Abstract
Autore:
Ghezzi Carla
Titolo:
"Pippo Vigoni e l´Africa: un colonialismo critico"
Since he was very young, Giuseppe (Pippo) Vigoni nourished the ideals of the Risorgimento inherited from his father. When he was still a student — in May 1866 — the war against the Austrian occupation in Veneto broke out, and he entered the army in the cavalry as a volunteer. His familiarity with letters and arts made him a typical exponent of the 19th century Milanese aristocracy. Having taken his degree, he made the first of a series of Bildungsreisen: he visited Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. A subsequent journey to the Americs strengthened his awareness of the problem of Italian Emigration overseas, a problem that he addressed several times in national, economic and social terms. A third journey around some other Mediterranean countries, among them Tunisia and Libia (wich wasn’t Italian, yet), offered him the starting point of his invectives against Cairoli’s " polished hand politics ". After a journey across Russia and India between 1878 and 1879, Vigoni underwent the fundamental experience of his life joining the commercial expedition in Abissinia guided by Pellegrino Matteucci. His report of the expedition - Abissinia Giornale di un viaggio (1881) - shows the political vision of the author, not interested in any military expansion policy, but well-disposed toward a diplomatic and commercial penetration of the region, essential for the economic development of Red Sea coasts. The Abissinian expedition made Vigoni completely involved in the colonial debate, first as a member of the Management Committee, then as the president of the Society of Commercial Exploration in Africa. His effort to eliminate the "colonial prejudice ", still strongly rooted in Italy, became more and more important through a series of popular initiatives about African themes. During his involvement in foreign policy, he was also active at a municipal and a national level: he was Major of the city of Milan and seated in the Upper Chamber, where he was the "critical conscience" of colonial Italy against an often confused and idle central power.
