That Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip used to live in Villa Guardamangia, accompanied by their claim of particular affection for our country, have often been expressed as points of pride by many in Malta. If one well and truly pays attention to the mainstream narrative of national identity, however, this mutual affection may come across as a contradiction. The passing of Prince Philip stirs the collective memory and, thus, invites us to collectively look back at our history once again.
Ask anyone what it means to be Maltese and one will get 100 different answers, though with many commonalities one may certainly feel proud of.
In trying to untangle the web of Maltese identity, one does not have to look back very far to find an arena of competing interpretations.
Before World War II, the ‘language question’ raged, with political giants who still command a lot of respect today, making arguments which might sound odd now. The battle between Italian and English was first championed by Anglophile Sigismondo Savona on one side, with Italophile Fortunato Mizzi on the other. These political forces would eventually mature into the parties we know today. Were either of the two gentlemen unpatriotic in their promotion of Italian or English?
Of the relationship between Savona and Mizzi, Henry Frendo has written that though “rivals, at heart, they all tended to subscribe to a patriotic consensus... the belief that a Maltese should not be treated or considered as an Englishman’s inferior”. Of Lord Strickland, Victor Aquilina has written that his interest in English “was intellectual and did not arise out of any subservient attitude towards the British overlord” and, rather than act as an extension of the coloniser, it was often Strickland championing Maltese democracy and the restoration of constitutional rights against the British following the periods of pre-war political crisis.
I celebrate various interpretations of our identity as our country is a rich tapestry of influences- Timothy Alden
If language preference cannot be taken as the sole indicator of national pride, then what of other patriotic indicators?
One is reminded that Dom Mintoff championed integration with the United Kingdom. Certainly, one could never accuse Mintoff of being unpatriotic. So, then, one must accept that integration, too, could have implied a co-existence of different interpretations of national identity and their validity. Resistance to integration arose out of religious fears above all and even Mabel Strickland was against it out of concern for Malta’s Catholic character.
If one were then to claim that the fight for independence was the highest form of patriotism, one must still contend with the little-known fact that prime minister George Borg Olivier was a monarchist. When, as prime minister, Mintoff called for the abolition of the monarchy, Borg Olivier believed he could save it with a referendum. His plans were undermined by disagreement within the Nationalist Party.
If the prime minister of Maltese independence believed in an interpretation of Maltese identity with Malta as a Commonwealth Realm, then, surely, it becomes more difficult to dismiss the feelings of those today who pay their respects in the wake of the passing of Prince Philip. Why is it that, since independence, the narrative of Maltese identity has led to the contradictions we have today?
In Self and Nation, Stephen Reicher and Nick Hopkins say that social identities result from the differentiation or discrimination of one group against another as a point of comparison. In consolidating our identity as an independent nation, it became useful to emphasise differences rather than similarities and, therefore, seek conflict, distance and separation with Britain through discrimination.
Jeremy Boissevain, a Dutch anthropologist, recorded that we Maltese often used the British as “a convenient scapegoat to explain to outsiders the petty factionalism of the partiti” but that many of our problems were often of our own making, with parties squabbling due to “the absurdity of their excesses” while Maltese “politicians manipulate parochial divisions for electoral ends”.
How might things have turned out differently?
As Frendo stated of Malta’s early political leaders, even though Savona promoted English, he stood alongside Mizzi in wishing for the British to treat the Maltese as equals.
The utter rejection of colonialism, then, was as present in Mintoff’s integration proposal as it was in Borg Olivier’s desire to retain closer ties to Britain as equals in a wider family.
It is easier to forge a national identity by emphasising differences but it is far more rewarding to do so by finding common ground and celebrating what unites us. In saying this, I am not arguing for one exclusive interpretation of Maltese identity over any other as such a thing is not, in any case, patriotism but nationalism.
Instead, I choose to celebrate the various different interpretations of our identity as our country is a rich tapestry of influences and may it always continue to be so.
Timothy Alden, former politician