Managing Colonial Recollections

This essay recapitulates Libya's colonial past and analyses its peculiarities; specifically, those connected to the dialogical aspects of the Italian–Libyan colonial relationship. The main objective is to highlight a controversial part of Italian–Libyan history: the ruthless Italian colonial domination of Libya from 1911 to 1943, and the controversies raised when Libya demanded compensation for colonial damages and losses. The essay describes the reasons why Italians undertook imperial rule in Libyan territories and the consequences of colonial domination; it analyses Italian colonialism in Libya from a postcolonial perspective in order to interpret colonial–ethnic relations of that time and understand their legacy in the present; and it discusses why the history of Italian colonialism has voids and distorted recollections – this allows us to see why the Italian–Libyan colonial past has been subject to manipulation by politicians serving national interests.