Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1490058
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 JANUARY 2023 NEWS Why the Maltese are yet to emancipate themselves from mental slavery "Even almost 60 years after independence, Bob Marley's Redemption Song lyrics ring true: the Maltese are yet to emancipate themselves from mental slavery; a task that only they can properly accomplish" HISTORIAN John Chircop writes: "Colonialism in Malta, as in other imperial domains, evolved as a complex of experi- ences. These frequently included rejections or downright resist- ance, but also acknowledgement, acceptance and measures of consent, given by different 'na- tive' social groups all through the 160 years or so of British rule and beyond independence into post-colonial times." What may remain surprising in the case of certain, current or former, British colonies, is the surprising excess of ex- pressions of allegiance rather than resistance by these native groups and individuals. Malta falls squarely in this camp, and examples come thick and fast. Would the Minister of Tour- ism of any country wear the jacket of the foreign (English) team when that team is in their country to play a friendly with a local one? A culture of submission Charles Xuereb has long been a critical voice of Malta's rep- resentations of its own history. It can be expected that a co- lonial power would undertake initiatives in favour of drilling a culture of submission and inferiority among its colonial subjects, whereby its Imperial grandeur – personified in its sovereign – becomes then the object of the love of the colo- nised. As Edward Zammit ex- plains in his book A Colonial Inheritance (1984), loyalty was bought by opportunities for employment in the civil ser- vice and by an overall benign and paternalist administration, though with dramatic excep- tions. But such overtures and manipulative strategies have been strongly resisted across empires by the colonised, with counter-narratives of exploita- tion, subjugation and injus- tice. For some 40 years after the end of the Second World War, a wave of decolonisation led colonial subjects to canvas aggressively for and secure in- dependence, often involving armed insurrection. Thus was the once planet-straddling British Empire consigned to history, as were other empires (notably, the French, Spanish and Portuguese). Malta would seem to fit the picture, having obtained its own independence in 1964. But: was Malta's independ- ence secured after a bout of armed struggle (like that oth- er British island colony in the Mediterranean, Cyprus)? None seems to have been forthcom- ing, other than the 1919 Sette Giugno and the 28th April 1958 riots. Otherwise, the re- sponse of choice seems to have been gemgem (quiet gossip). The independence option was only triggered after an 'Integra- tion with Britain' proposal had failed (although the 1956 ref- erendum called in this regard had garnered the necessary majority of votes cast). Were we not foolish enough to think that Britain would welcome Malta like a second Sussex in- to its fold? Malta then negoti- ated an extension of the lease of the British military base to 1979, suggesting that we were in no particular hurry to ditch the Brits. As Mario Vella has argued, even avowedly social- ist governments have sought to make Malta attractive to foreign investment. It is tempt- ing to think that Malta fits best within that cluster of small island jurisdictions whose cit- izens have even rejected inde- pendence and/or preferred to remain British subjects (think Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman, While enjoying an imperial pose since 1891 in the hub of Valletta Queen Victoria, who never visited Malta, sits with the British royal insignia in the front of her pedestal while hiding under her bum the only public Maltese blazon that is found in Valletta. It is quite odd how Maltese society is not distressed with such a humiliating historical statement more so since the statue remains in the square named after the Republic Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino says historian Charles Xuereb has shown how Maltese identity still seems to resemble that inside a 'nationless state', lacking in unifying symbols of nationhood