Half-devil and half-child. Africanist historical studies and studies on colonialism in Italian University.

The essay focuses on the challenges met by the complex process of institutionalization of African Studies in Italian universities, analyzing setbacks and patterns of thematic continuity with the colonial past. In Italy African Studies only partially mirrored the international trends, long remaining on the fringes of growth and of theoften lively debate on Africanist historiography that had been taking place in European and American academic communities since the 1960s.