Guido Corni


Guido Corni was a colonial governor of Italian Somaliland.

Life

Born in the Modena province, since young followed the Risorgimento ideals. He graduated in Industrial Chemistry and was a successful entrepreneur: he created the "Fabbrica Modenese Utensileria e Ferramenta Corni Bassani". In 1919 enrolled in the Modena fascist party
In March 1911 Guido Corni went to Italian Tripolitania in order to study the possible economic development of the region. He explored all Italian Libya in the following years. In 1923 was promoted to head of the fascist party in Modena.
From 1 June 1928 to 1 July 1931 Guido Corni was Governor of Somalia, promoting the integration of the local population to the Italian colonial system. He also started to greatly improve the economy of the colony: in those years indeed it was started the Italian colonization of the area of Genale, in southern Somalia, forming a group of small and medium-sized farms. Most settlers consisted of old fascist militants of Turin. The first informal association between farmers, however, arose only in 1928, promoted by Corni. The main crop of the area was cotton and was done by small farms owned by those Italian settlers: about one hundred with an area varying between 75 and 600 hectares with a total area of about 20,000 hectares. At least until 1931 the cotton was the main crop, later replaced by the banana production, whose harvest was sold to the Italian State, that did the marketing in Italy as a monopoly.
In March 1946 died near Genova.