Posted
on June 7, 2016
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| The Sette Guiugno Monument |
Food
was scarce, riots kept breaking out, British troops fired into the
crowd and killed four people! Hooray! Let's celebrate!
If
you really think about it, some historical anniversaries we celebrate
are really tough times or horrific events. But we celebrate the
anniversaries for the positives that came out of the events.
In
the case of June 7, 1919, in Malta, the unrest and rioting and
killings led to more and more people challenging the British troops
on their island. These events increased support for pro-Italian
parties.
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| An annual reenactment of Sette Guiugno |
You
see, some people in Malta – and, I presume, in Italy – thought
that Malta belonged to Italy and wanted to “restore” the island
to that country. This idea was also bundled up with the “Language
Question” – the struggle between the old Italian-speaking society
and the new English-speaking rulers. From the 1500s until 1814, the
official language of Malta, and the language spoken by the “elite,”
was Italian. But by the time of Sette Giugno, a century after Malta
became a part of the British Empire, English was the main language in
Malta. A few decades later, in 1934, only about 15% of the Maltese
people could speak fluent Italian, although almost everybody
understood it. Some people wanted Italian taught in the schools
again.
A
look at history shows us that Malta's position in the Mediterranean
Sea gave it importance in matters of both trade and naval security,
and so this island had been ruled by a LOT of different empires and
peoples. We're talking Phoenicians, Romans, Moors (Muslims from Arab
regions and northern Africa), Normans (people descended from Vikings
who took over a great deal of Europe, back in the day), Sicilians
(Sicily is of course a part of modern Italy), Spanish, Knights of St.
John (a Catholic military order), French, and British!
It
wasn't all that clear, then, if “restoration” were to happen, who
Malta should belong to – except Malta itself!
And
as to the Language Question, why not the Maltese language?
The
rioting and rebellion of Sette Giugno showed the British how very
important self-rule was to the Maltese people. There were surges of
increased self-rule, and in 1934 Maltese was declared the colony's
third official language (after English and Italian), and a few years
later Italian was booted from “official” language status.
World
War II interceded between Sette Giugno and independence, and in fact
the Maltese had to wait quite a while post-war before acquiring full
independence in 1964.
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| This tomb for the four people killed on Sette Giugno is written in Italian. Can you guess what "riposino in pace" means in English? |
I
think it is interesting to note that Sette Giugno is still celebrated
as one of Malta's five national days, even though it seemed to be a
largely pro-Italian movement, and yet Malta never did join up with
Italy. I also think it's ironic that this national day is called by
an Italian name – Sette Giugno means “seventh of June”
in Italian – even though the Italian language in Malta increased in
disuse ever after this event.
To
learn more about Malta, check out this post, this other post, and even this earlier post.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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