The past is woven from countless delicate threads, each an inseparable part of the whole fabric of our history. Each passing day, whether ordinary or marked by a great event, leaves its imprint on the quiet corners of daily life and the way we go about our lives on bustling streets and in town squares. The ripples of every year that has gone before reached far into the future, a future in which we’re now living.
“What we took for granted by the year 1999, was only wishful thinking back in the 1900,” say George Agius, Chilion Mangion and Godwin Vella, the co-authors of new book Malta 1900-1999 100 Sena, 100 Pass | 100 Years, 100 Steps.
The book, in 224 enticing pages of ‘news flashes’, traces the development of modern Malta through the twentieth-century in a hundred illustrated episodes. In both Maltese and English, these carefully-designed double pages mirror one another with brief but engaging text and a pair of images. It’s an unusual and thought-provoking approach that feels fresh, instantaneous and documentary.
The twentieth century was a time of extraordinary change. It was, says the authors, possibly the most eventful of its 79 centuries, since the arrival of the first prehistoric inhabitants during the advent of the sixth millennium BC. Readers can stride at break-neck speed through the first thirty-five million years of Malta’s prehistory and the most of the previous millennia in just a handful of pages to reach the starting point for this volume.
Since 1900, relentless progress reshaped every aspect of life here, as old limitations fell away and new opportunities emerged not just for the privileged few, but for all. The experiences, challenges and joys of whole generations have become increasingly unrecognizable to the next. Helping us understand some of the momentous shifts, Malta 1900-1999 100 Sena, 100 Pass | 100 Years, 100 Steps highlights a series of moments, all of which are significant in some way, explaining either explicitly or implicitly the impact they have had on people here today.
Presented chronologically, as one per year, the 100 episodes or steps in the book are merely representative of the thousands of achievements, memorable events, and traumatic struggles which shaped the destiny of Malta and Gozo. “There were no easy choices,” the authors add.
The story they tell begins with the election of a new government in 1900 in which the only people eligible to vote were males with an annual property income of six sterlings: they numbered 9,301 people. Then, illustrating the diversity of the content, on December 29, 1902 a group of workers accidentally came across an underground rock-cut chamber while digging a well for new housing being built in the Ħal Saflieni area and on December 17, 1905 the Barrakka lifts opened to connect Lascaris Wharf with the Upper Barrakka Gardens.
The choice of ‘steps’ include important moments in in fields as from politics, the economy, and transport, to religion, health and sports, and also includes mentions of major events and official visits to these islands. As you’d expect there are steps that showcase Malta’s role in the first world war and the presentation the George Cross medal to Chief Justice George Borg on behalf of the people of Malta by Governor in 1942. Should you flick back and forth – and it’s the sort of book where to do so is a pleasure, you’ll read of the first playing of the Maltese National Anthem in 1923; and the elevation of the Maltese Language to one of the official languages on the Maltese Islands, along with English and Italian in 1934. How times have changed!
You’ll also find the Sette Giugno of 1919 when local people set fire to the English flag, ransacking properties to protest against the nation’s dire state, although it wasn’t until the 1948 page spread that the Mandraġġ in Valletta was demolished, which took place a couple of years after it became compulsory for children aged between five and 14 years to go to school. Then, a decade later, a general strike immobilised the country.
There’s the establishment of the Maltese Ecclesiastical Province in 1944, and church-building too, with the laying of the foundation stone for the new Neo-Gothic church of Għajnsielem in 1924 by the Bishop of Gozo, and the cessation of the train service between Valletta and Rabat in 1931. A nugget of opthamology also makes an appearance, when Maltese research is presented in London (in 1950).
In sport, there is a photo of the Maltese water polo team who made it to the quarter finals in 1928 when Malta competed in the Olympics for the first time ever. 1957 The Maltese national football team played its first-ever international match today, against the Austrian national team, in front of a large crowd at the Empire Stadium in Gżira, and the first match at Ta’Qali stadium which took place on 6 December 1981.
You’ll also find crime and tragedy with the stealing of the painting of St Jerome was from St John’s Co-Cathedral’s Museum and a disaster at the dockyards.
As no single book can fully capture the complexities of an entire century, in addition to the wonderful stories told within these pages, it’s interesting to see the choice the authors have made. And whilst for some people, the events in the second half of the book will be familiar, evoking personal memories, for millennials and Gen Z, this is pure history. Either way, it’s a fascinating compilation, that will appeal to all age groups.
Order your copy of 1900-1999 in Malta here
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