Humanitarian Imperialism: The Politics of Anti-Slavery Activism, 1880-1940

257 Pages·2015·2.23 MB·English

by  Amalia Ribi Forclaz

HUMANITARIAN IMPERIALISM
OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS
The Oxford Historical Monographs series publishes some of the best
Oxford University doctoral theses on historical topics, especially
those likely to engage the interest of a broad academic readership.
Editors
P. Clavin J. Darwin l. GolDman
J. innes D. Parrott s. smith
B. warD-Perkins J. l. watts
Humanitarian
Imperialism
The Politics of Anti-Slavery Activism,
1880–1940
AMALIA RIBI FORCLAZ
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
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Acknowledgements
Over the many years it has taken to prepare this book, I have acquired
institutional, intellectual, and personal debts on an international scale.
I am profoundly grateful to the Berrow Foundation whose generous schol-
arship enabled me to write the doctoral thesis on which this book is based.
Particular thanks are also due to the Swiss National Science Foundation
and the Beit Fund in Oxford which supported the multi-archival field-
work for this project.
This book would not have been possible without the help and guid-
ance of outstanding mentors and fellow historians. I would like to thank
Madeleine Herren whose unrivalled knowledge of internationalism
shaped my approach to history at a formative stage of my studies. My
supervisor at Oxford, Georg Deutsch, has been a continuous source of
advice, challenging questions, and friendly encouragement. I am thank-
ful to the community of scholars in the History Faculty in Oxford and in
particular to those students and colleagues in the field of international,
imperial, and global history who have expressed interest in and offered
comments on my work over the years. I have greatly benefited from the
advice of Suzanne Miers who has been extremely generous in sharing
her knowledge and her time. I also want to thank John Darwin and Joe
Miller for encouraging me to transform my thesis into a book.
Many friends and colleagues have at one time or another read parts of
the manuscript. I am indebted to Scott Anthony, Kate Ferris, Margret
Frenz, Daniel Laqua, Hugh Macmillan, Francesca Piana, and members
of the truly inspiring Oslo International History Research Network led
by Hilde Henriksen Waage and Hanne Vik. Particular thanks are due to
Daniela Almansi who generously gave her time to proofread the manu-
script. I owe a great debt to my editor Patricia Clavin who patiently sup-
ported this project despite its many delays, and who gave me expert advice
on how to transform my thesis into a polished final product.
In tracking down the fragmented historical sources for this book I have
benefited from the help of many librarians and archivists. I am especially
grateful to Lucy McCann and Charles Swaisland at Rhodes House in
Oxford, Jeff Howarth at the library of Anti-Slavery International in
Brixton, Bernardine Pejovic and Jacques Oberson at the League of Nations
Archives in Geneva, Padre Ernesto Tomei of the Missione Consolata, as
well as the staff at the archives of Propaganda Fide in Rome. I owe a spe-
cial debt to Hugh Macmillan for allowing me access to his father’s papers.
vi Acknowledgements
My time at Lincoln College, Oxford, has yielded unforgettable memo-
ries, which have enriched my life and work. I thank Dominik Blättler
and Barbara Bader for taking me under their wings and introducing me
to the beauty and quirkiness of Oxford life. I have fond recollections of
daily runs over Christ Church Meadows with Roger Zuber, inspirational
discussions with Daniela Almansi, and culinary pampering with Giulia
Saltini-Semerari.
The Italian chapters of this book were written in Rome where I was
very fortunate to spend a memorable year as membro scientifico at the
Swiss Institute. The late-night discussions on Italian politics and society
with fellow researchers and artists in the kitchen of the Villa Maraini
remain one of the highlights of my Roman life. In the last stages of revi-
sion, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in
Geneva provided me with a generous working space, allowing me to work
serenely not far from the encompassing collection of the United Nations
library.
Finally, I am sincerely thankful to all friends and family who have
supported me over the years. I owe a special debt to my father, Giulio
Ribi, whose love of history shaped mine, and to my mother, Madeleine
Ribi Luisoni, who doted on her granddaughters while their mother was
