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Military Caduti Combattendo per la Conquista Dell' Abissinia, 3 Ottobre 1935 -- 9 Maggio 1936(Military Personnel Fallen for the Conquest of Ethiopia, 3 October 1935 -- 9 May 1936) byGiancarlo StellaReview by: Alberto SbacchiThe International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1992), pp. 231-232Published by: Boston University African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/220199 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 231

MILITARI CADUTI COMBATTENDO PER LA CONQUISTA DELL'

ABISSINIA, 3 OTTOBRE 1935 - 9 MAGGIO 1936 (MILITARY PERSONNEL FALLEN FOR THE CONQUEST OF ETHIOPIA, 3 OCTOBER 1935- 9 MAY 1936). By Giancarlo Stella. Ravenna: G.C. Stella, 1989 (privately printed), second revised edition. Pp. 215. 30.000 lire.

Research on the topic of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia is not a popular topic, but in this monograph the author gives recognition to those soldiers who lost their

young lives for what was perceived at the time (1935-36) to be a patriotic ideal. However, 1,099 is not acceptable as the number of those who fell in East Africa, not because the official statistics of Aldo Castellani, general health inspector of Italian East Africa, are incorrect, but because the fascist government was interested in minimizing the number of losses in order to enhance the valor of fascist soldiers, and to make it appear that the empire of Ethiopia had cost Italy only a few hundred lives.

Even though the author believes in Castellani's report, first published in L'Avvenire d'ltalia 12 July 1936, he cites the number of deaths as 1,698,1 while the press published 1,099. Whom to believe? Stella himself lists 1,229 names of deceased but he does not explain how to reconcile his list with Castellani's. Furthermore Castellani may not have had all the statistical information needed because he wrote the Duce on 1 July 1936 less than two months after the conquest of Ethiopia. Other reasons to question the validity of these statistics are the lack of reliable Italian data, the state of confusion, and the fact the Statistical Bulletin ceased

providing information on the number of deaths. Furthermore, the archives of field

hospitals have been destroyed and inventory material dispersed. Italian authorities did not report specific deaths and casualties for security and military reasons, and even banned the return of corpses to Italy.

There are, however, a number of other equally reputable reports, such as the one written by General Italo Gariboldi quoting 2,138 deaths.2 For the same

period the Italian Central Statistics Office reported that the number of the fallen for the conquest of the empire was 1911,3 while data provided by the minister of Africa

1 Castellani to Duce, 1 July 1936, Ministry of Italian Africa, Cabinet Papers, Box 28 (hereafter MAI/Cab).

This is the breakdown of Castellani's report: 119 officers and 980 soldiers died in the battlefield, i.e. 1,099, while at the same time 22 officers and 577 soldiers were reported as having died of various diseases, hence the total deaths are 1,698.

2 Central State Archives (Rome) Graziani Papers, Box 27, Graziani to Ministry of Colonies, 11 October 1936.

3 MAI/Cab. 151/IX, Ligorio to Duce, November 1936.

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232 BOOK REVIEWS

accounts for 3,193 deaths.4 While Stella's endeavors must be recognized with a

"spirit of Christian pietas," by using fascist published statistics he continues to give credence to the myth that the conquest of almost 1,000,000 square kilometers of

Ethiopian territory cost Italy very little, or one Italian life for every 900 square kilometers of land! At the same time while this publication recognizes the sacrifice of those officially listed in fascist statistics, it does injustice to those who died but whose names were not brought to the attention of the public. Hence the need for more research to obtain empirical data rather than to be transported by nostalgic emotions.

Through historical inference Angelo Del Boca and I, in spite of sketchy sources,5 have each suggested that the more correct number of Italian casualties for the conquest of Ethiopia was about 4,000, thus opening the whole issue for discussion. Now it is time to get to the bottom of the real price of the empire because newly opened Italian military archives will reveal to the scrutinizing scholars new insights and the real cost of human life of the conquest of Ethiopia.

ALBERTO SBACCHI

Atlantic Union College

4 MAI/Cab. 204/28: Ministry of Africa, Military Personnel deceased in AOI, n.d.

5 A. Del Boca, Gli Italiani in Africa Orientale: La Conquista dell'Impero (Rome, 1979), 716-725; A. Sbacchi, "The Price of Empire: Towards an Enumeration of Italian Casualties in Ethiopia," Ethiopianist Notes II, 2 (1978).

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