"'Faccetta Nera'" ("Little Black Face" or "Pretty Black Face") is a popular
marching song of
Fascist Italy about the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War. It was written by Renato Micheli with music by Mario Ruccione in 1935.
The lyrics are written from the perspective of a fascist Italian
Blackshirt soldier during the invasion of Ethiopia. In the song, the Italian narrator tells a beautiful young enslaved
Abysinnian (Ethiopian) girl that she will be liberated from slavery and ruled by a new regime. She is invited to parade with the fascist Blackshirts in
Rome, where she is promised a new and better life.
Themes
Slavery in Ethiopia is a prominent theme in the song.[1] The song follows the trend of Italian fascist propaganda portraying the invasion not as a war of conquest, but as a war of liberation to abolish Ethiopian slavery.[1]
History
Italian notice, signed by General
Emilio De Bono, proclaiming the abolishment of slavery in
Tigray in
Italian and
Amharic. The abolition of slavery was one of the first measures taken by the Italian colonial government in Ethiopia.
The hymn is said to have been inspired by a beautiful young
Abyssinian girl, who was found by the Italian troops at the beginning of the
Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
During the invasion, the song was hugely popular in Italy and caused national fervor.[2] During the fascist occupation of Ethiopia, Ethiopian women cohabited with Italian men in a system of
concubinage known as madamato.[3]
The implicitly erotic song was, however, somewhat of an embarrassment for the Fascist government, which had, starting in May 1936, introduced several laws prohibiting cohabitation and marriage between Italians and native people of the
Italian colonial empire.[2] These efforts culminated in the
Italian Racial Laws of 1938. The Fascist authorities considered banning the song, and removed all picture postcards depicting Abyssinian women from Roman shop windows.[2]
^Istvandity, Lauren; Baker, Sarah; Cantillon, Zelmarie (2019).
Remembering Popular Musics Past: Memory-Heritage-History. Anthem Press. pp. 74–75.
ISBN1783089709. By contrast, Mean Streets is scored with a musical patchwork of songs from different time periods and genres: [...] all interwoven with or set in contrast to the traditional, nationalist American and Italian tunes ('Home Sweet Home', 'Faccetta Nera', 'The Star-Spangled Banner') [...]