Manwel Dimech


Manwel Dimech sometimes Manuel Dimech was the pre-eminent social reformer in pre-independence Malta, a philosopher, a journalist, and a writer of novels and poetry.
Born in Valletta and brought up in extreme poverty and illiteracy, Dimech returned time and time again to the prisons, mostly on theft charges. At seventeen years of age he even committed murder. In the prisons, however, he studied hard and became skilful in letters and various arts. When finally set in liberty, he engaged himself in an energetic and enterprising public life by teaching and publishing. He aimed at an overall transformation of society in which the poor and abject would be given a rightful place as citizens of a free republic. Having incurred the wrath of the dominant political forces and the privileged classes, Dimech was permanently exiled from the island and was buried in Egypt in an unmarked grave.

Biography

The main literary source for Dimech's biography is Mark Montebello's extensive work Dimech, published in 2004. Though it is in Maltese, a fully documented biography in English is available as The Amazing Story of Manuel Dimech and in Aphorisms: Wisdom of a Philosopher in Exile.

Birth and formation

Manuel Dimech was born on Christmas Day, 1860, at St John Street, Valletta, Malta, and baptised at the church of St Paul Shipwreck, Valletta. His family was poor and lived in a single room that was part of a common tenement house with over sixty people. His ancestors on his father's side were genuine artistic sculptors, though up till Dimech's birth his family had fallen on difficult times. During his childhood, Dimech's family moved residence twice, leaving Valletta for Qormi, and then moving to Msida. His father tried hard to make ends meet, but his weak health prevented any success in this endeavour. He died at the age of 37, leaving his widow to care for their ten young children.

Prison experience

Just a fortnight after his father's death the 13-year-old Dimech committed his first recorded crime of petty theft. He was a street urchin with no education, guidance or direction. For his first crime he was sent two days in a lockup. This experience did not stop him from delving deeper into a life of crime. Subsequently, he was to be sent nine more times to prison, sometimes for very serious crimes. Mostly it was for theft or burglary, but in 1878, when he was 17 years old, he committed involuntary murder, and was imprisoned for more than twelve years. In 1890, then, he was found guilty of forging counterfeit money, and was imprisoned for a further seven years. He was definitely released from prison in 1897 at the age of 36. In all he had spent some twenty years of incarceration.

Education

While in prison Dimech began to learn how to read and write. This was in 1877, when he was 17 years old. With all the time of the world on his hands he quickly became an avid reader, absorbing all kinds of stuff: literature, grammar, politics, history, philosophy, religion, and more. He discovered he had a special penchant for languages, and in prison he learnt the ins and outs of Maltese, English, French and Italian to perfection. Later he would make a living teaching these languages. He had a good brain and a fruitful mind. His keen interest in politics was not committed to petty squabbles or parochial issues, but burrowed deep into the structural causes of poverty and oppression. All of this would serve him well in the public sphere.

Terror in prison

In prison Dimech had another kind of formation. During his last stint in prison between 1890 and 1897, a certain Marquis Giorgio Barbaro was appointed Commissioner of Prison. This man was a psychopath who made the life of prisoners, vulnerable and defenceless as they were, a hell on earth. He tortured, murdered, persecuted and tormented prisoners ceaselessly. He also perjured his way into sending at least two prisoners to the gallows for crimes they had not committed. Dimech saw all this and lived through it with growing agony. The experience, together with the reading he was doing, moulded him into a daring, powerful and intrepid personality.

Public figure

Once out of prison in 1897, Dimech embarked on an outstanding public career that brought him fame, though not immediate success. From the start of 1898 he issued a weekly in Maltese that was to serve him as his mouthpiece for many years to come. He called it Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin. Through it he explored, albeit with the language and prose of the times, the structures of oppression in a country that had been a colony of Britain since 1800, and in the clutches of the Catholic Church since time immemorial. Furthermore, Dimech proposed the way forward. He advocated the education of the masses, and audaciously specified how Malta could one day be an economically self-sufficient independent republic.

