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maltatoday SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2018 31 This Week TEODOR RELJIC LAMPEDUSAN singer-song- writer Giacomo Sferlazzo re- turned to Malta for a confer- ence and concert last Friday, ending the evening at Maori in Valletta with an intimate live performance that showcased both his love for folk musical heritage and his committed ac- tivism. Having participated in the 2014 edition of the Mediterra- nean Literature Festival – the annual gathering of local and international authors, organ- ised by local literary NGO Iniz- jamed – some of those present at Friday's concert will have already been familiar with Sfer- lazzo's inviting but challenging approach to issues of migration and social justice, which the singer expanded on both musi- cally and through spoken-word monologues and anecdotes peppered – sometimes expan- sively – between his repertoire on the night. Entitled 'Lampemusa', the concert gave Sferlazzo ample space to delve into his native island's heady historical, social and cultural implications. With its role in the so-called migra- tion crisis being its claim to fame in recent years, Sferlazzo also felt the need to contex- tualise the island's precarious position on the world stage, delving into a rich fount of folk storytelling and even literary allusions to expand upon the island's status as politically subaltern but culturally signifi- cant. In a way that appears to both echo some of Malta's own "convenient" geographical and strategic benefits while also coming across as a stark-and- dark logical conclusion of this very predicament, Sferlazzo brought up how, for all its reputation as being a migrant "sanctuary" of late, what really lies at the core of Lampedusa these days is a concerted effort to cede every corner of it for military purposes. This top-down reality of ex- ploitation was contrasted by Sferlazzo's decision to give voice to some indigenous Lampedusan characters, high- lighting the raw tales of belea- guered humanity behind the oppressive and dehumanising political narratives that seek to compromise them and temp them down for good. Mixing traditional folk songs with his own compositions, Sferlazzo unspooled romantic-but-mel- ancholy tales of corsairing and religiously two-timing priests on the liminal island of his birth with the effortless, ex- pansive grace of a veteran rac- onteur. One of the most memorable original compositions dealt with a more recent reality on the island – the fact of how, in Sferlazzo's own words, "no- body is born in Lampedusa anymore". Sferlazzo, a father of three, explained how due to a lack of hospitals on the island, pro- spective parents have to travel to mainland Italy a month pri- or to the child's birth, shoul- dering all expenses. And one of his songs told the tale of the last midwife of Lampedusa – now sadly lost to the mists of memory. As it turns out, Sferlazzo the musician and Sferlazzo the activist are very clearly inter- twined, as the themes of his work and the tireless, lived-in research that make it possible flow naturally from his com- mitment to the grassroots Collettivo Askavusa, which seeks to portray the realities of migration and the attendant social injustices that have ren- dered it into such a political minefield. Addressing the crowd to- wards the end of the concert, Sferlazzo saw it fit to cut cer- tain anti-migrant rhetoric down to size. "They say they've come to take our houses, our land. Our women. But let's not forget that nothing, really, is ours. We don't own the land – we are living in it, together. And even less so do we own 'our' women..." Collettivo Askavusa, for which the concert also served as something of a fund-raiser, organises cultural and political events, short films, and Por- toM, a permanent 'archive' of migrant belongings lost or left behind in Lampedusa. Just prior to the concert, Sfer- lazzo also took part in 'Sisters Adrift: Connections between Lampedusa and Malta', a work- shop held at the University of Malta and forming part of the research node Belief, Identity and Exchange within the Medi- terranean Institute. Sferlazzo's intervention confronted yet another destructive tenden- cy by the powers-that-be in Lampedusa; namely how the island's archaeological heritage was given short shrift in favour of tourism-based development and – increasingly – military activities. "So how is it that despite many similarities between Malta and Lampedusa (over- development, mass tourism, the islands' strategic military position and the ongoing de- struction of the environment) Malta has managed to at least preserve its archaeological pat- rimony, while Lampedusa has destroyed it beyond repair?," Sferlazzo asked, with reference to how Thomas Ashby's exca- vations in the early part of the 20th century found an "atten- tive interlocutor" in the figure of Temi Zammit, which collab- oration helped secure the sites of Hagar Qim and Ghar Dalam. Front cover photo by Marc de Dieux An intimate but passionate concert by Lampedusan singer and activist Giacomo Sferlazzo graced Maori in Valletta last Friday, following a workshop on the links between that island and our own Hard-won island tales Giacomo Sferlazzo performs at Maori in Valletta last Friday Photo by Ivan Ellul Sferlazzo participating in a workshop at Fortress Builders Intepretation Centre in 2014, during his first visit to Malta – an event forming part of that year's edition of the Mediterranean Literature Festival. Photo by Virginia Monteforte Sferlazzo participating in a workshop at Fortress Builders Intepretation Centre in 2014, during his first visit to Malta – an event forming part of that year's edition of the Mediterranean Literature Festival Photo by Virginia Monteforte