THE TIMES, WEDNESDAY, 5TH DECEMBER 2007
The need for Maltese studies
Henry Frendo
Imperial encounters provoked and also confused national self-identities. Globalisation,
however, may risk diluting, extinguishing or confusing them further.
Malta is a case in point.
In colonial times, establishing who the Maltese were, their language included, was
problematic. On paper, the question may seem to have been resolved but in reality it is
still problematic and, for a variety of reasons, it may be increasingly so.
For example, 43 years after independence, Maltese history is still not an obligatory
subject in schools; it is not always even on offer as an option.
Maltese history is not primarily about dates, just as Maltese studies should not be simply
or solely about language. The quality of being Maltese, so far as it can be distilled and
incapsulated in time and space, goes well beyond language, although languages as culture
carriers remain a core component of it.
In a bicentennial oration at Sant'Anton, Attard, in June 2002, commemorating the
Dichiarazione dei Diritti degli Abitanti di Malta e Gozo, I had said that at the local
university we had several institutes but not one focusing on Maltese studies - that is us, as
a land and people. To my surprise, this plea generated a resonance, including a speech in
Parliament in support of it by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi and, subsequently, a prime
time discussion programme on One TV in which the Labour MP Chris Cardona together
with Dr Azzopardi, myself and the presenter participated engagingly. There was absolute
consensus.
Earlier this year I was asked by the University to direct such an institute, which had in the
meantime been set up (with hardly any operational resources at all) and remained largely
unknown. The Institute of Maltese Studies (IMS) aspires to be essentially a post-graduate
institution but open to the launching of diploma and short courses on a possible variety of
pertinent topics as well, depending on feasibility. So far, we have the possibility of
granting MPhils and PhDs in this area of studies. From October 2008 we hope to be in a
position to initiate an international MA in it, which should not only appeal to locallyresident "takers".
More information will be made available at the appropriate time. Briefly, however, this
would be a partly taught post-graduate degree with a research component. The institute is
inter-faculty and its approach will be basically inter-disciplinary. So far as possible, it
should cover any and every aspect bearing on a Maltese culture and identity, that which is
relatively unique about these islands and their inhabitants and even do so comparatively
if possible.
It is a tall order, such a large canvas ranging from shared experience to individual
creativity to landscape and lifestyle, as these have manifested themselves overtly and
covertly in society over time. It will seek to combine locality, terrain and nationhood,
socially, culturally, historically, politically... Examples are too numerous to mention but
the representative course descriptions being fathomed will be self-evident in due course.
This is only an appetizer and a teaser.
The IMS should certainly venture overseas, reaching out, exploring memory and
ethnicity in Maltese migrant settlement worldwide and learning from them too.
A frequent complaint among Maltese migrant settlers is that Malta does not care much
about them or about their efforts to retain and cultivate a lingering affinity to their
ancestral provenance in language, culture and identity, or other felt needs. This is rather
true, and perhaps understandable, but unfortunate. And there is more to this than festa
and banda. Or a reasonably impartial news bulletin, although that's pertinent too.
I was recently in Australia where the sustenance of a Maltese ethnicity could be seen and
felt, in spite of what Blainey once called "the tyranny of distance". The Maltese
Community Council of Victoria is celebrating, in style, its 50th anniversary; for example
their talent concert in St Albans was as impressive as it was well attended; in some
respects, such as the ghana sequence, it was moving. So too, is Victoria's Green Gully
Football Club in its green and white stripes, formerly called Ajax Floriana; this has
published a splendid 50th anniversary commemorative book. The Maltese Historical
Association of Australia is actively celebrating its 20th anniversary.
How many such associations are there in Malta which for 20 years have regularly held a
well-attended monthly public lecture, year in year out? And, yet, none, repeat none, of
these activities have received a deserving mention in the local press of Malta, although at
least one "leading" Maltese newspaper in English was fully alerted to them, with pictures.
Victoria University, with which our University is renewing a cooperation agreement, has
scores of students of Maltese descent; a group of them are actually here on a cultural visit
right now. Goings-on from Brisbane to Adelaide, and from Canberra to Perth, receive
little coverage unless a Prime Minister from Malta visits, or something sensational gets
syndicated through an agency. But that's just one "settler" country, the size of Europe; the
world beckons.
I say the time is ripe for structured holistic courses in Maltese studies, not bits and pieces
on the loose. Let's give pause to the surface trivia and partisan polemic and ask
meaningfully who we are, what we are and have been and are becoming, fingers on the
pulse as it still beats, testing the throbbings of heart and soul, so long as these survive.
henry.frendo@um.edu.mt