ABSTRACT

This article examines the history of the Fascist soldiers in Italian East Africa who were captured by the British Army in 1940–1941 and kept in Kenya as POWs and co-operators of war. It investigates how they related to the mental and geographical spaces and places of Africa and war captivity. Using unpublished memoirs, it analyses how POWs survived by engaging in sports, intellectual activities, and the performing arts, thus turning the camp into a productive space where they escaped psychological annihilation. It discusses how POWs split into pro and anti-Mussolini supporters after the 1943 armistice and transformed the camp into a space of violence, with barracks used as courtrooms and torture chambers where they made their own justice. The article closes by arguing that freedom for these men did not come until 1946, when they were repatriated to a country that had removed them from its post-WWII national narrative.

摘要

本文考察了意大利东非的法西斯士兵的历史，他们在1940年至1941年被英国军队俘虏，并作为战俘和战争的合作者留在肯尼亚。它调查了它们与非洲的精神和地理空间，地方以及战俘的关系。它使用未出版的回忆录来分析战俘如何通过参与体育，智力活动和表演艺术而生存，从而将难民营变成一个生产性空间，使他们摆脱了心理ni灭。它讨论了战俘如何在1943年停战后分裂为赞成和反对墨索里尼的支持者，以及如何将营地转变为暴力空间，将军营用作审判室和酷刑室，使他们自己伸张正义。文章最后指出，这些人的自由直到1946年才出现，