Giuseppe Sapeto (1811-24 August 1895) was a member of the Order of San Lazaro who traveled the shores of the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

and was one of the proponents of Italian colonial expansionism.

Life and career

Sapeto was born in 1811 in Carcare, Genoa. In 1837, Giuseppe Sapeto settled in Adua and wrote some works on

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

and Abyssinia. Between 1851 and 1855 he traveled, together with Father Giovanni Giacinto Stella, among the peoples of the Mensâ, the

Bogos The Bilen (also variously transcribed as Blin, and also formerly known as the Bogo, Bogos or North Agaw) are a Cushitic ethnic group in the Eritrea. They are primarily concentrated in central Eritrea, in and around the city of Keren and further s ...

and the

Hababs The Ababda ( ar, العبابدة, al-ʿabābdah or ar, العبّادي, al-ʿabbādī) are an Arab or Beja tribe in eastern Egypt and Sudan. Historically, most were Bedouins living in the area between the Nile and the Red Sea, with some settli ...

, following which he published an account of the places the pair journeyed to. Following this initial African adventure, he later he taught the Arabic language in Paris, Florence and Genoa. In 1862, Sapeto returned to Africa, and in November 1869 he bought the bay of

Assab Assab or Aseb (, ) is a port city in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea. It is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea. Languages spoken in Assab are predominantly Afar, Tigrinya, and Arabic. Assab is known for its large market, beaches an ...

on behalf of

Raffaele Rubattino Raffaele Rubattino (10 October 1810, Genoa – 2 November 1881) was an Italian entrepreneur and colonialist who started a shipping company that ran merchant ships on the routes to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. He was also a founder of the Ital ...

's shipping company, which with the transfer to the Kingdom of Italy in 1882 would become the first Italian colonial possession, and was the stepping stone for Italian expansion into

. As a representative of the Rubattino Company, he assisted in the first logistical phases of the Assab settlement, under the guidance of Captain De Amezaga, up until the appointment of Gustavo Branchi as Italian Commissioner of Assab. He left Assab in December 1880, never to return. The city of Genoa, where he died, and Rome both have streets named after him in the San Martino district and a central square respectively.

Works

* "Catholic Journey and Mission among the Mensâ, the Bogos and the Hababs, with a Geographical and Historical Mention of Abyssinia", Tip. of the Holy Congreg. of Propaganda Fide, 1857, original in the Public Library of Lyon (Bibliothèque Jésuite des Fontaines). * "Italy and the Suez Canal: Popular Operetta" Tip. Pellas, 1863, original at the University of Lausanne. * "Vulgar Arabic Grammar for Use in Technical Schools", Florence, 1866. * "Assab and his Critics", Genoa, Pellas, 1879.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sapeto, Giuseppe 1811 births 1895 deaths 19th-century Italian writers