Italian Colonialism and Resistances to Empire, 1930-1970 by Neelam Srivastava

Author:Neelam Srivastava
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

The Princess appeals to his Americanness, by citing “that pioneering spirit that conquers, that spirit which has made our people in America the most progressive Negroes in the world” (135). In many of the debates around the African American relationships with Ethiopians, this idea that the former represented the most “advanced” national group among blacks, and hence were in a position to lead the opposition to Italy, circulated widely. Their positionality vis-à-vis Africa also helped to strengthen their racial consciousness and pride, as possible leaders of the black race worldwide.

Eventually, Dick is won over to the Ethiopian side, and proves himself to be a valiant and resourceful combatant and helper, hiring planes to fly himself, his servant and Ettara into Ethiopian territory. There is a subplot revolving around Dick’s servant, Bill Sifton, who, unlike the other black characters, speaks in an accented African American idiolect, thus defining him in class terms and implicitly consolidating the middle-class pretensions of the Courier’s audience. As the narrator describes him, “Bill Sifton was one of those rare Negro servants who never forgets that he is an employee and did not presume upon his master’s good nature” (126). In the early part of the novella, Bill is caught up in a steamy interracial romance with “Donia Gabrelli”, a mysterious, exotic and high-class Italian girl from Naples, who speaks a thickly accented English and turns out to be a spy for the Italians. The narrator implies that their sexual attraction to each other stems from their respective racial difference. After tumultuous sex in the ship’s cabin, Donia asks Bill if he would take her to America, whereupon he reflects: “Where wouldn’t he take a gal like that. Then he thought of a whole lot of places where he wasn’t allowed even to think of beauties like Donia, let alone going around with them. But there was no use discouraging her. He wanted to see her again” (138).

Bill is the trusty lower-class black character who saves the day because he manages to hide the treasure that will save Ethiopia inside a bar of laundry soap and brings it safely to Europe. Making a minor hero out of the black servant may have been a way for Schuyler to appeal to a wider black readership coming from different social classes, while steadfastly maintaining the hierarchies between them.

In Schuyler’s story, Ethiopians are presented as a people who combine the most ancient civilization in the world with modern technology, such as Maxim silencers to kill their enemies, airplanes and short-wave radio. The figure of Lieutenant Julian, the black aviator who offered his services to Haile Selassie and flew numerous times in Ethiopia, and who also makes an appearance in McKay’s Amiable with Big Teeth, was possibly the inspiration behind the prominence of the aviation motif in the story.

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