Abstract
This chapter provides a discussion on the nature of power relations, which is the dominant theme of this book. It also presents a brief description of Malta’s history under British rule and how this is affected by the evolving concerns of empire. The aim is to lay the ground for a better understanding of the different contexts of power and resistance that emerge through the examination of Carnival playfulness. Some brief insights into economic conditions, as portrayed through the Carnival, are discussed. The chapter presents certain key Maltese politicians who engaged in power struggles, as well as important political newspapers covering Carnival events that reflected or influenced political perceptions.
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Notes
- 1.
The term appeared in 1902 in Basil Hood’s comic opera Merrie England, where Sir Walter Raleigh tells the May Queen: ‘Nay, I doubt not that you are fair and sweet as you are sweetly fair a very English rose.’ https://archive.org/stream/merrieenglandnew00germuoft/merrieenglandnew00germuoft_djvu.txt. Accessed: 8 October 2016.
- 2.
The Duke of Wellington stated that Malta should be considered as a fortress, not a colony, and should be run ‘under strict military discipline’ (Anonymous 1838, 222).
- 3.
Bishop Pietro Pace (1831–1914), who supported the British, was heavily attacked by Fortunato Mizzi, a staunch Catholic. He excommunicated the newspaper Malta in July 1890; as owner and editor, Mizzi changed its name to Gazzetta di Malta. In 1902, the name was temporarily changed to Gazzetta di Malta e Gozo, following a libel suit, and subsequently to Malta e le Sue Dipendenze. At this point, the newspaper’s subtitle explicitly declared it to be the organ of the Partito Nazionale [Nationalist Party]. The party is one of the two main political parties in Malta today, the other being the Labour Party.
- 4.
As David Lowenthal pointed out with regard to religion in the Caribbean: ‘Dominica and St. Lucia are almost wholly Roman Catholic, Trinidad (except for Hindus and Moslems) and Grenada predominantly so; on the other islands Anglicanism shares supremacy with various evangelical churches’ (1958, 340).
- 5.
I have used this translation for ‘Partito Riformista’, which is also translated as ‘Reform Party’.
- 6.
‘Mizzi, Dr Fortunato. 1901. An Appeal to the Maltese (translation from “Gazzetta di Malta”). Speech during a meeting on 7 April 1901’ reproduced in: Further Correspondence Relating to the Political Condition of Malta. NAM: GMR 385, p. 116. An announcement for the meeting appearing in the Gazzetta di Malta on 6 April 1901, read as follows: “A Grand Meeting on the Taxation and Language Questions. On Sunday, 7 April, 1901, at 9:30 a.m., outside “Portes-des-Bombes.” Attend, Citizens, Attend! The Danger is Great, the Moment Supreme! Let Us Awake!”
- 7.
In the letter, Oakes discusses Nicolò Testaferrata, a Maltese nobleman who had gone to London to claim the rights of the Maltese, including the application of the jury system which was introduced to Malta in 1815. The year after Testaferrata’s trip to London, the first Council was appointed.
- 8.
See for example TNA CO 158/16, letter by Hildebrand Oakes dated 10 June 1810, complaining about increased expenses.
- 9.
In the Annual Register of 1822, it is stated that ‘Sir Thomas Maitland held appointments to the amount of 10,000/- a year and resided in the Ionian islands’ (p. 120). The Blue Books of the same year show that his annual Malta salary amounted to £5000.
- 10.
Prince Alfred had already been to Malta in Christmas 1858 at the age of 14, when serving as a cadet aboard the warship HMS Euryalus. He had watched a performance at the Manoel Theatre in the Governor’s box (Xuereb 2011, 60); this concession had created controversy as it was deemed that as a cadet, he should not have been allowed to attend. One of his daughters, born in Malta in 1876, was actually baptised Victoria Melita, in honour of her grandmother and the island of Malta.
- 11.
One shilling was made up of twelve pence (12d.), and one pound sterling (£1) was made up of twenty shillings (20s.).
- 12.
Godwin also states that ‘only two-fifths of the meat eaten on the island is consumed by the Maltese population, the rest being required by the English population’ (p. 9).
- 13.
The beginnings of trade-unionism in Malta started in the 1880s at the dockyard, as well as the founding of the Società Mutuo Soccorso, the first mutual aid society.
- 14.
In 1932, while in London for talks, the Maltese Prime Minister Sir Ugo Mifsud (1889–1942) presented a Memorandum to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, asking for Malta to be integrated into the Dominion Office, as part of the Commonwealth states. The British rejected this demand and a year later, withdrew the Constitution, placing Malta under direct rule till 1947.
- 15.
The idea of adopting the British constitution was already current in 1856. People of this view were called ‘fusionists’. Reporting a conversation with Mr Gatt, an officer in the Malta Fencibles, Senior states: ‘Gatt is a fusionist. He wishes to assimilate Malta to England…’ (1882, 248).
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Cremona, V.A. (2018). Power and Its Historical Framework. In: Carnival and Power. Transnational Theatre Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70656-6_2
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