Courting African Public Opinion: Echoes of the Italo-Ottoman War along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean

The Italo-Ottoman war played an important role in mobilising public opinion. In the Americas as well as in Asia, the war sparked a great deal of participation, generated intense polemics and protests, and, to a much lesser extent, garnered support. The study of the reactions to the Italian aggression in Africa has mainly concerned the northern part of the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the great absentee, implicitly conveying the message that this region’s involvement in the conflict was minimal. Indeed, the area was not short of reactions, but one has to use the right sources and look beyond the newspapers. This is the only way to understand the profound impact that the war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire had on the Horn of Africa. Reactions were not clear-cut: the article explains why Pan-Islamism was not the only option available and why in some areas, the Ottoman appeal was deliberately ignored