Talking about us

Alex Vella Gera was the guest Maltese author for this year’s Festival des Immigrations. Vella Gera returned to Luxembourg (he has worked here in the past) wearing his new vestiges of notorious author and under the spotlight for his latest work “is-Sriep regġħu saru velenużi”. The Festival des Immigrations is now in its 30th year and is a celebration of all things “foreign” that exist in Luxembourg – an interesting experience for us Maltese to be counted as one of the “others”.

When the chat with Vella Gera ended a group of us gravitated towards the food stalls (sadly bereft of Maltese timpani, pastizi and kinnie) and opted for a Cameroonian mix of meats and fishes for a very tasty (and in some cases hot) bite. On our way out we passed the Amnesty International stand that was highlighting the plight of immigrant communities in the Med – what do you know Malta features as two-way protagonist!

Back to the chat. The interview was expertly conducted in a relaxed atmosphere by Mark Vella. Malta’s participation in the Festival was once again guaranteed thanks to the dedicated campaign of international passport poet Antoine Cassar. Attendance was purely from the Maltese community in Luxembourg (that officially numbers 225 according to the panels in the main Hall – but that does not count the numerous Maltese who opted to live across the border in Germany or Belgium) and this meant that the language of the discussion switched to the vernacular.

Language was an important protagonist in the surgical analysis that turned out to be a voyage of discovery for Vella Gera himself. By the author’s own admission criticism and public reaction to published works is hard to come by and so Vella Gera seemed to thrive and enjoy this moment of exploration and questioning into the reality behind his work. Hollywood gave us the concept of “behind the scenes”, this was “Sriep’s” behind the scenes moment as both Mark Vella and later those present (inevitably including yours truly) questioned motives, choices and narratives behind Vella Gera’s novel.

The whole sessions should have been recorded for YouTube prosperity but apparently the wrong button was pressed on the video cam so only an audio will eventually be available. This point of the YouTube video was a topic that cropped up in the discussion itself. Such moments of analysis could be of more benefit if advantage is taken of modern technology that allows for a wider vision and an expansion of the platform. This could be one way of filling the absence of the critical reaction.

What did happen in that room was a gradual build up of political, social and linguistic analysis of a book that – in my view – is an excellent documentary in the raw of a particular growing up phase of Maltese society. As was remarked by those present it is a pity that such a discussion does not reach a wider audience. Vella Gera’s Sriep does cut into much of the questions afflicting modern society. The use of Minglish or the special patois of code-switching pepe/malti for example is not simply a cultural curiosity but one that exposes the need of a socio-political understanding of whole swathes of Maltese society. Politically speaking the weight carried by social “castes” or classes can be queried – much as the Labour party did in the past campaign with the “Courage to Vote” video.

In other words it was a discussion about a book, it was a discussion about an author’s experience and dealings with his society and whether he was more of a chronicler of the real than an author of the imaginary. It was all that and more. What the meeting with Vella Gera produced though was a surprising realisation that this kind of analysis might be very much lacking in contemporary Maltese society. While we may often complain that the “intellectuals” and “artistic milieu” fail to engage politically we fail to notice that there are few bridges and platforms where their work is given the necessary attention or allowed to provoke the necessary discussions.

Sriep has sold around 1,500 copies. That apparently makes it a best-seller in Malta. Sadly the potential that such a tome has for provoking discussion on so many levels is about to die a quiet death. The main reason is that Vella Gera would not be invited to the the main media programmes and would not be a convenient selling point for papers if he were not embroiled in a Li Tkisser Sewwi style scandal. Ironically while the last campaign was characterised with empty vessel promises about “burying the differences” we have yet to see a conscious effort being made in understanding where they come from in the first place.

Meanwhile our new Minister for Culture is determined to invest in popular culture – investing in Carnival and investing in local festi because that is how we understand where our differences lie, isn’t it?

P.S. And after the talk I also bought two cd’s by those paradoxes of Maltese social commentary.