Take Queen Vic statue to Hastings or Victoria in Gozo, historian says

Respecting history also means understanding the historical context behind the erection of monuments and re-evaluating their part in history, argues journalist and historian Charles Xuereb, who suggests relocating colonial monuments to St Elmo.

But is there a risk of reading history from hindsight, imposing a present-day value judgment on the past?

Instead of looking at “the traditional event-centred history writing”, the contemporary approach to history is to take a broadening of the event’s former meaning, its study in the longue durée, not only in its being, but also in its becoming.

“Over time, events are constantly being reinterpreted and new meanings attributed to them as the social situation changes. While most ‘values’ became universal with the spread of colonialism, following the Enlightenment and subsequent revolutions in 19th century Europe  created distinct nations. Alas colonial Malta missed out and had to contend with imperialist propaganda,” he says.

Globally some monuments like those commemorating Confederate generals are found offensive because they have become symbols of institutional racism, often revered by white supremacists. But is there a risk of a slippery slope by extending this logic to monuments in other contexts?

Justified rejection of public monuments is not exclusively limited to former US confederate states. Imperialist memorials in the US and other colonies, inculcating loyalty to the British metropole often recall the sad beginning of black slavery in 1619. “Monuments stand to propagate individuals, declaring ‘This was a great person!’ Colonial grandees became famous because of their dishonourable deeds – namely slavery, colonialism (in recent academic studies declared as criminal) and subsequently racism, as global super-empires belonged to European whites. All contexts are one and the same.”

So should the Queen Vic monument be removed and relocated somewhere else? “Victoria’s ‘majestic’ monument was the result of an empire-wide mandate to celebrate her silver jubilee. In Malta it was erected during the Language Question and not all citizens were happy. In 1901 following the prohibition of political public meetings, the statue was besmirched at night with liquid nitrate of silver, leading to 23 arrests.

“I believe Valetta’s propaganda monuments, including six gigantic British royal insignia in one square kilometre around the President’s palace, could move to a museum or to Hastings Gardens. Valletta’s British vestiges may be collected in a colonial monumental garden. Outside Budapest, a Memento Park now invites tourists to visit memorials belonging to the former Soviet domination.”

But would not their relocation remove a centuries-old familiar landmark?

“Sacrificing national pride for an urban inconvenience? Our colonial masters were not perturbed when they replaced Grandmaster Vilhena with Victoria, Porta Marina with Victoria Gate or the German baroque auberge with the Anglican cathedral. In our days we are getting used to a void fissure in the bastions instead of Porta Reale (Putirjal).

“Conscious of a historical national insult, wherein the only public Maltese coat of arms in Valletta lies right below Victoria’s bottom, is enough to validate her removal to Hastings – complete with a plaque contextualizing the whole story.

“She may also be welcome in Victoria, Gozo – hopefully minus our blazon below her derrière. A similar statue in Dublin was diplomatically removed when ‘offered’ to Australia (where the Head of State is still the British monarch) in 1986.”

Xuereb suggests ‘recontextualisation’ through an explanatory plaque is one way forward. “In Sliema the old street name Prince of Wales is still evident along its new nomenclature Manuel Dimech in front of the police station. With a brief explanation, as happens in several European cities, it would make more sense.”

In Valletta however, Xuereb rues the permanent tourist translations of fake propaganda inscriptions on top of the Main Guard, which states that Malta became a British colony sustained by Melitensium amor (love of the Maltese). “This decision was taken in Vienna in 1815 behind the backs of all the Maltese and the secretary to the British governor only bothered to inform local literati at the Palace in December 1818! Malta was a colony only under British rule. St Elmo houses Grandmasters’ removed emblazons; most of the British insignia in Valletta could join them.”