The monograph started with the making of the film In My Mother’s House.
It grows organically out of the film, with numerous segments included, finding a new life
in the digital project of Asmara and Carrara: A tale, and two cities.
The digital project allows us to develop an entirely different structure and logic where we
are not limited by the lineality of film. The monograph has a clear and transparent easily
workable form where the reader can follow the story in the simplest most accessible
way. Numerous branches enter ever greater detail that can be exploited for further
research, learning and information about the numerous worlds that film could barely
touch on. The topics include the origin and development of Italian colonial project in
North Africa with especial focus on Eritrea from 1890’s to end of colonial rule, Ethiopian
recolonization of Eritrea and the long freedom struggle, independence and beyond.
Furthermore, the meaning and generational differences in family practices, come in for
in-depth study not to mention the broader issues of religion, politics, and history in Italy
and Eritrea. The expansive context of the study is as varied as the USA, Europe, Africa,
in general.
Finally, the stark and detailed contrasts between the two cities themselves, the roles of
space, locality, and their transformation, and in indigenous meanings attached to them.
The intended audiences range to students from high school to university and post-
graduate studies doing research, to the reader in quest of further knowledge and
understanding.