Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1490058
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 JANUARY 2023 NEWS Post Integration referendum in 1956 and subsequent to prime minister Dom Mintoff's resignation in 1958, Labour Party clubs, like this in Valletta, displayed slogans against British colonialist rule. Notice the former Colonial Library: colonialism was perceived by the colonised as something to be proud of and therefore to brandish Falklands, Montserrat). Malta University – largest and oldest outside British Isles Not so: unlike these remaining confetti of empire, Malta has a long history spanning over mil- lennia; it has the largest and oldest national university out- side the British Isles. Colonised intellectuals, as Xuereb aptly calls them, would agitate for increased autonomy, only to be met by execution (Giuseppe Callus, 1561) or exile (Manwel Dimech, 1918-1921). Admittedly, we dropped the British monarch as head of state in 1974. Kingsgate in Val- letta was renamed Republic Street. And yet, even almost 60 years after independence, Bob Marley's Redemption Song lyr- ics ring true: the Maltese are yet to emancipate themselves from mental slavery; a task that only they can properly accom- plish. Their/our capital city is replete with exemplars of Brit- ish hegemony – from the stat- ute of Queen Victoria to the British Royal Insignia on the Main Guard across St George's Square from the Palace. Ironic, is it not, that the main square of the nation's capital is not named after Malta's patron saint, but Britain's? I have reflected on similar points made so amply and au- thoritatively by Xuereb in this timely book. I asked myself two decades ago whether Malta was indeed a 'nationless state', fully respected as a member of the family of sovereign countries – now again with a seat in the UN Security Council – but still lacking in unifying symbols of nationhood. No wonder we cannot agree to have one na- tional day. English hegemony Of course, the matter is high- ly complex. As Xuereb himself admits, his book is written in the English language; and here am I critiquing his book in the same language. These facts echo and reflect the hegemony of English as the written word in Malta (and elsewhere). They remind us that at our nation- al public university, rebrand- ed as L-Università ta' Malta, the main language of instruc- tion and assessment is over- whelmingly English. At least the guidelines of the universi- ty's first-ever Language Policy, approved in 2021, uphold the significance of Maltese as the national language and the uni- versity's responsibility towards its broad and correct use. The issue of identity is also vexed. The author is keen to raise it as a subject of debate, and would have us, for exam- ple, sing the national anthem at school. I am wary of such over- tures, since identity politics can be manipulated by political elites, and give sway to exclu- sionary practices and right- wing ideologues which have mercifully not been significant so far, other than as a dark un- derbelly of racism (think Lassa- na Cisse's murder in 2019). But these ruminations are ex- actly what one hopes for from a book like this. Xuereb weaves the Malta story using a Braude- lian longue durée approach, and enriches it with almost one thousand citations and foot- notes. I must say, the author used the Covid-19 period and its forced lockdowns to good effect, crafting this insightful book. Malta continues daily to ex- hibit episodes of 'banal non-na- tionalism', highlighting the routine and often unnoticed ways that our disrespect for things Maltese are reproduced, and thus strengthened, as so- cial facts. While talking in Mal- tese, do you say COVID-nine- teen or COVID-dsatax? Charles Xuereb (2022) De- colonising the Maltese Mind: In Search of Identity (Midsea Books)