The Italian Cultural Institute in Addis Ababa presents, in collaboration with the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa University), the Italian-Ethiopian seminar ‘’The development of the banking system in imperial Ethiopia and the role of Italian banks (1941-1973)’’.
The seminar will be held by Luca Puddu (University of Naples “Federico II” – Scuola Superiore Meridionale) and will investigate the Africanization of finance in imperial Ethiopia. The trajectory of the Ethiopian banking sector from 1941 to 1973 provides an innovative perspective to explore the country’s struggle for the enforcement of economic sovereignty and control of the nodal points with the international system. The case study of Italian banks is also useful for deconstructing the binary opposition embedded in the neo-colonial thesis. Italian bankers based in Ethiopia often operated in contrast with the directives stemming from their headquarters, challenging economic orthodoxy in order to win the political favor of the Crown and associated provincial elites.
