Richard Matrenza writes:
October 1, 1913 – January 28, 2014
In the immediate post-World War II, Malta was in a devastated state.
The war years, 1940 – 1945, had brought a complete collapse of Malta’s social, political and economic system. The sharp divisions of class, town and village, pro-British and pro-Italian factions had become history. Mobility of population within the island had altered the fabric of pre-war society.
In 1947, a Gozitan by birth but aware of the island scene in Malta, a short man physically but big in vision spearheaded the value of a nation becoming seriously conscious of its native language – Maltese.
Kelinu Vella Haber created the Moviment tal-Malti. He made very capable use of Il-Berqa, the only daily paper in Maltese at the time, and The Torch/It-Torċa, a bilingual mid-week paper.
The print media was dominated by the pro-British tamely conservative daily The Times of Malta which, however, gave ample positive coverage to Vella Haber’s bold initiative. It also followed with interest the Moviment’s activities in the towns and villages of Malta.
There was no “Maltese radio” in Malta in the mid-1940s. The local air waves were controlled and dominated by the English company Rediffusion. This cable radio station made its voice heard in public squares and in the homes of a limited number of townsand villages.
Rediffusion supplied listeners with a mainly British diet.
Vella Haber had foresight. He created a niche for the infant Moviment tal-Malti through its broadcast of radio plays, quiz programmes with an educational and historical approach for the history of Malta. All in Maltese. Bringing young men and women together; a great novelty at the time.
Many of us teenagers or on the threshold of being teenagers had our first exposure to the microphone thanks to Vella Haber’s Moviment tal-Malti.
Il-Qawsalla (The Rainbow) was the official monthly paper of the Moviment tal-Malti, first in the printed form and then ‘cyclostyled’ because of finan-cial considerations.
Vella Haber has a spiritual monument seared in the hearts and minds of the many men and women whom he helped to make them come out of their shells in the over-protected, controlled environment of Malta of 70 years ago also by instilling in them and all those who came into virtual contact with the Moviment tal-Malti a deep and sincere love for the Maltese language.
Last November, the Akkademja tal-Malti and the Ministry for Gozo held a special commemorative evening in Victoria soon after Vella Haber had reached the venerable age of 100 years.
Vella Haber was there. His physical stature had somewhat grown shorter. His voice, recorded and real, during that evening was strong and determined as when I had met him the first time in the Rediffusion studios, at the time in Vincenti Buildings in Britannia Street (now Melita Street), Valletta.