Processes of Black Subjectivation in Great Britain: the Mobilization Against the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia, 1935-36

The essay focuses on the role of the Italo-Ethiopian war (1935-36) in the process of political subjectivation of the black diaspora in Britain. In this sense, the associative forms and terms of political debate developed in the Afrodiasporic community are analyzed, to read the conflict in a non-Eurocentric perspective: the argument focuses on the importance of conflict as a decisive moment for the emergence of a pan-Africanist discourse. Specifically, the text attempts to analyze how the Italian-Ethiopian war and the crisis that preceded it played a fundamental role in the formation and strengthening of a real black front, whose main expression was the International African Friends of Ethiopia (IAFE). The research work is mainly based on the press produced by associations and movements of the Afrodiasporic community, in particular Wasu, organ of the West African Students Association, The Keys, newspaper of the League of Coloured People and The Crisis, linked to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.