Scioa Governorate

Italian East Africa. In violet the Scioa Governorate

Scioa Governorate, called even Shewa Governorate (and Governo dello Scioa in Italian), was one of the six governorates of Italian East Africa. The administrative capital was at Addis Abeba.

History

The Governatorate of Scioa in the Africa Orientale Italiana was one of the six in which was divided this imperial colony of Italy between 1936 and 1941. Originally it was called "Governorato di Addis Abeba", but in 1939 the name was changed to show the region of Scioa around the area of Addis Abeba. This was done because areas of the nearby governorates of Harrar, Gallo-Sidamo and Amhara were included in it.

The "Governo dello Scioa" was the only area of former Ethiopia fully pacified and rid of Ethiopian guerrilla in 1939, that allowed a huge development of infrastructures (roads, buildings, etc..) with the creation of a state-of-the-art "Addis Abeba Urbanistic and Architectural Plan" [1] and a beginning of colonization in agricultural areas assigned to Italian colonists. Even some industrial facilities were developed: for example at Addis Alem a huge factory for the production of slaked lime was established in 1938, and in its first year of production it turned out 30,000 hundredweights of the material.

The total area of the Scioa Governorate was initially in 1936 more than 7000 km2 (with 300000 inhabitants), but in 1939 was increased to nearly 65000 km2 and the population was more than one million and half inhabitants. Up to 85% of the 40000 Italians of Ethiopia lived in this governorate, when the Allies conquered in spring 1941 all Italian Ethiopia.[2] On October 1939 the Italian population of Addis Abbeba was 35,441 of which 30.232 were male (85,3%) and 5,209 female (14,7%): in 1939 nearly 800 Italo-ethiopian children were born from them.[3]

Governators

Governorate of Addis Abeba
Governorate of Scioa

Notes

  1. ↑ Addis Abeba 1939 Urbanistic and Architectural Plan
  2. ↑ Beltrami, Vanni. "Italia d'oltremare. Storie dei territori italiani dalla conquista alla caduta" Sezione: Addis Abeba - Scioa
  3. ↑ Emigrazione italiana in Etiopia (in Italian)

Bibliography

Beltrami, Vanni. "Italia d'oltremare. Storie dei territori italiani dalla conquista alla caduta." Edizioni Nuova Cultura. Roma, 2013 ISBN 978-88-6134-702-1

See also