The lyrics are written from the perspective of a fascist Italian Blackshirt soldier during the invasion of Ethiopia. In the song, the Italian narrator tells a beautiful young enslaved Abysinnian (Ethiopian) girl that she will be liberated from slavery and ruled by a new regime. She is invited to parade with the fascist Blackshirts in Rome, where she is promised a new and better life.
Slavery in Ethiopia is a prominent theme in the song.<ref name = "scego">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web
}}</ref> The song follows the trend of Italian fascist propaganda portraying the invasion not as a war of conquest, but as a war of liberation to abolish Ethiopian slavery.<ref name = "scego"/>
History
File:Bando contro lo schiavismo in Tigrè.jpgItalian notice, signed by General Emilio De Bono, proclaiming the abolishment of slavery in Tigray in Italian and Amharic. The abolition of slavery was one of the first measures taken by the Italian colonial government in Ethiopia. The translation of the proclamation is: "PROCLAMATION OF SUPPRESSION OF SLAVERY IN TIGRÉ People of Tigré, HEAR, as you know, where the Italian flag waves there's liberty. So, in your homeland, the slavery in every its form, is suppressed. The slaves that are now in Tigré are free, and is prohibited buying and selling slaves. Whoever violates the provisions of this proclamation will be severely punished, as transgressor of the government's orders. Given at Adua the 14th of October 1935 - 13th year of the fascist era"
The march is said to have been inspired by a beautiful young Abyssinian girl, who was found by the Italian troops at the beginning of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
During the invasion, the song was hugely popular in Italy and caused national fervor.<ref name="forgacs">Forgacs, David (2014), Italy's Margins: Social Exclusion and Nation Formation since 1861, Template:ISBN, pp. 80-81</ref> During the fascist occupation of Ethiopia, Ethiopian women cohabited with Italian men in a system of concubinage known as madamismo.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The implicitly erotic song was, however, somewhat of an embarrassment for the Fascist government, which had, starting in May 1936, introduced several laws prohibiting cohabitation and marriage between Italians and native people of the Italian colonial empire.<ref name="forgacs"/> These efforts culminated in the Italian Racial Laws of 1938. The Fascist authorities considered banning the song, and removed all picture postcards depicting Abyssinian women from Roman shop windows.<ref name="forgacs"/>
