Italian refugees from Libya Italy and soon most of them emigrated in the early 1950s to the Americas (mainly to Canada, Venezuela, Argentina and the United States) and to western Europe (France, Benelux, etc..). After several years under British mandate, on December 24, 1951 Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya (a constitutional, hereditary monarchy under King Idris). In 1952 started the exodus of most of the remaining Italian colonial settlers, mainly those in areas away from the main cities. Although in the late 1950s most of the 110000 Italians living in 1940 Italian Libya had already left the former colony,
Italian Studies in Southern Africa (University of South Africa). Italian Studies in Southern Africa Italian Studies in Southern Africa/Studi d’Italianistica nell’Africa Australe is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Association of Professional Italianists in South Africa/Associazione di Professori d’Italiano in Sudafrica. It is published in Italian and English and covers the field of Italian studies. The journal is abstracted and indexed in the MLA International Bibliography, Bibliografia Generale della Lingua e della Letteratura Italiana, and "Italinemo". It is listed as a journal qualifying authors for research support by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training and the Australian Research Council. The