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Gilbert Calleja meets Gorg Mifsud Chircop to talk about folk tales, language and Maltese heritage
It was cold, the streets were empty and the people were inside. We had agreed to meet at the paper’s office at 6.00pm. Already dark and rainy I was worried he got lost but he turned up five minutes late. He settled down, tied his palms together as if to pray and slowly raised his eyes in wait for my first question.
 Gorg Mifsud Chircop is a no-nonsense academic, author, lecturer and an authority on Maltese culture and folklore but through his half-closed eyes and big frame, a little boy’s enthusiasm betrays his composure the minute I mention storytelling, especially Narraturi 21 and Poezijaplus, which will be organising a joint event.
“‘Nirrakkuntaw mal-Gahan Taghna’ will be held on February 27. Sergio Grech and other members of PoezijaPlus came up with the idea to team up and organise a night of storytelling with Maltese ‘ghannejja’ (folk singers). PoezijaPlus are, to my knowledge, the only consistent active literary group in Malta. They are consistent in their output and I only have praise for their monthly activities.”
Nirrakkuntaw will be focused on ‘oral’ narrative. Narraturi 21 have already organised a similar event on the eve of the Mnarja Buskett Festival at the Upper Barrakka Gardens and it was quite successful. Chircop says that these events are important because they expose people to what they usually ignore. They are successful when people gain insight, learn how to appreciate and overcome their prejudices, adding that “narrative is part of our popular culture. It evolves, it changes, it reflects the people’s developments, it reveals our story.”
Quoting French ethnographic studies he explains how ‘oral’ narrative has changed since the 60s when academics found renewed interest in the interaction between the storyteller and the listeners.
“Let me give you an example,” he says. “We enjoy telling each other jokes. If you take notice of how different people tell the same joke you’d understand what I mean. Reception or understanding also varies according to audience and context.
“Technically the narrative I’m talking about is ‘folkloristic narrative’, meaning not only the narratives inherited from previous generations but also the evolving narrative. I have interviewed various ‘storytellers’ and asked them to repeat the same stories over a period of time. What’s interesting is the change these narratives show. Narrative changes. It changes according to mood. It changes according to evolving political situations, age, personal experiences… many factors come in play when telling a story.
“It is the aim of Nirrakkuntaw to bring this richness to the fore. Not only this, we’d also like to show people all the magic there is in sharing a story where there’s a storyteller and an audience listening, enchanted, mesmerized by his or her narration.”
Five years ago Chircop was crucial in the founding of Narraturi 21– storytellers of the 21st century. To date they have collaborated with various local councils and institutions. He recalls the collaboration with the Rabat local council which attracted great audiences as also did the activity held in with the Qrendi Parish Church. The parish had organised a week-long activities program and Narraturi 21 were involved in presenting Maltese tales and legends. There are many narratives (myths included) related to Qrendi and its surroundings and the chapels there provided a beautiful backdrop for the storytelling. “The prehistoric temples were built by giants says one myth. There could have been no better backdrop for recounting that story,” Chircop says.
Another more recent success registered by Narraturi 21 was an activity organised last December at the Robert Sammut Hall in Floriana. Molly Bordonaro, the American Ambassador to Malta and Jeff Anderson, the American cultural attaché, collaborated with Narraturi to organise three days of storytelling. 90-minute sessions were divided in two parts, 45 minutes for Maltese storytellers and 45 minutes for Rose Red Elk, the Red Feather Woman, a storyteller brought over from America accompanied by her renowned country and western musician husband. Over 1,200 students attended the morning sessions and in the evening open sessions the public responded well.
“These events show clearly that narrative is not only that which we read but there’s another level which is sometimes overlooked. The scope of the narrative is not to teach a language. That is just a small part of it. Narrative also includes the pleasure of listening and telling a story. I like to tell fellow members of Narraturi 21 that storytelling should move listeners to want to tell their own stories. This we already did some years back when with the help of David Agius-Muscat, the Ghaqda ta’ l-Ghalliema tal-Malti and the Education Department we used to organise the Saghtejn ghall-Kultura sessions at St James Cavalier, Valletta. It was very encouraging to see Form 1 and Form 2 students who not only followed these weekly sessions but who got intrigued by wanting to tell their own stories.”
Nirrakkuntaw mal-Gahan Taghna will be held at the Manoel theatre and it will follow the usual PoezijaPlus format. With Gahan being the most popular character in Maltese narrative, the organisers chose to hold the event on Carnival Monday.
