LA "LECTIO"

In 2000, the University of Turin awarded the Italian partisan and historian Angelo Del Boca (1925-2021) a laurea honoris causa in African History. In his lectio magistralis, Del Boca reflected on the problems that had afflicted the continent in 1960, the "Year of Africa", placing special emphasis on the incomplete nature of independence and of the decolonisation process. The lectio epitomizes Del Boca's half-century long commitment to African issues and passionate rejection of the legacies of colonialism. More than twenty years after it was first delivered, the lectio remains relevant today and attests to the powers of observation and insight of a great witness of an era replete with both opportunities and failures.