The Wounding Song

 Honour, Politics and Rhetoric in Maltese Għana

Conclusion
 

It can thus be seen that għana facilitates the 'composition of the voice' of the għannejja, much as the tales and poems did for the North Arabian Bedouin (Meeker 1979). It is the 'voice' of the għannejja not only in the sense that għana is a bricolage of images picked from their social lives (e.g. horse-racing) or their social ancestors' past (agriculture). It is also the għannejja's 'voice' in that għana represents their attempt to gain a hearing in a small-scale, stratified, highly bureaucratic and centralised society. The largely illiterate għannejja cannot manipulate the system to get things done as well (if at all) as the 'schooled' middle classes. It is particularly telling that the għannejja are constantly comparing their best representatives with poets, in a country where the latter achieved a high profile in the sixties through reflecting on national and social issues. For, in a variation on a Ricoeurian (1981) and Geertzian (1984) theme, għana can be seen as a text written on a ritual 'space', the għannejja's answer to the literate classes.

Of course, għana does contain a number of poetic elements: it is rhymed, highly structured and contains multiple levels and (sometimes) elaborate metaphors; and, like poetry, it does lose some of its flavour in translation. However, although the għannejja certainly wish to emulate poets, theirs is what Friedl (1968) has called a 'lagging emulation'. If it is to be likened to poetry għana does not resemble so much the poetry of the literati, but that of schoolchildren.

It is much more accurate to compare għana with myth. Indeed, a more careful analysis of its poetic elements shows that they are used in a mythic mode.(27) Not only is għana spoken, rather than written, it is also a bricolage which continually brings up certain elements, notably the themes of (singing) ability and social origins. Also its structure is evident and repeated, while its hidden 'message' comes out through repeated oppositions. The oppositions traced in the previous section can be tabulated here:
 

Curiously, the għannejja do not try to rationalise why, though they are more 'deserving', they are socially worse off than the upper classes (in contrast to, for example, Muslim revivalists who attempt to rationalise why the infidel West has historically dominated Muslim countries - cf. for example, Vatikiotis 1981: 171-172). The reason is that on one level the għannejja accept the ideology that they are 'low' and 'ignorant', while simultaneously trying to subvert these 'official' categories. This is a contradiction admittedly, but it is this contradiction which għana attempts to resolve.

The għannejja are faced with a glaring contradiction between the ideology of a democratic nation state heavily imbued with 'socialist ideals' which gives them importance,(28) and their social experience as marginalized individuals.(29) They try to resolve this contradiction through the ritual of għana, where the attention bestowed upon them as well as the cosmic quality of the ritual momentarily irons out the contradiction. At the same time they try to escape their social status in a limited way by becoming virtuosos. Thus they 'show' that in spite of their 'low' origins they are more clever than those who are placed above them socially - an interesting reversal over Bloch's theory of ritual (e.g. 1986) in that a ritual in traditional guise is used to subvert official ideology. To become virtuosos however, they must break the egalitarian ethos of their community and distinguish and distance themselves from the other għannejja, their 'fellows'. Since they cannot actually effect an inversal of their social status however, more emphasis is given to the competitive aspect of għana, in a Sisyphus-like attempt to transcend their status. And in this manner, the 'myth' keeps being retold and recreated.

In concluding, it may be said that in għana the għannejja take a stance. What Herzfeld said of the Glendiots can just as easily be said of the għannejja: 'The self is not presented within everyday life so much as in front of it' (1985: 11). It is now possible to see the deeper existential importance of the preoccupation with singing ability and why this is so closely intertwined with personal honour. It is a common Mediterranean theme that the rhetoric of honour is the rhetoric of the weak, of those who have nothing else to back their claims with, nothing else to stake but their selves.

This article was written four years ago and has hardly been modified. It was presented as an M.Phil. thesis at the University of Cambridge and bears the creases of writings of its kind (many other marks were removed by Paul Sant Cassia at the time of writing and for this I am grateful). Fieldwork was carried out over a total period of nine weeks in 1989 and was funded by grants from the British Council and King's College, Cambridge.

Although the article refers to them in the present tense some għannejja have since died. Also, the appreciative attention given għana by the middle classes has increased dramatically and, in dialectical fashion, the typical content of għana is changing as are its representatives. It has transpired that my article describes an era which is passing.

Introduction | The different genres of Għana | The Evolution of Għana | Għana as ritual
Għana, honour and 'folklore' | Conclusion | Notes | References