Abstract
My paper intends to investigate the construction and strengthening of transnational networks between Europe and the Arab world in the 1930s, by focusing on the experience of Radio Bari, a radio station broadcasting in Arabic and intended to enhance the Italian Fascist political and strategic presence in the Arab world. More specifically, this paper aims at enquiring to what extent Radio Bari might be considered an example of the cultural transnational networks that existed throughout the Mediterranean sea in the 1930s.
Being a radio that was transmitting from Italy to the Arab world, thus circulating information across state borders, Radio Bari was by definition a transnational phenomenon. But, my paper wants to highlight other aspects of that experience. In fact, as was the case with other European radios (Radio Daventry, Radio Paris Mondial, Radio Berlin) where Arabs were employed as announcers, Radio Bari took advantage of the participation in its programs of a relevant group of Arabs (both from Mashreq and Maghreb) either as speakers or as guests. Political and religious channels—i.e. Arab nationalists and Christian Arabs—were used by the Italian government to identify people who could work in the radio and participate in its programs. As examples, among the speakers there was Salim Cattan, brother of a Maronite Lebanese bishop, and among the guests Shakib Arslan, Habib Bourguiba, Taha Hussein and Muhammad Kurdali.
This paper intends to reply to several questions. What was Arabs’ role in Radio Bari’s programs? To what extent did they contribute in shaping Radio Bari? How did they interact with the Italian radio staff and the broader group of Italian Oriental scholars, such as Carlo Alfonso Nallino, Ettore Rossi and Laura Veccia Vaglieri (the only non-Muslim allowed to attend the 1935 Muslim Congress of Europe), as well as journalists, such as Enrico Insabato, Daniele Occhipinti, and Ugo Danone, Enrico Nuné? To what extent did they contribute to make Radio Bari a transnational experience?
Apart from the (few) bibliography existing on this topic, in terms of sources my paper will be mainly based on the unpublished documentation that I have been collecting so far in several archives in Italy, UK, France, Morocco and the US.
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