painstakingly finishing her manuscript. Amongst those who provided
steadfast and often transoceanic friendships, Chantal Berna, Dominique
Boutros, Aldina Camenisch, Marie Ferrière, Lucia Flury, Sandrine
Foldvari, Kalavati Galiana, Karin Lüdi, Frank Müller, the Tognetti fam-
ily, Raffaele Renella, Lila Ribi, and my brothers, Camillo and Vincenzo
Ribi, all deserve a special mention.
Last but not least, my profound gratitude and love goes to my husband,
Alain, for his companionship, steady encouragement, and unwavering
sense of humour. He has taken on more than his fair share of family
responsibilities to help me finish this project and I now face an uphill bat-
tle to reassert my powers in the kitchen. This book is dedicated to our two
daughters, Alice and Mathilde, who gave me a sense of the importance of
the present moment thus providing a welcome counterpoint to the com-
plex narratives of the past.
Contents
Introduction 1
1. The Anti-Slavery Revival, 1888–1914 14
The Emergence of Catholic Organizations 16
The Società Antischiavista d’Italia 23
Building International Connections 28
The Geopolitics of Italian Anti-Slavery 31
Reconfiguring Humanitarian Relations 36
The Coming of the First World War 41
2. The League of Nations and Slavery, 1919–1926 46
Lobbying the Mandates Section 50
The Bureau International pour la Défense des Indigènes 55
Slavery in Ethiopia 59
The Slavery Convention 68
3. Popular Anti-Slavery Campaigns in Britain, 1927–1933 77
Kathleen Simon and the Education of Public Opinion 81
Old and New Campaigning Techniques 86
The Centenary of Emancipation 97
A Marginal Issue 105
4. Italian Anti-Slavery, Colonialism, Catholicism,
and Fascism, 1919–1933 108
The Ascent of Fascism 117
Freedom Villages in Ethiopia 121
Towards a ‘Fascistisation’ of Italian Anti-Slavery 127
The Conciliation of ‘Two Ideal Forces’ 133
The Shape of Things to Come 136
5. The War on Slavery 139
Creating a Humanitarian Emergency 141
The Italian Takeover 145
The Italo-Ethiopian Campaign 154
Intensifying Propaganda 158
The Problem of International Opinion 162
The Campaign Reaches its Peak 168
viii Contents
6. The Crisis of Anti-Slavery Activism 172
British Reactions to the Italo-Ethiopian War 173
Poison Gas, Annexation, and the ‘Failure’ of the League 180
‘Where Have All the Slaves Gone?’ 185
The Crisis of Anti-Slavery Activism 190
Conclusion: The End of Humanitarian Imperialism? 202
Bibliography 211
Index 237
Introduction
Between 1880 and 1940, slavery in Africa became a prominent issue in
the relationship between European colonial powers and their African col-
onies. Anti-slavery organizations emerged concurrently with European
expansion in Africa, as a product of the increasingly internationalized
debate about ‘native welfare’ and the responsibilities of empire. In the
late 1880s, a range of Catholic anti-slavery organizations appeared in the
metropoles of continental Europe as part of the Holy See’s revitalized
missionary policy in Africa. Some of these new organizations, notably the
French Société Antiesclavagiste de France (1888–1918) and the Italian
Società Antischiavista d’Italia (1888–1938), joined efforts with the more
established British Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society (here-
after Anti-Slavery Society) founded in 1839 to raise political and public
awareness about the persistence of domestic African slavery and ongoing
slave-trading.1
The aim of this book is to explore how these small-scale organizations,
and the persons working within them, became entangled with religious
and political powers, and with the diplomatic and military affairs of their
times. At the heart of the story are the interactions between national
anti-slavery organizations, their connections, and disagreements, as well
as their relationships with governmental and non-governmental, domes-
tic and international spheres. The history of these entanglements uncov-
ers how anti-slavery campaigning triggered processes of competition
and imitation between imperial powers, and how slavery became part of
the inter-imperial circulation of a repertoire of ‘idioms and imaginaries’
1 The Anti-Slavery Society went through a few name changes. From 1839 to 1909,
it was called the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. In 1909, after its fusion
with the Aborigines Protection Society it became the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines
Protection Society. In 1947 the name was abbreviated to the Anti-Slavery Society,
and in 1995 it changed to Anti-Slavery International. The organization is now known
as Anti-Slavery.