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| Sunday, 22 January 2006 |
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The passing of Punchisingho Sunday Essay by Ajith Samaranayake
Wijesoma was how he signed his cartoons and that was how he became a by-word in the country. His ancestral name was Wijerupage Wijesoma, which itself in its Sinhala connotation is replete with symbolic meaning. But Wijesoma did not need any adornments. He was simply Wijesoma and simplicity was the man. The death of W. R. Wijesoma creates a sense of epochal loss for we have lost our last surviving political cartoonist. His death also brings to a close the last line of Sri Lanka's great political cartoonists. Aubrey Collette, G. S. Fernando, Mark Gerreyn, Jiffrey Yoonoos and Amitha Abeysekera, all went before him. Wijesoma was the last and his death closes a cycle. To be sure there is a new generation of cartoonists who have come up on the shoulders of these greats and it is up to them to carry the torch forward. There are perhaps two eras in Sri Lanka's history of political cartooning. One was dominated by the gargantuan figure of Collette and the other by the small made Wijesoma. But both were giants in their own way, but their ways were different. Collette who started life as a teacher of art at Royal College came into his own as the political cartoonist of the 'Observer' during the editorship of Tarzie Vitachchi. Collette, Vitachchi and E. M. W. Joseph, better known as 'Sooty Banda', made a formidable combination in the 'Observer' during the halcyon 1950s but this was a time when the upper and upper middle classes of Colombo dominated the political and social landscape and although Tarzie Vitachchi may have laughed at the Bambalawatte boys, the outlook of those who ran things at the time was necessarily elitist and brahminical. Collette's creation was 'Citizen Perera', the slightly down-at-heel middle class citizen wearing a full suit as it was called at the time in popular parlance. Cecil Wickramanayake made a whole column of Perera's travails but in Wijesoma's hand the middle class Citizen Perera wearing his rather shabby full suit was transformed into 'Punchisingho'. In contrast to Citizen Perera. Punchisingho only wore a cloth and as he was ground down by worsening economic circumstances his cloth had to be patched up and became increasingly decimated. All those who knew Wijesoma also knew that this was a self-caricature but again the style was the man. By portraying himself as the downtrodden small man he captured the imagination of generations of small people. The other most significant characteristics of Wijesoma's long and outstanding career was that he was able to function as a political cartoonist in both Sinhala and English with equal acceptance. This too was due to both his bilingual education as well and his genius for tapping the heartbeats of the people. Again the style was the man for Wijesoma could move with equal ease in any circle. Whether is was a national day reception at the US embassy or a humble wedding of an office employee, he was equally charming. His great fame he wore lightly and adopted a philosophical attitude towards life. Wijesoma was no mere cartoonist. He was also an artist in the classical tradition of line drawing who could create a whole landscape and make it pulse with energy. In that sense too he holds his own with all the world's great political cartoonists. Wijesoma who started his life at the old "Times of Ceylon', truly came into his own as the political cartoonist of the 'Observer' during the editorship of the late Denzil Pieris. This was in 1967-68 when the irrepressible Denzil Pieris made a foray into the 'Times of Ceylon' and recruited such talents as the late M. E. Sourjah, Wijesoma and B. H. S. Jayewardene to his editorial team. Apart from the political cartoon in the 'Observer', Wijesoma also drew a pocket cartoon titled 'What a life'. As a political cartoonist Wijesoma was fiercely protective of his independence and integrity. As a cartoonist in the old 'Times of Ceylon', Lake House and Upali Newspapers, he served under different managements and saw various governments rise and fall, heads being crowned and others tottering in the dust. He chronicled the saga of a whole era and yesterday as we bade him goodbye we were also witnesses to the passing of one of the last great men in this country. |
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