Abstract

The term askari, which derives from a turkish word meaning soldier, has nowadays in Italy a very negative meaning: an askari is just a support person to a very important person, normally a politician and does all what it is ordered to do. It derives from a wrong reading of our colonial past and a certain deficence of knowledge of it; the askaris had a great part in building the Italian colonies, starting from the Colonia Primigenia, Eritrea. We will be able to understand the process of forming a very reliable military corps by a very young nation, with no colonial experience and less military history, through their first battles, and victories, and their first defeats in that corner of Africa which saw the Italian colonial adventure have place.