Product Description
The book
“ This Off the Road series release is the reportage of journalist-writer Curzio Malaparte in Ethiopia in ’39 for Corriere della Sera. Between January and April of 1939, Curzio Malaparte travelled through Ethiopia on behalf of “Corriere della Sera”. Arriving in Massaua, he visited Eritrea and then made for Addis Abeba, crossing through the territory of Amara and Goggiam. In the course of his long journey, some 6000 kilometres in part on the back of a mule, he also took part in military operations against the anti-Italian resistance, including the manhunt for Abebè Aregai, the most famous patriot of central Ethiopia, and was decorated for military valour. With this journey, the writer intended to document the creation of a “white empire” in a “black country”, that is to say the extraordinary effects of fascist imperialism in Ethiopia. In reality, however, this working plan was soon abandoned and, once past “the borders of white tradition,” the attention of the journalist-writer was captured by the discovery of an unexpected, inedited Africa, and by the military matters of which he was witness and protagonist. Five articles dealing with Africa accompany the Malaparte report, for the first time published in a book, completed by an extensive introductory essay and an appendix with documents – some of them published for the first time, from the historical archives of “Corriere della Sera” – which follow the editorial matters tied to the publication of the reportage.
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