Facing NW Goonewardena’s Racist Comments

NW Goonewardena= Comment in Thuppahi  at THIS ITEM ……………………………. https://thuppahis.com/2018/09/13/anagarika-dharmapala-in-search-of-a-rounded-evaluation/

GET LOST YOU SOB, MICHAEL ROBERTS, THE PRODUCT OF A ONE NIGHT STAND BETWEEN A AFRICAN SOLDIER STATIONED IN SRI LANKA, AND A SRI LANKAN HARLET. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO SEND YOUR SHIT TO ME. I LEFT YOUR SHIT BLOG ALMOST AS SOON AS I CAME IN TO IT BECAUSE IT IS EVIDENT TO ANYONE THAT YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A SOCIAL PARASITE SUFFERING FROM A DEEP INFERIORITY COMPLEX. NOTE THAT EVEN AFTER 30 YEARS OF SERVICE IN UNIVERSITIES, MOSTLY AT ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY, THIS REPULSIVE PARASITE COULD NOT MAKE IT PAST THE GRADE OF SENIOR LECTURER. THIS PIECE OF SHIT SHOULD BE MADE PERSONAE NONGRATIA TO SRI LANKA. A IDIOT WHO WRITES “RESEARCH PAPERS” BASED ON AN INTERACTION OF AN AUSTRALIAN FIELDER ON THE BOUNDARY LINE AND TWO SRI LANKAN SPECTATORS!!! HIS SO-CALLED “RESEARCH ARTICLES” HAVE A BIBLIOGRAPHY CONSISTING OF 75% OF HIS OWN WRITING. A PARASITE, AN INFERIOR BEING, AND A CLOWN – THAT SUMS UP THIS UNFORTUNATE BIRTH OF AN ILLEGI5IMATE CHILD.

When “NW GOONEWARDENA” injected THIS highly abusive comment alluding to my supposed ancestry in a Comment within the Website that I run, several friends suggested that I should not respond and that I should delete the pejorative comment. That suggestion is well-meaning, but I have decided against such a course.

I am proceeding, here, to present the RACIALLY-PREJUDICED COMMENT as the frontispiece item.

It is, thereafter, framed by (A) commentary from other friends that mark the set of stark Sinhala racist prejudices that clearly distinguish Goonewardena’s thinking; and by (B) providing a clarification of the partial African strands in my ancestry via a father born and bred in Barbados.

That I begin course A with the scathing and incisive critique of Goonewardena penned by a friend named Jane Russell: a set of contentions that is both educational and meaningful. Jane is an English lady historian with a Peradeniya University doctorate who has chosen to settle in Sri Lanka. The lines of her critique are WHAT MATTERS.

CLUSTER A

A1 = Email Note dated 24 August 2025 from Jane Russell

Hi Michael,

Thank you for sending this diatribe. It is significant in indicating how much racist hatred still disfigures the mental states of some Sri Lankans.

This is someone who is riven by schizophrenia perhaps with elements of paranoia That is evidenced by the sole use of capital letters, a total lack of punctuation and the violent language, wholly distanced from facts. This is language meant to invoke rage in the receiver because the sender is so convulsed with hatred that they wish only to create a scenario that will lead to physical violence.  This person has clearly lost their humanity and wishes only to have an excuse to destroy life. The four great Buddhist virtues of the Brahma vihara, ie Muditha, Karuna, Metta and Upekha, have been thrown to the bin. Anagarika Dharmapala had some kind of excuse for his virulence — not a reason of course because in this aspect, Dharmapala had lost his reason — but an excuse in that he was operating in an environment of colonialism where the power lay with British imperialists and their  favoured groups, ie Christians. But this person has no excuse whatever and most definitely has lost his reason ie his upekha or equanimity. He should be or is in Angoda.  (I presume it is a man but it could also be an equally twisted woman, though that seems less likely). Either way, one is moved to pity such a person, alienated as they are from their humanity by such dreadful neuroses. Fortunately, this person does not have Dharmapala’s influence on society.

I’m sorry you have to be the object of this person’s insane ramblings. You are not a psychiatrist who is trained to handle the transferences of a victim of madness.  But at least you are a ‘wise old owl ‘of the Sri Lankan adage and know how to cope.

warmest regards, Jane

A2 = Email Note from Errol Fernando in Melbourne, August 2025

Thank you, Michael,

You have pondered on this gentleman’s words in far greater depth than I have.  And so, you have observed and detected matters such as purity in birth and implicit caste consciousness. Sadly, I am guilty of giving him no more than a passing glance.

However, as an English teacher of 12 to 18-year-olds for 50 years I was slightly unimpressed with your writer’s spelling. He has used words such as ILLEGISIMATE, NONGRATIA and HARLET which do not appear in my dictionary. You have also made a study of his exposed orifices which, presumably, you have found to be quite fascinating.

I owe him an apology for not paying more attention to his scholarly affirmations. You, however, seem impressed by his enlightened and perspicacious views on marriage. You may also perceive for him a career in the priesthood where Good Christians could flock to sit under his pulpit.

Enough said, and may I now wish you well,

A3: Email Note from Tommy Fernando in UK, 24 August 2025

Mike

Your alleged heritage is interestingly presented, and a sign of the hysterical comment that follows.

Tommy

A4: Email Note from Anishka Arseculeratne, 24 August 2025

Dear Michael,

I am so sorry you have received this abusive email. Some people are nasty and worth avoiding. Please ignore and carry on with your life.

Wishing you all the best,

Anishka

A5: Email Note from Pauline Gunewardene in Sydney, 24 August 2025

Omg! Less said the better Michael.