Philosophy

Dimech adhered to a philosophy that he called ‘of action’, a position very close, though directly unrelated, to the contemporaneous Pragmatism of the United States. He came at this position through his acquaintance with the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and other British Empiricists and philosophers of Utilitarianism. He claimed that actions can be considered right or wrong, and value judgments can be rightly gauged, according to whether they perform well when applied to practice. Actions, he maintained, proceed from the power that knowledge possesses from itself. Furthermore, actions are aimed at acquiring happiness, first, for the individual, and, simultaneously, for the whole community of individuals.

Publications

During his lifetime Dimech issued various publications. The 462 editions of Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin are perhaps the foremost. But others are also interesting. Amongst these one can find other newspapers in foreign languages, two novels, grammar books, and pamphlets. Unfortunately, books of poetry have not survived. Dimech's main objective with these publications was to form a political class from amongst the people, especially young men and women who had not the possibility of acquiring an education otherwise. Dimech was enamored of the Maltese language, and saw it as an efficacious tool of emancipation.

Foreign experience

Dimech had travelled to Tunis in 1890 for expediency reasons. However, in 1903 he visited Montenegro to study at close range the social and political situation there. He enhanced this experience by travelling twice to the north of Italy, where, in all, he spent almost four years. There Dimech became particularly acquainted to workers’ movements and the trade unions. He was also very interested in the state-church relationship that prevailed in Italy during that fascinating time. Understandably, he came back to Malta fired up and all ready to bring about the social changes he had been mulling over for many years.

Main political programme

It is indisputable that Dimech wanted, and worked for, an overhaul of the social system. His main aim was to pull the carpet from under the structures of oppression, whether they were maintained by the British colonial government, the Catholic Church, the privileged class, the landed gentry, or whoever. His strategy was to begin with the political education of a new grass-root group of people, and subsequently permeate the illiterate, underprivileged and destitute masses. His ultimate aims were to make Malta an industrialised country that could be economically self-reliant and, eventually, be worthy of independence.

Popular organiser

Definitely back to Malta from Italy in 1911, Dimech founded what he called Ix-Xirka ta' l-Imdawlin. This was a sort of union in the modern understanding of the word, in the sense that it was a social club, an organisation militating for workers’ rights, a school of adult education, and a political party all in one. Through this league Dimech hoped to have a say, and transformative influence, in the political, and then the social, and maybe also the religious, fields. Young idealists and people craving for change flocked to him, and not only from the lower class but also from the middle and higher classes. Dimech's political “revolution” had begun.

Excommunicated

But immediately Dimech was held in his tracks. The then mighty Catholic Church pounced on him, and first condemned Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin and Ix-Xirka ta' l-Imdawlin, and shortly afterward excommunicated Dimech himself. Though this was an overwhelmingly devastating blow in all respects in Malta of the 1910s, Dimech was undaunted. He fought back with the little freedom of movement and action that was left to him, and stalwartly stood his ground. For a whole year, between 1911 and 1912, he and his family were systematically and pitilessly persecuted by the Church, but nothing could break his back. Then, obliquely admitting defeat, the Church called a truce and retired Dimech's excommunication on December 1, 1912.
Dimech had won against all odds, and immediately re-established his former organization with the name Ix-Xirka tal-Maltin.

Considered dangerous

But the Catholic Church was not the only institution disgruntled with Dimech. The British colonial government was unhappy with his widespread and growing influence amongst the workers at the Royal shipyards. Indeed, the great majority of Dimech's foot soldiers came from there, and this threatened to precariously disrupt the use of Malta as one of His Majesty's major Mediterranean naval base. Slowly but surely, and perhaps not without a push or two from the authorities of the Catholic Church, the powers to be began to close upon this little man who was considered dangerous enough to be destroyed.

Deportation and imprisonment

Just over a year after Dimech re-launched his Xirka tal-Maltin, he was arrested. World War I had just begun, and Malta’s British governor accepted the accusation that Dimech was a spy of Germany, and surreptitiously deported him to the island to Sicily, in Italy. There he was shortly arrested again, and asked to leave to a country, save Malta, of his own choice. Dimech chose Egypt, then a British protectorate. Again, shortly afterwards, he was arrested once more, this time for good. For the remaining days of his life, for seven long and miserable years, Dimech lived in prisons or concentration camps either at Alexandria or Cairo.

