Abstract

This article consists of a collective biography of the Italian mercenaries who fought in Congo in the 1960s. It contends that the history of Italian mercenarism in the former Belgian colony can be usefully subdivided into two phases. The first phase was coterminous with the secession of Katanga (July 1960 - January 1963). The Italian mercenaries who joined the armed forces of Moïse Tshombe’s rebel regime were almost exclusively drawn from the ranks of post-WWII migrants to southern Africa and were predominantly apolitical and motivated by economic considerations. The second phase – which began with Tshombe’s return to power in July 1964 and ended with the mercenary mutiny of 1967 – was characterized by the rise of a new, more politicised group of mercenaries. «Second-generation mercenaries» hailed directly from Italy and professed openly neofascist views. Their biographies cast the spotlight on a number of connections between politico-military violence in central Africa and in Europe and suggest that Italy’s «strategy of tension» might well have had a hitherto unrecognized African dimension.