Category Archives: Afro-Asians

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. Continue reading

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Topsy-Turvy Cricket ….. Lords …. Bridgetown

Michael Roberts 

It was a privilege to witness (on TV) much of the coruscating contest between England and India in their Third Test, held at Lord’s, with both sides displaying admirable determination and high levels of skill.

And then we read that the West Indies collapsed for no less than 27 runs in the face of devastating pace-bowling from Starc and Boland. The West Indian cricket fans must be deeply dismayed.

YES! …. just 27 runs ….. a shipwreck of an innings ….. one that will haunt the Caribbean peoples for a long-time. The fact that the Aussies struggled in their second innings and were all out for 12 runs, however, indicates how treacherous the pitch had become.

We will never know how the Aussies would have fared on that treacherous pitch; but that is an issue we must keep in mind.

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Kissing Frolics at Peradeniya University: Now …. & Then

News item:- Daily News, 20th March 2023:  “No Bar to kiss at Peradeniya” .…  Suranga Dilhan, Gampola Corr.

“Peradeniya University is a place filled with love and there is no prohibition for kissing at the university premises,” Peradeniya University Vice Chancellor Prof. M. D. Lamawansa and Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Terrance Mudiyith said.

 

 

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A Konkani Baila that Crosses the Indian Seas

This lively presentation was sent to me as a venture of “Batticaloa Burghers singing in three languages”. But digital commentary indicates that the words are (mostly?) Konkani … and raises questions as to where exactly this lively collective was located when they sang. SEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=munAPKRQ0nk So, that means we are definitely in Thuppahi territory! Ole! Ole! Hai Hoyi! ………. Thuppahi. 

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Portuguese Creole in Sri Lanka: Faint Traces & Remnants

Dr Hugo Cardoso, a linguist from the University of Lisbon and his team who have been researching this historical language spoken in the East of Sri Lanka have now taken to social media to preserve this fast fading heritage.

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Introducing Siva and His Artwork

Gayaat http://isrilankan.com/ …on 6 March 2021

Siva is an artist,  survivor, citizen and a human most extraordinary.  His work is a testimony to how the human mind with artistic expression can transcend the violence of war, the other myriad constraints and negotiations that await the unsuspecting human and the navigation of pain and moving beyond. 

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Kaffir Traditions: Vibrant Traces at Sirambiyadi off Puttalam

Dishan Joseph, in Daily News, 20 February 2021, with this title “A slice of Africa in Puttalam”

Most Sri Lankans in Colombo city would have caught a glimpse of robust women, of African descent dancing to pulsating drumbeats. We have applauded the performances of the African Manja group. But have we truly understood their origins, displacement and hardships hidden behind their smiles. I firmly believe that after their generations have lived here for 500 years, they too are very much Sri Lankan.

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Presenting the Portuguese Burghers of Sri Lanka: Today and Yesterday

Earl Barthelot, in Ceylon Digest, 22 February 2020, where the title reads The Portuguese Burghers of Ceylon”

Sri Lanka is well known for its diversity with over 22 numerically small communities and majority communities such as Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. Burgher community is one of the numerically small communities. Large proportions of the Burghers do live in the Batticaloa District and a small proportion live both in Trincomalee and Ampara District. At the same time there are Portuguese Burghers living in all parts of the country in small numbers.

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The Sri Lankan Kaffrinha as Embodiment of African-Asian Hybridity

Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, providing an Abstract of her article  Africa in South Asia: Hybridity in Sri Lankan Kaffrinha”

As public spaces become arenas to display cultural memories, Afro-descendants in South Asia become more visible. Emerging local histories further complement the trajectories of Africans and facilitate recognition of Afro-descendants.  In my paper “Africa in South Asia: hybridity in Sri Lankan Kaffrinha” published in South Asian History and Culture (2020).  I explore connections between Africa and Asia through a genre of music and dance called kaffrinha which enriched the colonial Sri Lankan culturescape and, continues in the postcolonial. In the absence of historical records of kaffrinha for centuries, I have explored alternative narratives – song texts, music scores, dance movements, paintings and frescoes in order to map the dynamics of kaffrinha.

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Remembering Indian Ocean Slavery through Film: Afro-Sri Lankan Memories

Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya

Whilst the transatlantic slave trade has overwhelmed the historiography of Africa, the forced easterly movement of Africans is only receiving scholarly attention in the twenty first century.  Movement of Africans from the Continent is not characterised by the slave trade alone.  Not surprisingly, free Africans moved eastwards as missionaries, soldiers, sailors and traders.  Forced migration was concurrent with free migration.

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