History is dead; long live history

In its praiseworthy pursuit to turn Malta into a centre of excellence by the year 2015, the government has recently commissioned a Texas-based consultancy company, Angelou Economics, to analyse Malta's strengths and weaknesses. This consultancy has strongly emphasised Malta's historical and cultural assets as being among the major pillars for Vision 2015 to succeed. Furthermore, as we approach the most important international event of the decade when Valletta will be declared "Europe's cultural capital", our immensely rich cultural and historical heritage takes centre stage attaining a larger and more focused dimension.

The euphoria emanating from these two international landmarks suggests that history and culture do not need much defending. Indeed, a cursory glance at the list of new Melitensia publications indicates that these subjects are experiencing hypertrophic growth. So much for The End of History, Francis Fukuyama's debatable essay published in 1989.

It is one of the ironies of history that the reading public of my generation continues to buy properly-researched and well-written books about historical subjects, particularly those relating to Malta's role in the historical, cultural and archaeological spheres, and, hopefully, this trend will survive long after post-modernism has landed on the proverbial rubbish bin of history.

So what is it that the usually reticent Malta Historical Society, whose views deserve to be taken seriously, thinks local history must be defended against? This prestigious society, certainly Malta's leading NGO for the study and research of Maltese history, endowed with the most talented and erudite historians, has recently expressed its deep concern "at the way in which the teaching of history is being systematically eroded from the state's secondary schools". The Malta Historical Society is particularly perturbed by "the ill-advised 'reforms' (which) will, in spite of all lip-service, eliminate its teaching from the highest forms". In its 60 years of existence, the MHS has never been so outspoken pointing out in its crie de coeur that the sheer ignorance of our history so rampant in all strata of Maltese society is a national disgrace. With unusual and uncharacteristic indignation, the society laments that "a country that ignores its history and culture has no soul and puts into serious jeopardy its national credentials. It is history that makes a nation and defines its identity".

The irony of it all is that a few weeks ago the secretary general of the European Parliament, Klaus Welle, announced that this institution, of which Malta is a member, intends to establish a House of European History in Brussels targeted for 2014 with the specific aim of "contributing to a better understanding of the development of European history". As if to emphasise the relevance of history in contemporary society, the secretary general has outlined the details of this permanent exhibition in Brussels focusing on European history since World War I and, especially, on the period after 1945 "complemented by references back to the continent's roots, Europe's history in the Middle Ages and Modern European history".

I have a sneaking suspicion that the European Parliament's initiative in this regard is a complete rebuttal to Fukuyama's remarks that the European Union is attempting "to transcend sovereignty and traditional power politics by establishing a trans-national rule of law much more in line with a post historical world".

At this point in time when the schools' national curriculum is still in the melting pot, it is well to consider the current academic international debate on the role of narrative and imagination in historical writings at the primary school stage. The dearth of a national reader, filled in the past by the nostalgic Ġabra ta' Ward and later superseded by the Denfil series, which both provided "morsels" of Maltese history in the primary school stage, is now further accentuated by the historical limbo in the secondary schools.

I appeal to the Curriculum Review Board to take stock of the points raised by the Malta Historical Society and elevate the status of Maltese history to the prestigious place it deserves.