Being Maltese

Professor Henry Frendo discusses the urgent question of what it means to be Maltese:

First, Malta is a relatively new state. It has only been independent for 44 years. Italy and Germany, compared to Britain and France, have often been referred to as "new" states because they were only unified in 1870. Indeed, we have even had two correspondents in this newspaper alleging that the Maltese nation did not exist, wondering what there was to "preserve" in it at all ("what, in a jar?", a female columnist for this newspaper once wrote derisively from an English University).

More serious has been the allegation by a Maltese sociologist, now living in Canada, to the effect that Malta exists only as a state, not as a nation. His article, first published in England, was later serialised in three parts by this newspaper, and then, after I had questioned its logic, subjected to some face-to-face counter-argument by myself in an entire edition of BondìPlus strangely but significantly dedicated to this subject. What does it mean? If a nation does not exist, nor do the Maltese. The nation is the people; not some dynasty, a tract of land or a map.

Second, many people may readily assume that they are Maltese. Because they were born here; and/or because they speak Maltese. But many people who are not Maltese are increasingly born here, several of whom may only barely understand Maltese or not at all. Here I am, by force of circumstance, writing in English for a largely Maltese audience. But nationality is not solely and simply about language, although language is a vital carrier and expression of culture in its widest and deepest sense. Our "language question" was never just about language.

Third, inter-action with "the other" is changing rapidly, profoundly. In colonial times, the "other" was the ruler, hence it was easier to rally around national symbols, such as the Church, or "our ancient history and monuments" and, above all, to demand civil, political and constitutional "rights", which were generally denied, while economic progress was at best intermittent and geared to "foreign" interests...