“He is often taken for the village idiot (ic-cuc / il-bahnan). The Gahan anecdotes (‘praspar’) often present a witty, cunning man who helps deliver the teller’s intent/lesson to the public. Gahan is the voice of the underdog who wants to air his opinions and make his pleas understood. The ‘Gahan u l-Bieb’ story is just a small fraction of who Gahan really is.”
“Let me tell you one of these stories. Gahan went to borrow a ‘lenbija’ (a multi-purpose, large earthenware container) from a neighbour. When she asked for it to be returned Gahan got her the original plus another smaller one inside. His neighbour said, ‘Where did this other smaller one come from?’ and Gahan explained how the ‘lenbija’ had given birth. The neighbour accepted to take both, mother and daughter ‘lenbija’. Some time later Gahan asked to borrow the object again but failed to give it back. When the neighbour asked for its return Gahan bluntly remarked that the ‘lenbija’ had got pregnant again but died in childbirth and both were lost! She took him to court. The judge concluded, ‘Once you have accepted that earthenware containers get pregnant, you must also accept that they die in childbirth!’ That’s why ‘Nirrakkuntaw il-Gahan Taghna’.”
“Francis Ebejer understood this perfectly in his play Il-Gahan ta’ Bingemma, directed by Mario Azzopardi. Gahan shows every person’s double nature: the idiot and the cunning.”
At the Manoel storytellers and ‘ghannejja tal-fatt’ (ballad folk singers) will come together to celebrate this wise fool who is Gahan. The folk singers, men and women, will present the ‘fatt Malti’ (the Maltese ballad).”
It is clear that Mifsud Chircop is very enthusiastic about organising this soirée with ‘ghannejja’ and storytellers, but still only a minority of the Maltese share the same enthusiasm. Does this come from a prejudice against anything that is ‘local’? I have in mind the divide between Maltese speaking people and the ‘Menglish’ speakers.
“I think it all boils down to how we are presenting Maltese to the younger generations. We have to show them that Maltese culture (literature included) is alive. The Maltese literature being presented in textbooks is archaic. It does not ‘talk’ about present real-life situations. Textbooks should reflect what’s happening out there – the suffering, marriage crisis, adultery and new family structures, failed or neglected loves… there are too many social issues which are being ignored!”
Mifsud Chircop talks about Qawsalla, the Maltese poetry textbook which has been in the syllabus for the past 15 years. “Out of the whole collection of poems I’d perhaps choose six at most which have some direct relevance to our present generation. Folklore is often presented with an aura of romanticism – this is far from the truth. Folklore is alive.”
Indeed, it is unimaginable for women today to wear the ‘ghonnella’. It is obsolete for present day purposes. So, are not folklorists and artists the ones who have to answer for this?
“In part, yes. In the past Maltese folklorists have suffered from ‘over-romanticising’ by their counterparts in nineteenth century Europe. The Grimm brothers in Germany are a good example of this. The late Guzè Cassar-Pullicino (1921-2005) understood this and revised his approach in the later part of his scholarly publications. Strictly speaking Malta is still virgin territory. Much research needs to be done. Culture is an evolution of ideas. The past needs to be related to the present upon which we can model the future. Let’s not cry over things past.”
Pawlu Borg, Maurice Cauchi, Chircop and a very small number of other people have started recording and studying local folklore with this modern perspective in mind, but “this is just a beginning. There are many foreign institutions which are willing to help but there are not enough researchers.”
What about Maltese authors?
“Authors have to keep in mind that language is their primary tool. How can you communicate with someone using a foreign language?
An artist, an author has to be creative with his medium. Language grows if its users are creative. If there is one merit I find in Dun Karm it is his ability to push language to new limits. Here I should also mention the Moviment Qawmien Letterarju who in the late 60s and 70s revised Maltese literature by making use of an updated healthy idiom. We have to be sensitive to new currents.”
A national conscience must be cultivated. “There are too few, not enough, socially engaged authors. Authors have to take on issues which are specific to Malta. That’s one way of distinguishing themselves from the rest of the world. Here I would also like to stress the need for greater space for women to express their talents… we should profit from their wisdom, their contribution to Malta.”
Malta has been an EU member for almost two years now. What new challenges is the national identity facing?
Chircop explains that two different groups of people deal with this issue distinctly. “On one side there are those who don’t give a hoot for national identity. These people are indifferent to how the EU will affect them. On the other there are those who are proud of our culture and unique language. These shouldn’t be worried that the Maltese language will be contaminated – Maltese like many other languages developed thanks to benign ‘contaminations’ from other languages.
“People abroad are curious about how the Maltese language sounds, how it developed, who its speakers are, how it is written … in this respect the Maltese language has gained a new voice and its stories have new audiences.”
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