Exile

At some unspecified time the British began to consider Dimech as a “prisoner of war”. However, when World War I came to an end in 1918, he was not released. Technically and actually, Dimech then became an exile, and he remained so until the end of his days. Various pleas for his return to Malta were refused by the British colonial government in Malta, even when these were repeatedly made by the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Edmund Allenby, and later by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Winston Churchill.

Death

At the end of 1918 Dimech was transferred to a concentration camp at Sidi Bishr in Alexandria, Egypt. Dire prison conditions caused his health to deteriorate fast. In November 1920, after becoming half-paralyzed by apoplexy, he was transferred to Victoria College, Alexandria, at Sidi Bishr itself, a college that had been transformed into a hospital due to war exigencies. But by then Dimech was doomed. He died in Alexandria on April 17, 1921, and was unceremoniously buried in the sand grounds of Victoria College, Alexandria, itself. His grave was unmarked, and all attempts to locate it have been futile.

The Dimechians

A small group of young followers of Dimech continued to be somewhat active in Malta well after his deportation in 1914. They organized Malta’s first recorded strike at the Royal shipyards in 1920, and were significantly amongst the rioters against the British colonial government on 7 June 1919, riots which led to the granting of Malta’s first self-government. They were harassed and persecuted harshly by the colonial government, especially in 1914 and 1933, so much so that to be a Dimechian became quickly tantamount to public disgrace. By time, the few faithful Dimechians died out, and Dimech himself was forgotten.

Posthumous recognition

Dimech was re-introduced to the public by Gerald Azzopardi in the 1960s, and later, in the 1970s, he was given more academic validity by Henry Frendo. This led to a renewed interest in Dimech's life. Also in the 1970s, the socialist Prime Minister, Dom Mintoff, transformed Dimech into a sort of socialist icon, even though Dimech himself would have been ill at ease with such a recognition. However, Dimech's fame was finally set. A small run of one Maltese pound coins were produced engraved with his name and likeness in 1972. A monument to him was erected in 1976 in front of the Prime Minister's office in Valletta, at one of Malta's main squares. In 2004 Dr Mark Montebello placed the study and appreciation of Dimech on a new and unprecedented standing with a master biographical work called simply Dimech, which started to behold Dimech's personality in a more balanced and objective way.
On October 14, 2012, the discovery of new Dimech manuscripts was announced dating from the last three years of his exile. The manuscripts contain an extensive work in English made up of thousands of aphorisms, and some fables, epitaphs and poems. The discovery was made in two phases, in 2002 and 2009. Dimech's work was published in 2012 by Sensiela Kotba Socjalisti, SKS, as Aphorisms: Wisdom of a philosopher in exile.
In April 2013, Karl Fiorini composed a work called 'Sinfonietta Pro Populo' based on the 'Innu Malti' written by Dimech. He created a refined symphony which placed revolutionary aspirations within the modern parameters of music. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, notwithstanding all the problems with which it was faced, emerged triumphant under the musical directorship of Brian Schembri.
A year later, in June 2014, Henry Frendo published yet other hitherto unknown manuscripts belonging to Dimech dating from the early 1880s. The publication, Dimech's Lost Prison Poems, contains poems by Dimech, and letters received by Dimech while in prison.

National recognition

As a sign of national recognition, on November 10, 2012, the President of Malta, Dr George Abela, unveiled in St John Street, Valletta, a commemorative plaque marking the birthplace of Dimech. A year later, on October 13, 2013, the Prime Minister of Malta, Dr Joseph Muscat, unveiled in Qormi another commemorative plaque marking the spot were, in 1912, Dimech had been stoned by a mob. On September 5, 2014, exactly 100 years to the day since the beginning of Dimech's exile, the President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, unveiled, close to the Customs house at Valletta, yet another commemorative plaque marking the event.

