Italian colonialism in Africa reached its dramatic peak during the Fascist invasion and occupation of Ethiopia and the creation of Italian East Africa (AOI). Labour is a critical factor, distinguishing Italian colonialism from that of other European powers. In a few years, from 1935 to 1939, workers from Italy poured into the so-called AOI. More than 150,000 workers arrived as immigrants in this region of Africa, only to repatriate a few short years later. This enormous movement of labour – in-flux and out-flux of Italian workers – represents an interesting case in global labour history: it was transnational in nature, and changed the nature of labour in the Horn of Africa, introducing into the region the capitalist mode of production based on wage labour. Some cases of hybridisation in labour relations were also formed, and this paper seeks to analyse these transformations as well as the connections between different labour regimes and workers from diverse regions of the world, which are at the basis of the social and economic transformation of the people in the Horn of Africa.