The focus of this essay, as the title suggests, will be the analysis of the novel Time to kill by the writer Ennio Flaiano, winner of the Strega prize in 1947. The experience of colonialism will be presented in the work. First of all, however, it will be necessary to approach the meaning of colonialism and the importance of Africa as an Italian colony of the first degree. The author's perspective on the colonial world is represented through the relationship between colonizer and colonized, which is analyzed through different aspects: the vision of the woman who is always represented as a possession of the male colonizer. The African continent, projected through a prejudice that starts from a colonial gaze. The inability to communicate and the disability to accept otherness are demonstrated through a comparison between two worlds. Ineptitude is a feature that is widespread in twentieth century novels and is projected into the figure of a good-for-nothing protagonist. The war is also highlighted as a reservoir of stories worth telling. Case and symbolism play an important role in the course of events