There are people, and then there are people!

A6: Email Note from Chandra R. De Silva, 24 August 2025

If you disagree with someone’s ideas and analyses you should be able to counter them with rational arguments. Personal insults are mostly a reflection on those who make such insults.

A7: Email Note from John Rogers in USA, 24 August 2025

I agree with CR. Michael: you should erase the comment on Thuppahis.

A8: Email Note  from Errol Fernando in Melbourne, 24 August 2025

With innumerable people on your mailing list, dear Michael, it is inevitable that there will be some variety in the responses. How boring if everyone responded the same way!  If one in a million comes up with a different view, simply read, shrug shoulders and put it out of mind.

A9: Email Note from  DariniRajasingham-Senanayake,  25 August  2025

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C: The Roberts  Biographical  Ancestry

My pater was named Thomas Webb  Roberts and was born in Barbados  in 1881 to middle class Black African parents who had the wherewithal to send their son to the elite Harrison College in an era where that colonial island was dominated by the White Barbadian personnel. TW proved bright enough to secure a scholarship to Hertford  College  in Oxford University. Thereafter he secured a  post in  the British colonial order in 1901 —  no mean feat. He  opted to serve in the island of Ceylon and thus became a member of the Ceylon Civil Service from 1901 till he retired  in  1935 or so. His  English wife bore him numerous children, but succumbed to disease in Colombo circa 1922. TW then married a Sri Lankan lady  from Matara, one Miriam Perera (whose mother was a Bastiansz and thus brought a Burgher side to our family).

TW and Miriam on their wedding day

My pater’s  last post was Galle and he loved the place – thereby choosing to settle in the Fort within Galle when he retired. I was born in a rented house in Pedlar Street in the Fort in 1938.

Our sense of ethnic identity within the family was therefore quite distinct: given patronomic weightage, we were Barbadian (or “Bajan” as  the West Indians would say). But that identity had no roots in Sri Lanka then — so that our ethnic identity was odd bod; metaphorically speaking, we were neither flesh nor  fowl. When aged eight or nine I have a vivid memory of a schoolboy at St Aloysius (a Muslim Moor I think) asking me “What are You”. I recall that I did not answer. In my mind I was just a “Roberts” ….  and I certainly did not consider myself Burgher. Neither did my sisters. Indeed, none of the Burghers in Galle would have considered us Burgher.

But consider the wider island setting ……..

For ONE:  there were quite a few lineages in Sri Lanka named “Roberts.” These families were either “Burgher” or “Eurasian” in the terminology deployed in Ceylon/Sri Lanka [noting here that one of the Ratnajinendra lineages — Sinhala of  the Navandanna caste  in lineage roots — took on the name  of “Roberts”  as they consolidated their socio-political position in the early 20th century. It is probably as a Burgher that the authoress Karen Roberts [now alas passed away] is widely known in  the international  literary world.

For ANOTHER:  this meant that my name marked me as Burgher to those unfamiliar with our  family history. Most Sri Lankans would have considered me to be a Burgher — even though I did not see myself as one. Earlson Forbes in Sydney, a friend from Peradeniya University days in the late 1950s, was openly stunned when I informed a small cluster of ‘good Sri Lankans’ that I was NOT Burgher. He exclaimed  “I always  thought you were  Burgher.”

But, then, he was not of Galle!

What I am underlining here is the distinctly ODD-BOD position I and my family  occupied in the  Ceylon/Sri Lankan socio-political firmament.

AND …. YES …. the Barbadian (aka “Bajun”) lineage roots via my father makes me a Kaberi of sorts.

THE  KABERI: this label does not figure prominently in the census statisics of British Ceylon, independent Ceylon or independent Sri Lanka as far as I know. However, in  the course of their colonial conquests from the 16th century onwards the Portuguese, Dutch and British had significant clusters of  African troops and other personnel in their service. These people are identified in the literature as either “Kaffir” or “Kaberi” (also  spelt, more  correctly, as Kaaberi).

It  will now be my task to  delve into the historical literature with the aid of  other researchers and  expand on our knowledge of the Black African personnel and their impact on the island  and its people. TPS has already placed several items on this topic, including essays by Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya [see below]; but Goonewardena’s  racist reaction is now spurring me to delve further into the historical records so as to widen and consolidate our stock of knowledge.

Hodi Heleyi! Heleyi-Yaah! 

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A  LIMITED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nan: “About the Portuguese Burghers  and Kaffirs,” 7 November 2017, https://thuppahis.com/2017/11/07/about-the-portuguese-burghers-and-kaffirs/

Michael Roberts: “About  the Kaberiin Colonial Ceylonand the fort of Galle,” 24 February 2021, https://thuppahis.com/2021/02/24/about-the-kaberi-in-colonial-ceilao-and-the-fort-of-galle/

Shihan De Silva Jayasuriya: “The  Sri Lankan Kaffrinhaas Embodiment of African-Asian Hybridity,” 11 March  2021, https://thuppahis.com/2021/03/11/the-sri-lankan-kaffrinha-as-embodiment-of-african-asian-hybridity/

Dishan Joseph: “Kaffir Traditions: Vibrant Traces at Sirambiyadi  off Puttalam,” 29 January  2022, https://thuppahis.com/2022/01/29/kaffir-traditions-vibrant-traces-at-sirambiyadi-off-puttalam/

Michael Roberts: “The Kaffir in Sri Lanka: A Partial Bibliography from Thuppahi,” 31 October  2022, https://thuppahis.com/2022/10/31/the-kaffir-in-sri-lanka-a-partial-bibliography-from-thuppahi/