A couple of
weeks ago I scribbled a quick entry on how the expression ‘Ara x’qala l-bahar’
has temporal as well as spatial connotations. In Malta, I spammed, this phrase is used to exclaim
surprise (often a positive one) at an unexpected encounters with an element from the past (be it a face, and object, a person, a sound, a taste) one hasn’t come across
in a long time. It is as if such an element had been lost at sea and (randomly
or deliberately, we will soon shortly explore) has been washed again on its original shore.
This blog draws on my first return to Malta to do field-research after a year of lectures in England. It was during this time that it was announced that the old, great rock-opera ‘Gensna’ (our nation/people), an oral official narrative for left-wing national consciousness, was going to be held again... so that ‘older generations could re-live once again their finest moments’ and so that the ‘younger generations would know what their fathers went through’.
(one day I’ll
spam something on how, in local politics, the term ‘zaghzugh’ [youth], refers
to people who did not live through the great events of the 70s and 80s, they
have been denied history, so to speak, and somehow are also innocent and free
of the crimes of those years)
"X’qala
l-bahar" indeed! And for loads of people!
These tunes, which for 20 years had been
largely forgotten (except for a disembodied tema’ 79, obviously) were to
return back again to our stages, our TVs and radios to ensure we still remember...
but remember what exactly? Through these 20 years, several parts of this musical kind of got, well, modified by the
erosive processes of the sea of time, and were washed up back quite changed and sometimes rather unrecognisable.
Or well, perhaps some people went down to the shore to look for pieces, and grabbed
the wrong ones instead (no that’s not a green pebble, silly, it’s a piece of
eroded glass, jeez).
I will
explain…and focus on my favourite song of the rock-opera… Il-hakkiema (the
conquerors), which shamelessly parades in front of us stereotypes of our best
and most influential conquerors. I will quickly explore the main differences
between the original depiction of the conquerors and our recent time-eroded
ones.
 |
| This pebble is not a pebble |
For those
to don’t know the song, it starts with
the choir (representing the Maltese nation) lamenting and complaining that
something went quite not as intended, that foreigners have arrived and god
knows what awaits us. The conquerors then, one by one, make their pompous
statements, outlining all they’d offer our nation. The Maltese are initially
impressed, then they become dissatisfied and long for a new (and better) set of
conquerors to govern them.
The arab
steps up first but... hey! Wait a second!
I had seen on VHS (lovingly preserved
by my grandparents) the original gensna, and the two depictions of the arab
conquerors do not quite fit.
 |
| The original 80s Arab! |
 |
| The new Arabs. |
In the
original, the Arab wears a Saudi-Arabian, white outfit. His face is blackened
and he is bearded. He waves his hands around like a souk vendor, salams and
performs other religious gestures. In the re-imagined version, the Arab, well
looks nothing like an Arab. He sports around a huge decorated hat, flowing red
robes. He is unbearded and white skinned. If I didn’t know any better I’d even
say he looked…well Ottoman.
 |
| "I will conquer that Island, somehow" |
My next
shock (in terms of intensity) came with the portrayal of the British. In the
original rock-opera, the Englishman walked around in his suit and top-hat. He curled his
moustache, smiled beguilingly and looked as if he was channeling the bourgeois
imperialist image through a caricature of Gerald Strickland.
 | |
| I even wear my military medals on a civilian businessman suit! |
The new Englishman? I
don’t know. This conqueror looks like a 18th century nobleman, and
if English nobility ever sported such a look it was well defunct by the time
they stumbled onto Maltese shores.
 |
| I took Gibraltar first |
The Knight
of St.John also sports some differences. They both wear their long monk robes,
but while the original knight (Josie Coppini, we love you), presented himself
as pompous and arrogant, acting like a noble trying to convince the peasant he
has a good deal, the new knight is stern and valiant, he punches the air,
warlike and brave. This might say something about the huge knight-merchandise
that has taken over our more touristy cities… perhaps.
 |
| Brilliant! Gets me every time! |
The French…well
they are largely the same, except for some cosmetic changes. They both strut
around, proud and relaxed. They look down upon the ignorant masses. And both Frenchmen
keep their hands tucked firmly into their coats. A bit disappointed here, but
then again some pebbles washed up from the sea are not composed of soft franka,
but of the harder Coralline limestone…and consequently they would have eroded
at different rates.
The precious few reading this might think that I am making a bit too much fuss, and I would agree... but what these characters have in common is that they all, (regardless of them belonging to the original or to the modern version), are intended to be STEREOTYPES…and stereotypes refer to the first, most recognisable image that comes to mind when imagining a group of people.
In other
words, what has changed and eroded by the sea of time is the way we
spontaneously imagine such groups to look like.
So what has
happened here?
Well I will
propose two ‘interpretations’, although in the spirit of this blog, this
interpretative shore is open to new ideas and perspective
1. Hard and proper erosion - abrasion, corruption, and all the other
geographic processes I was thought back at secondary school. During the time
when they were forgotten, our ideas of such peoples must have changed slowly
and implicitly. It might probably also have to do with the fact that our
relationship with such stereotypes has changed as well. The Englishman is no
longer an active political conqueror and negotiator. The arab is no longer a
central trading partner. Tunisia is not that big a deal of a tourist destination
anymore. Let’s not even talk about Libya. The knight? Well we’ve got tourists
to worry about. Our stereotypes, in
other words, are now being informed by a different set of processes.
2. Or perhaps, something even more
simple has happened, and in our attempt to re-assemble our cast of conquerors,
the producers went down to the shore. They looked for pebbles, but then they
found the green, shiny transparent thing. They know it is glass, they know it was the product of some wild barbecue and not a remnant of the sacred rocks that form our island... But hey, it does look pretty. And it
does look sufficiently old and well…familiar?
|
| Yep. Looks like an Arab to me. |
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