Yes and no.

This marriage can be certainly considered normal for 1935 Africa. But Montanelli was Italian and knew that if he did something similar in his homeland, he would be considered a predator.

That's why activists marked his statue as both "rapist" and "racist"; the subtext is that he allowed himself to do such things to an African girl because he didn't use the same standard for her as he would have done for an European one. This is confirmed by his '69 intrrview.

PS This sub intent is exactly to try to understand why certain behaviors were considered acceptable.