In 1935, Renato Micheli composed the song 'Faccetta Nera' (Pretty/little black face) to commemorate the invasion of Ethiopia. The lyrics recount the liberation of a young Ethiopian woman from slavery by a fascist Blackshirt. This march, very popular in Italy, fueled propaganda that portrayed the invasion of Ethiopia as a civilizing mission, concealing the brutalities of Italian colonization. In this picture, the song's title and a verse accompany a stereotypical image of an African woman to advertise a candy brand.
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Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.Original image by Luciano Bonacini. Uploaded by Fabio Sappino, published on 02 September 2025. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Bonacini, L. (2025, September 02). Use of the Racist Song 'Faccetta Nera' in an Advertisement. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/20894/use-of-the-racist-song-faccetta-nera-in-an-adverti/
Chicago Style
Bonacini, Luciano. "Use of the Racist Song 'Faccetta Nera' in an Advertisement." World History Encyclopedia, September 02, 2025. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/20894/use-of-the-racist-song-faccetta-nera-in-an-adverti/.
MLA Style
Bonacini, Luciano. "Use of the Racist Song 'Faccetta Nera' in an Advertisement." World History Encyclopedia, 02 Sep 2025, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/20894/use-of-the-racist-song-faccetta-nera-in-an-adverti/.
