaissance

The emerging field of Black Italian studies is documenting and celebrating this cultural production. The recent volume Black Italia (2024), edited by Camilla Hawthorne and Angelica Pesarini, brings together scholars, artists, and activists to explore the multiple dimensions of the Afro-Italian experience .

6. The Political Voice: Activism, Citizenship, and the Fight for Recognition

The African diaspora in Italy has a long history of political activism—from the anti-colonial resistance of the 1930s to the contemporary fight for citizenship rights.

The Citizenship Struggle

For second-generation Africans born in Italy, the fight for full citizenship remains a central political demand. Italy’s citizenship laws are based largely on jus sanguinis (blood right), meaning that children born in Italy to non-citizen parents are not automatically granted Italian citizenship. This leaves hundreds of thousands of young people in legal limbo, unable to vote or fully participate in the society they were born into.

As scholar Gabriele Proglio notes, the stories of the diaspora reveal “the existence of another Italy—and another Europe—through stories that cross national and European borders and unfold in transnational and global networks” .

The Anti-Racist Movement

Activism against everyday racism, police brutality, and structural discrimination has grown significantly in recent years. Scholar-activists like Angelica Pesarini are engaged in “the Italian anti-racist movement” as both academics and advocates, using oral histories and counter-narratives to challenge the dominant discourse .

7. Main Communities: Where Do They Live?

The African diaspora in Italy is concentrated in specific regions, each with distinct histories and demographics:

Rome and Lazio: A major hub for Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Somali communities, reflecting colonial-era ties.
Milan and Lombardy: Home to a diverse African population, including significant Senegalese, Nigerian, and Ghanaian communities. The documentary Asmarina focuses on the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in Milan .
Southern Italy (Puglia, Calabria, Sicily): Key entry points for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. North African migrants are heavily concentrated in these regions, working in agriculture .
Turin and Piedmont: A growing hub for African professionals and students, as well as a center for academic research on the diaspora .

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8. Fun Facts & Shocking Realities

“Hidden in Plain Sight”: Africans and people of African descent were “integral parts of the Italian Renaissance,” yet their presence has been systematically erased from the national narrative .
The Addis Ababa Massacre: In 1937, Italian forces killed between 19,000 and 30,000 Ethiopians in three days—a crime that has never received formal acknowledgment or reparations .
“The Black Mediterranean”: Scholar Alessandra Di Maio has theorized the Mediterranean as a space of both exploitation and cultural production, exposing the “power-unbalanced European-African axis” that “perpetuates and perpetrates violations of basic human rights, reminiscent of the slave-trade era” .
The Graziani Mausoleum: Italy has erected a publicly funded mausoleum in honor of Rodolfo Graziani—the “butcher of Addis Ababa”—a symbol of the country’s continued refusal to confront its colonial past .
The Mattei Plan Paradox: Italy’s flagship initiative to reset relations with Africa promotes a “partnership of equals” while refusing to acknowledge or atone for colonial atrocities .

9. Main Personalities (The Icons)

Angelica Pesarini: A scholar-activist and Assistant Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto. Her work focuses on “the lived experience of Black ‘mixed race’ Italian women during the (post)colonial fascist period in East Africa” and she is “engaged in the Italian anti-racist movement” as both an academic and an advocate .
Alessandra Di Maio: Associate Professor at the University of Palermo and a leading scholar of the African diaspora in Italy. She has theorized the “Black Mediterranean” and is the editor of the forthcoming Black Italia (2024). Her work explores “how issues of ethnicity, gender, representation, narration, memory and forgetting interact in the formation of national and transnational identities” .
Gabriele Proglio: Author of The Horn of Africa Diasporas in Italy: An Oral History (2020). His research explores the multiple identities of the diaspora and “reinterprets the history and legacy of Italian colonialism” .
Justin Randolph Thompson: An artist and cultural facilitator based in Italy, Co-Founder and Director of Black History Month Florence and The Recovery Plan. His work “grapples with cultural stratification in projects that connect academic discourse, social activism and DIY strategies” .
Francesca Priori and Cristian Di Mattia: Journalist and filmmaker behind The Black Italian Renaissance: African Presence in Art (2022), a documentary that seeks to uncover the hidden history of Black life in Renaissance Italy .

The Verdict: A Diaspora at the Crossroads

The African diaspora in Italy is a story of paradox: a community that is simultaneously ancient and new, visible and invisible, integrated and marginalized. It is a diaspora shaped by the violence of colonialism and the precarity of the Mediterranean crossing, yet it is also a diaspora of immense cultural creativity, political resilience, and intellectual ferment.

The field of Black Italia is growing, as scholars, artists, and activists work to recenter the African presence in Italian history and culture . The concept of the Black Mediterranean offers a powerful framework for understanding Italy not as a fortress but as a crossroads, a place where African and European histories intersect in complex and sometimes contradictory ways .

But the diaspora’s future remains uncertain. Italy’s refusal to reckon with its colonial past—its atrocities in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia—continues to haunt its present . The Mattei Plan, for all its promise, risks being seen as a new form of extraction rather than a genuine partnership .

As one scholar has observed, the stories of the diaspora “reveal the existence of another Italy” . Whether Italy can embrace that other Italy—diverse, inclusive, and accountable to its past—is the central question of its future.