The Formation of Good Christians and Obedient Subjects: The Colonial Eritrean School and the Capuchin Textbooks

Abstract

Before 1912, colonial schools in Eritrea adopted Italian textbooks, which were often inadequate for the needs of Indigenous students. The Capuchins were among the first to publish school manuals specifically designed for the local population: the first series, comprising seven volumes, was published beginning in 1912, followed by a second series of three volumes from 1923. This contribution analyzes these texts to examine their pedagogical objectives, teaching methodologies, and strategies of cultural transmission, considering Italian colonial educational policies, archival sources, and existing interdisciplinary scholarship, with the aim of highlighting the role of education within the colonial project as conveyed through these manuals.