Sambadù, amore negro di Mura. Censura fascista e sfida alla morale nell’Italia di Mussolini

ABSTRACT In this article the novel Sambadù, amore negro (1934) by Mura (the pseudonym of Maria Volpi Nannipieri) is analysed and studied with reference to the putative violent reactions of Mussolini when he saw the book cover and the subsequent rules made up regarding censorship in fascist Italy. According to Bonsaver (Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy, Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2007), the novel marked the beginning of a more rigid censorship because of these reactions, although the love story between a white woman and a black man in the novel actually finishes with separation and the man’s return to Africa. The argument was highly controversial, not only because Italy was preparing for war in Abyssinia but also because of the regime’s racist and sexist attitudes towards interracial love and female authors. Here it is argued that the novel, despite its ending, was controversial in more ways than one, since the female protagonist does not accept a woman’s inferiority in marriage and refuses to give up her child as a consequence of divorce.