Anthropology, “races”, and colonialism. African populations in the work of Giuseppe Sergi and beyond

This article aims to examine the complex and ambivalent conception of Africa and its peoples in the work of Italian anthropologist Giuseppe Sergi (1848-1936), placing it in the context of the birth of Italian colonialism and the scientific debates of the time. On the one hand, based on his new method of recognizing ethnic groups, Sergi developed an original vision that included the peoples of East and North Africa in the Mediterranean stock and affirmed a closeness and interconnection between Europe and Africa. On the other hand, his vision remained anchored in the "racial" hierarchies typical of positivism: Sergi considered the "black" peoples of sub-Saharan Africa to be physically, intellectually, and morally "inferior", placing them in a "barbaric" stage of human evolution. Despite this hierarchical view, Sergi was a fierce critic of Italian colonialism and imperialism, which he considered economically disadvantageous, politically short-sighted, and morally anachronistic. Inspired by socialist and pacifist ideals, he condemned colonial violence and promoted the emancipation of peoples through international cooperation. Giuseppe Sergi's work thus embodies the contradictions of the anthropological thinking of his time, characterized by a constant oscillation between progressive openness and deeply rooted prejudices.