The recent contributions by Rodolfo Ragonesi busting the Winston Churchill myth raises pertinent reflections about the island’s relationship with this war hero.

In 1955, through public subscription, Vincent Apap was commissioned to sculpt his bust on the occasion of his 80th birthday. After receiving the sculpture in London, Churchill requested the monument would be placed in Valletta overlooking the Grand Harbour.

During Malta’s colonial experience, Maltese society was prey to a chain of mnemonics that eventually constructed its present collective identity. French philosopher Michel Foucault (1974) argues that popular memory brings to light what officialdom conceals and forgets in “the archives of the ruling class”. He accuses literature and the cinema of obstructing the flow of popular memory by lauding heroes such as Churchill and Charles De Gaulle after WWII.

When, in 1921, Malta acquired its first representative Parliament, this had to come after a national upheaval leaving several protestors dead. During a debate in the House of Commons about constitutional reform for the island, Churchill intervened sarcastically to observe that “the House might just as well discuss a constitution for a battleship”.

The colonial authorities nourished Maltese public memory with hero worship. Churchill and King George VI were acclaimed as the patronising defenders of the island. British governor John Gort, who, in 1942, was advised that Malta “could not hold out for more than six weeks” was knighted and presented with a sword of honour by Allied Clubs in 1944. The king flew in with a rewarding medal. It could be argued that what started out as a reluctant abandonment of the ‘fortress island’ was now turned into a convenient show of paternal solidarity. According to a secret war diary, Churchill wanted to negotiate over Malta with the enemy before WWI and again before WWII to protect English interests: “If we could get out of this jam by giving up Malta…”

Counter-memory encourages healthy historical debate.