“Mapping colonial Florence: A history of violence and its remains”, February 2025, European University Institute
On the occasion of BHMF 2025, Daphné Budasz organised a poster exhibition at the European University Institute based on Postcolonial Italy. This exhibition was made with the support of coordinators of BHM at the EUI, researchers Fartun Mohamed and Gildelen Aty-Biyo and the precious support of the EUI History department and EUI library.
Texts and curation: Daphné Budasz
Graphic design: BHMF (Simon Schmidt)
The city of Florence is commonly known and celebrated for its rich historical treasures—the birthplace of the Renaissance and a hub of artistic legacy that its residents and its institutions are proud to be the inheritors. Yet, besides the city’s medieval landmarks, there is another, often ignored heritage: the material traces of Italy’s colonial past.
Over six decades, from the early occupation of the Bay of Assab (Eritrea) in 1869 to the fall of fascism in 1943, Italy was a colonizing power which political ambitions heavily marked Italian cities. In Florence, colonial heritage is omnipresent but tends to be visible only to the ones who know where to look. Yet across the city, dozens of street names, monuments, and buildings stand as evidence of the violent history of Italian colonialism.
In 2018, historians Markus Wurzer and Daphné Budasz created the project Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage (www.postcolonialitaly.com) and started documenting these traces to spark public discussion about Italy’s colonial history and its legacies. This poster exhibition made on the occasion of BHMF 2025 is based on this grassroots research project.
While Florence’s medieval and Renaissance heritage often eclipse more recent layers of history, confronting these colonial remnants is essential. There is a critical need to understand enduring anti-Black racism as a legacy of slavery and European imperialism. But for that, Italy must face its colonial past. Identifying colonial traces is not just about acknowledging crimes and injustices of the past; it’s about grappling with the roots of contemporary racial violence and systemic discrimination.
Uncovering Florence’s colonial history is an invitation to challenge the selective memory of Italian colonialism that continues to shape the country’s cultural and national identities.
