Musings:

The dark continent - so far, so near

by Padma Edirisinghe

It was in a pathetic posture that this writer, a pig tailed schoolgirl then, first saw that large continent which hung on a blackboard in a classroom by the sea. Yet, there were mitigating factors such as relief provided by patches of brilliant colours spread haphazardly on it. What did these patches denote?

Proud proclamations that these terrains were conquered by European nations at different times subsequent to the much flaunted voyages of discovery. That is trumpeting land robbery.

The history teacher, Lobo herself left over here by the Portuguese in a phase of past eternity, sounded and looked proud of the triumphal feats of her forefathers, the victorious nations - the yellow standing for Belgium controlled land, green for German holdings and blue for British conquests...so on and so on. Then she emitted a girlish giggle and then made a remark, inexplicable to many a student, that the whole adventure depicted here has been named THE RAPE OF AFRICA. The more mature students understanding the term aped Lobo's giggle but the more dense ones just stared blank at the multi coloured patches.

Memories

The human mind does not store for long, everything it acquires. So this Africa that hung on the blackboard too melted away from my memory till a book I read recently brought back memories. The strange factor is that the book was not on Africa but on Sri Lankan heritage but it touched on the dark continent too focusing on her role as a cradle of human civilisation.

Before going on, it is relevant to mention that a part of Africa lies immobile just past Puttalam, in a village called Sella Kandal. I came across it initially in an enchanting tale by the famous writer, Dr. R. L. Brohier. A writer uses his liberty to encompass into his orbit any distant unit too. That is how Brohier proceeds from Colombo to far off Puttalam.

The Kaffirs of Sella Kandal too were travellers or made to travel by the colonial masters. While the Portuguese are linked in certain ways to the origin of that miserable species called slaves, that is a taint on human civilisation, they were also responsible for uprooting them from their original settlements in Madagascar and adjacent places in East Africa. The Dutch who came over to Asia next, employed them in varied capacities in their new colonies as Java and Ceylon. City of Colombo founded by imperialists around the harbour was simply oozing with their labour till they were expelled to a separate island, i.e. the slave island, an ignominious term for an island indeed.

Population

After Colombo capitulated to the British they did not know what to do with the multitude of Kaffirs seething all over the fort. Some were made 'runners' carrying mail but not all, for pigeons too were busy with this job and then came the mail coaches. So a horde of them were sent to guard the forts on the north west coast which explains the Kaffir settlements around Puttalam for when the forts were dismantled the guards and their families dispersed around. The writer happened to visit them in the 1980 decade and found them in a sorry state. Most of them even at that time were melting into the cauldron of the general population.

They had once spoken Creole Portuguese but now only one lady, a great grandmother speaks it. Others speak Tamil or Sinhala with a lot of Ingreesi words thrown in. Poultry abounds in their humble abodes, while some families literally live with chicks and cackling hens and grunting pigs.

Like in the instance of the map of the rape of Africa, I forgot all about the village of Sella kandal that I had visited with two of my three sons, about 30 years back.

To put it tersely Africa was forgotten again till I read the book on Sri Lankan heritage by Das Miriyagalla, a heritage elaborated with a global perspective. Africa comes to the limelight here with surprising data on it, which is presented herewith in summary form.

Here is the author himself.

Ancestors

"Remains of ancient human beings and their ancestors show that the earliest period of existence of man can be related to the findings made at archaeological sites in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, all veering towards East Africa. Physical anthropologists in general have accepted that crucial evolutionary steps which resulted in the evolution of humans from near - men up to the present level were taken in Africa."

The author quotes Hoffeker who is responsible for this striking statement,

'It was in Africa the main branch of the early ancestors ended up as man and broke away from the rest of the ancestors'.

As twilight changed to night, three of us stood fascinated on the coast watching the moon dip into the Indian ocean. The women and girls huddled together further on the coast and occasionally joined participants in a baila session while the rest of the males rowed their dinghies on the waters that rose ad fell to the rhythm of the tunes. They were all unaware that their ancestors had come from the springboard of that magnificent species named humans. But that had happened thousands of years ago. And humans do have a dim memory where such events are concerned. And even if remembered, there is no alternative to taking things for granted by the average man and woman. Only thinkers and writers and historians proceed further.