Foundation

In April 2019 it was announced that a foundation will be established bearing Dimech's name. Though it was stated that the foundation will be "dedicated to the ideals of Dimech," details had to be announced further on.

Achievement

Dimech evocatively and compellingly advocated the emancipation of the masses. His assault on the entrenched structures of oppression in Malta was extraordinary, outstanding and unmatched by anything that had gone before. Dimech was not a nationalist, an anti-colonialist or a socialist in any way we would understand the terms today. He was, first and foremost, an enemy of any kind of domination, coercion, cruelty, tyranny, repression and subjugation. If this made him a nationalist, an anti-colonialist or some kind of socialist, it was surely only in an indirect and oblique way. Dimech did not achieve in his lifetime what he set out to accomplish. He was violently and unjustly truncated. Most of the policies he advocated were implemented some half a century after his death by Dom Mintoff in the 1970s.

Important dates

Month and dateYear of eventAgeEvent
December 251860-Born at Valletta
June 11187413Commits first prosecuted crime just two weeks after his father's death. Sentenced to 2 days detention
October 20187413Commits second prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to one year imprisonment
May 18187615Commits third prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 20 days imprisonment
December 4187615Commits fourth prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 20 days imprisonment
January 6187716Commits fifth prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment with hard labour
May 11187716Commits sixth prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment with hard labour
October 10187716Commits seventh prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 20 days imprisonment
November 14187716Commits eighth prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to one month imprisonment and £5 fine
November187716Begins learning how to read and write
February187817Commits ninth prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour.
October 30189029Released from imprisonment, he goes abroad to Tunisia. Returns in December.
January 5189130Commits tenth prosecuted crime, and is sentenced to 9 years imprisonment with hard labour.
July 31189736Definitely released from imprisonment.
January 8189837Begins weekly newspaper, Il Bandiera tal Maltin.
February189837Opens school of modern languages.
March 17190039The Bishop of Malta condemns one of his articles, and admonishes him.
March 22190039His mother dies.
October 2190039Marries Virginia Agius.
April 12190241For the first time, he announces his organisation, Ix Xirca Maltïa.
May190241Publishes English grammar book, Il Chelliem Inglis.
November 26190342Visits Montenegro.
October 8190443Begins publishing a political novel, Ivan u Prascovia.
August 16190645Voyages abroad. Visits Marseilles and the north of Italy.
April190746Returns from Italy.
November190746Publishes a four-language grammar book, Il Chelliem tal Erbat Ilsna.
March 19190847Returns to Italy.
May191150Returns from Italy.
June 24191150Announces his organisation, Ix Xirca tal Imdaulin.
October 2191150The Bishop of Malta condemns his organisation and weekly newspaper.
October 23191150The Bishop excommunicates him. A year of persecutions begins, with public demonstrations against him.
January 21191251Is almost killed by a fanatical mob at Qormi.
November 26191251Reaches agreement with the Bishop.
December 1191251The Bishop formally retires the excommunication.
March191453Publishes a book of rules for his newly established organisation, Is Sisien tax Xirca Maltïa.
August 31191453Arrested on false charges.
September 5191453Deported to Sicily.
October191453Imprisoned at Syracuse as a prisoner of war.
November 22191453Deported to Alexandria, Egypt.
December191454Imprisoned at El-Hadra.
January191554Transferred to concentration camp at Ras-el-Tin.
May191554Again sent to El-Hadra.
June191554Transferred to the mental asylum of Abbassih.
January191756Transferred to military camp at Kasir El Nil. Begins writing his Aphorisms.
December191858Transferred to concentration camp of Sidi Bishir.
November 4191858His son, Attilio, dies in Malta from hunger.
November 11191858World War I having ended, he formally begins his exile.
September 12191958The Governor of Malta refuses to end his exile.
November192059Half paralysed by apoplexy. Ends writing his Aphorisms.
December192060Transferred to Victoria College at Sidi Bishir itself.
April 17192160Dies at Victoria College, Sidi Bishir, and buried in an unmarked grave.

Posthumous