The Queen Victoria conundrum
Some 18 years ago, I was asked to help a friend’s partner learn English. He could only speak Arabic and, since I had just completed my TEFL course, she asked if I would teach him a few basics. I had (poorly) drawn a cat and a dog and he immediately knew what they were but when I sketched a tree, he couldn’t understand what it was.
Ten muddled minutes later, I realised that he couldn’t discern what my tree was because, in his mind, a tree looked completely different. The western tree I had drawn had nothing to do with the sparse branches he’d witnessed in his country.
After the lesson, I saw him muttering a few words to his partner and I’ve never forgotten what she said next: “He’s wondering why you would draw a tree like that when we have no trees like that here. Why would you draw an English tree?” It was a simple throwaway comment but one that cut deep.
Despite what many people have (wrongly) surmised from my writings, I have always been proud to be Maltese. I am proud of our language, our resilience and our history. I am also very aware that our size and our position made us ripe for exploitation.
In keeping with their modus operandi for hundreds of years, the British saw how we could benefit them and settled here for over 150 years. They brought us an education system, which meant that we would only ever draw trees the way they taught us to and still can’t count in Maltese. For decades, no one questioned it and, now, after the rest of the emancipated, formerly colonised world started to ask their own questions about identity, a limestone chair covering the statue of Queen Victoria in Republic Square, Valletta has led to an uproar.
I’m honestly confused. Perhaps it’s because my close friends and I have been discussing post-colonialism for a long time, so the conversation has grown somewhat worn out, but I do not really understand the huge deal. At this point, I’m not angry at being colonised; it’s a fact for many small countries and ,sadly, it’s part of our history.
I honestly couldn’t care less about Queen Victoria having pigeons relieving themselves on her or the red post boxes. If anything, they remind us of what we have been through and that our children should be allowed to draw trees in a way that makes more sense to our islands (please feel free to insert your jokes here).
What gets my goat is that while people are getting heated up over things that happened 200 years ago and making (largely ill-informed) comments on slavery and colonisation, their country is being hijacked and raped by its own people every day. Will it take another 100 years for people to get annoyed and indignant about what’s happening now? How ironic it is then that Queen Victoria has become a safe space for people to vent out their anger and frustrations. God knows, Her Majesty won’t be the one denying you a deserved promotion for having openly opposing views to hers.
If you must, be angry at what history has deprived you of but, perhaps, go down that road after taking a long, hard look in the mirror.
“I honestly couldn’t care less about Queen Victoria having pigeons relieving themselves on her or the red post boxes