La politique linguistique coloniale italienne dans la Corne de l'Afrique

This contribution attempts to illustrate Italy’s colonial linguistic policy in the Horn of Africa. After briefly depicting the ideological foundations of colonial linguistic policies, this study focuses on the italianisation process implemented in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Special attention is paid to italianised place names. The article intends to show that the colonial policy of Italy, like those of other colonial powers, fed on a linguistic and cultural racism aiming to dismantle African languages and impose Italian instead. Italian today is neither a vehicular tongue nor a language of instruction, and even less so an official language in the countries of the Horn, which unambiguously attests to the failure of Italy’s colonial linguistic policy.