Egypt recognises Malta’s ‘grande figure’

Manuel Dimech (1860–1921) continues to be gradually recognised beyond the ideological and regional confines which so marked his initial diffusion. Much work has gone into this challenging process. His adoption in the Maltese Islands by just one side of the political spectrum, and his perception by some scholars as a mere local somebody—both highly damaging and unbecoming to Dimech’s fitting appreciation—are beginning to give way to a wider and richer awareness. The latest development is proof of this.

A massive, 434-page book in French issued in Alexandria, Egypt, by the Centre d’Études Alexandrines recognises Dimech as ‘une grande figure de Malte’ (an illustrious Maltese personality) in one of its essays. The book (pictured left), Alexandrie dans la Première Guerre mondiale (Alexandria in the First World War), is part of the ‘Alexandrie Moderne’ series directed by Dr Marie-Dominique Nenna. It is edited by Dr Jean-Yves Empereur, and carries contributions by various authors. The parts dealing with Dimech are composed by Cécile Shaalan, an academic within Egypt’s Ministry of Culture specialised in topography and cartography.

The official launching of the book took place in Paris and in Alexandria around November and December 2018 respectively to mark the 100th anniversary from the end of WWI. Both launchings were accompanied by exhibitions displaying archival documents, postcards, photographs, and press cuttings, related to life in Alexandria during the First World War, including its foreign soldiers and its war prisoners. The exhibitions were developed by Egypt’s Centre for Alexandrian Studies with the participation of the Senghor University, and presented by the French Institute of Egypt in Alexandria.

The organisers’ interest in Dimech arose from his exile and imprisonment in Alexandria and Ciaro between 1914 and 1921. Thousands of other prisoners from the Central Powers were kept there during the war. Dimech died at Alexandria’s Victoria College, converted into a hospital during hostilities, on 17 April 1921.

The essay written by Cécile Shaalan identifies Dimech’s circumstances as ‘an atypical case’ (un cas atypique). Her extensive research on the Allies’ refugee and prisoner/internee camps and medical facilities of Alexandria goes in the minutiae of their exact location, structure, populations, regime, and life-span.

The camps for military prisoners and civilian internees, she submits, appeared in Alexandria at the end of 1914. The inmates were mainly Turkish, German, and Austro-Hungarian, but then a large number of refugees from Palestine and Syria were also brought over. Evolving according to the flow of their population, these temporary structures occupied the many free spaces of the city in full development, and of its surroundings east and west, and changed its physiognomy for more than six years.

According to Shaalan, Dimech was part of no known grouping of prisoners and/or internees in any of the camps he was held in. ‘He did not integrate with any community,’ she notes, ‘and there were no compatriots among the detainees’ (p. 74). His case, she reckons, was ‘atypique’ because he was held in POW camps without ever being a prisoner of war.

Dimech was held at the three POW camps in all. First at Ras el-Tin (Alexandria) between January and May 1915, then at Kasir el-Nil (Cairo) between January 1917 and December 1918, and finally at Sidi Bishr (Alexandria) between December 1918 and December 1920, when, mortally ill, he was transferred to the Victoria College hospital, run by Indians, until his death. Alternatively, Shaalan speculates that Dimech’s last stop could have been the Mhow Indian General Hospital, also at Sidi Bishr, which was active until at least May 1921 (p. 73).

This is an intriguing suggestion which might possibly be pursued further. It goes along the incessant research concerning Dimech. For sure, this first-class publication produced by Egyptian academics may contribute in many ways. For instance, its section on the medical facilities at Alexandria during the First World War, and on the camps where Dimech was held, could yield some useful information on Dimech’s conditions and whereabouts. Also, the section on Alexandrian cemeteries and burial sites during the same period might yet produce valueable information on Dimech. To this day we are still uncertain where, precisely, Dimech had been buried in Alexandria.

The new publication comes with a host of period photographs, snapshots, maps, postcards, and prints, including some of or from the camps in which Dimech was held for over six years. All are very interesting.

In the book Dimech is accorded a small portion of his own. No other of the thousands of prisoners held in Alexandria during the First World War has been allotted quite as much. This in itself is most significant. For it again highlights, this time on the reliable authority of Egyptian experts pursuing high scientific standards of contemporary research, how unreasonably and brutally Dimech had been treated. Unreasonably, brutally, and illegally. For, after 1918, marital law having been rescinded in Malta, his exile and imprisonment were no longer legitimate.

This is why he is signalled out in this notable book, and the main reason why his case is deemed ‘atypique’. Cécile Shaalan fully recognises this. In the portion dedicated to Dimech she gives an overview of his peregrinations through the Egyptian POW camps, a view on the pretext (of being a spy of the Germans) which got him exiled, and an assessment on his state of mind in the camps. All of this is given almost telegraphically, though poignantly.

Anyone interested in Dimechian studies cannot but welcome this impressive Egyptian hard-bound volume issued by an esteemed academic institution such as the Centre for Alexandrian Studies. The fact that Manuel Dimech was included in it on the Centre’s own initiative, and furthermore favoured for special consideration, goes a long way towards reminding us all how off beam it is to discount his personality and relevance, as some in Malta and Gozo persist in doing.

Indeed, more must be done to raise Dimech over partisan politics, and accentuate his status as a genuine symbol of the entire nation. Even the local government seems to be lukewarm in this respect. The fact that, despite its pledges, it continues to drag its heels in designating as a national monument Dimech’s place of birth in Valletta is a case in point.

Though beginning to be known far and wide, here in our own midst Dimech still seems to be fated to ambivalence. This cannot be right.

This article appeared on The Times of Malta on Wednesday, 10 April, 2019, p. 16.

Għal verżjoni bil-Malti ta' dan l-artiklu, agħfas hawnhekk.

For more information in English on the life and times of Dimech: