Quote:
Originally Posted by Theobald
As for Corsica, to my knowledge Corsican people are as anti-Italian as anti-French; they really are a Nation of their own.
|
Many Maltese are stupidly anti-Italian even though they carry Italian/Sicilian surnames or surnames derived from there. Merely being anti-Italian wouldn't create a nation
per se, as such sentiments could be created by other forces. No Maltese would nowadays be anti-Italian if it were not for the British and ignorance, if not utter servility, for example. Given the researches I'm undertaking, I'm always drawing nearer to the conclusion that the notion of a Maltese nation is artificial and only one result of British imperialism itself, at least in the field of ethnicity and culture. Obviously, if I had to state this in Malta the close mindedness and bias prevailing on such question would be impressive. Although, the Maltese independently always sought greater political autonomy but maintained their cultural natural ties with Italy/Sicily.
The Maltese, and I mean those that haven't given a thought to research questions of history and identity, often delve into all sorts of theories on Maltese origins which none touch on Malta's Italian heritage. Italian heritage is considered foreign. That was a British cultural policy in Malta, apparently among the ignorant in the field it was a success, many others just keep quiet to avoid controversy. The man in my avatar was the last prominent figure to assert all this in public, he was prime minister in 1950 after all, no unpopular person.
A common phenomenon would be the notion that the Maltese are so bastardised that they have no proper origin. Another would be the notion that we are Arabic, and even more laughable one that we are Punic. Incidentelly (not), all such notions were held or promoted by the British one way or another. The British in the 19th. century, as soon as most of Italy became a unitary state, sought in the ethnical and cultural context to detach any notion of Maltese communion with Italy from the minds of the populace to better control their Maltese
"island fortress". The educated Maltese viewed with favour the Italian unification, although many resented its anti-Catholic nature. The British rightly feared potential irredentist aspirations arising amongst the Maltese. I don't blame them as practically all of the Maltese-run newspapers proclaimed that Malta was ethnically, racially and culturally Italian. Maltese nationalists held that Italian was the national language and that Maltese was a dialect. All this was practically unanimous throughout the 19th. century. Therefore the Maltese sought greater political autonomy but never denied their ethnical and cultural
Italianità. This effectively, provides problems of logical coherency. Quite interesting to analyse.
We're even told by our official history books, imparted to young Maltese pupils, of our rich and diverse histories. We had Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Anjouvines (this might not be correct), Aragonese, The Knights, the French and the British
et cetera. Surprisingly, little to no mention is made of the fact that apart from the last two all the rest had Sicily in their control and Malta was a province of Sicily itself. Obviously, the Knights were here as the controlling force, but their sovereignty was delegated from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The French came in as an invading force and the Maltese revolted and many died (especially though disease and hunger after two years of protracted fighting and meagre supplies). The British came in to
"help" the Maltese on leave from their allies of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies but they then deemed it fit to retain Malta. Official history even says that the Maltese offered Malta up as a colony (and we have
"educated" anglophile dullards writing this to our local papers every now and again this question arises). Surprisingly we had the greatest of all the
"Maltese" anglophiles counter this claim in Court up to the 1930s so one can imagine what the Maltese nationalists thought of that. No wonder I can't stand British Imperialism the most out of all imperialisms.
Our history has been perverted, and our education in the field is as perverted. The shame is that now we are independent so it should all be rectified were it not for nincompoops in charge of our education system or even worse politicians with no guts to order what is only just.
I can only be drawn to one conclusion, that the Maltese always sought greater autonomy to manage their internal affairs, however ethnically and culturally speaking our culture was Italian or Italic. What we have now is not our integral culture, but some pasta with fish and chips and McDonalds.
Unfortunately, the British Imperialist black-on-white policy of deitalianisation and concomittant anclisation (with parallel arabisation, as the most important aspect was deitalianising and not anglicising) succeeded. We now have a populace with an identity crisis, an inferiority complex and a distorted social mentality. Just yesterday I heard it from a secondary school teacher that he thought the Maltese language was of Punic derivation, at least he listened to me with interest! Yes, Rule Brittania!
As I said, I cannot speak for the Corsicans, but knowing Maltese history I wouldn't base the notion of nation on sentiment and resentiment alone.