During colonial times, Italian studies on Africa were always concentrated within narrow academic limits. Even after the increasing Italian expansion in Northern Africa (Libya) and Eastern Africa (Eritrea and Somalia), when Italian interests in Africa increased considerably, only small groups of scholars focused their studies on the African continent. Today, by contrast, since the independence of the former Italian colonies (and of almost all the European colonies), there is in Italy, as throughout the world, a strong tendency to extend and encourage research work on Africa, and particularly to develop university teaching programmes on Africa.