A passport photograph of Juan Mamo.

Most of us would relate exile to ideas of forsakenness, desertion and abandonment. Perhaps frozen gulags come to mind, or desert concentration camps. Exile might evoke images of exhausted, dead-beat people in tatters, walking about like ghosts, broken in mind, body and spirit.

Well, most of these impressions would not be too much off the mark when considering the story of the final years of Manuel Dimech. He had been deported from Malta at the beginning of World War I in 1914, and exiled to Egypt that same year. He died six years later, in 1921, much as you would imagine any exiled person would be: ill, alone, despondent and humiliated.

After all, that was the whole idea of his captors: to break the man and, more significantly, to crush the movement for the masses’ emancipation and liberation which he had spearheaded in Malta from 1898 onwards.

The writings are unlike anything Dimech had written before his deportation. They reveal a valiant moral character no spite nor meanness could crush

Such a forlorn existence in Egypt for so long might suggest that Dimech would not have engaged himself in writing any substantial work worthy of mention. Indeed, lack of documentary evidence supported this suggestion for almost a whole century.

Not that research was lacking, especially from the early 1970s onwards. However, it seemed highly unlikely that any new discovery in this regard was possible. Historians seemed content to stop searching.

And yet, a couple of years ago, a most extraordinary discovery was made of manuscripts written by Dimech during his exile. It had been thought nothing from Dimech’s hand had survived the ravages of time from that period, except for a few letters. Indeed, some supposed that Dimech had, in fact, written no extensive work of import while in Egypt. Now we know better.

At first this seemed incredible. Nevertheless, a minute analysis of the manuscripts, supported by foolproof evidence, confirmed the discovery. Deep in his exile, Dimech had worked on a document that had survived the ages, and which has now been published for the first time.

The proof and verification of the breakthrough is unquestionable and definite: the documents concern without a shadow of doubt manuscripts of writings that Dimech composed during his exile in Egypt almost 100 years ago.

During all this time, the manuscripts in question were held by Saturna Tonna, the daughter of a certain Juan Mamo, an unskilled labourer working in Egypt during Dimech’s exile there. Tonna held on to the manuscripts as a loving memento of her father. Until a few years ago she had not revealed their existence to anyone.

What these manuscripts basically contain is a massive amount of aphorisms in English which Mamo had directly transcribed from a document personally composed by Dimech during the last three years before he died. As further research suggested, Mamo had been given the document by the attendants at the hospital where Dimech, its author, had passed away a short time before. He was requested to return it to the deceased’s next of kin.

Back in Malta, Mamo contacted Dimech’s wife and informed her of what he possessed. While handing over some personal items of her husband which he had brought back to Malta with him from Egypt, Mamo retained the document in question, presumably with the permission of Dimech’s wife. Subsequently, Mamo prepared the document for publication.

Though Mamo never got round to publishing the work, the manuscripts of Mamo’s draft copy and a blueprint of it survived, unlike Dimech’s original document. Since this is as yet nowhere to be found, Mamo’s manuscripts needed supporting proof to attest to their accuracy. On their own they lacked the necessary evidence of their authenticity.

This came about with another wonderful discovery: another manuscript containing part of Dimech’s own original draft of his document, written directly in English. This proved beyond all doubt the authenticity and reliability of Mamo’s manuscripts.

The new publication, issued by SKS Publishers and edited by us, is a typical edition of the integral contents of all three manuscripts bearing Dimech’s final writings in exile from the period 1917 to 1920. It contains 2,582 aphorisms, 57 epitaphs and 17 fables.

The publication comes with a biography of Dimech, and a critical and textual analysis and presentation of the said manuscripts.

This publication takes Dimechian scholarship to unprecedented heights. Henceforth Dimech will be seen in a new light.

Not only does the publication put forward his first known literary work written entirely in English but also lets us in on his moral integrity and intellectual brilliance at a time of tremendous duress. Throughout the texts, Dimech’s English is impeccable, his wit cutting, and his acumen staggering.

Moreover, the writings are gems of wisdom in their own right. They deal with everything under the sun, from man’s foibles to world war and politics to religious belief.

The insights they proffer can whet any sensible person’s sense of decency, good manners and right judgement.

The writings are unike anything Dimech had ever written during his public career before his deportation and exile. They represent the height of his intellectual endeavour. More forcibly, they reveal a valiant moral character which no spite nor meanness could crush.