You can be the media (if you want to)

Not too long ago, in these columns, I wrote about one of the most courageous human beings I’ve ever met: Geronimo Ja Jiga Pratt, one of the longest serving political prisoners in the United States of America. He served 27 years on trumped up charges. Tony, a friend from my days in the University of Southern California, a fellow dropout, (dare I say?) fellow-poet, a wanderer along word paths and moonlight-trace, and a remarkably well informed citizen of that country, had a comment.

‘Saw him speak at a rally in South Central LA years ago and the one thing that did strike me was the conspicuous lack of bitterness in his voice. But, just as a constant affirmation of how disreputable the US media is, not to mention the ‘un-justice’ system at large, it is still incredible that our glossy propaganda still works highly effectively on its intended objects, which includes passive observers, well-intentioned activists (and celebrities) and its actual administrators.

‘Talk to an average, young, formally educated African American today about Pratt’s false imprisonment (or even mainstream cats like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, for that matter) and the invariably dismissive attitudes speak volumes to the effectiveness of the continuing marginalization of ‘dissenting voices.’ Only now, the attack is carried out via the corporate funded and managed entertainment culture. Our politics has been effectively trivialized by the likes of American Idol and various other reality TV shows. Turning off the television (Kill Your TV!) and growing our own (organic) food, especially if it’s by way of urban guerrilla gardening (breaking up the concrete, seed bombing, etc), are two beginning counter-establishment and revolutionary measures that everyday people can use to stem the tide of an ever-present dystopian society and world.’

Spot on, as they say in the USA. The seedier side of that country rarely gets aired and doesn’t find itself into the mainstream movies which go a long way in constructing our perceptions of that country. I know of people who were told by friends when they set off to the USA for studies to be careful of black people. The misinformation industry is so effective that we still refer to that country as ‘America’, when in fact that name is applicable to two continents, stretching from Argentina to the northern most point in Canada.

Clubs in that country, when they win a trophy offered for a given sport, are routinely called ‘World Champions’. Most schoolchildren cannot mark the USA on a world map and that’s possibly because they are conditioned to think that ‘World’ and ‘America’ (yes, without the US part of the name) are synonyms or at least that the USA is such a power that other parts don’t and cannot count.

This is a country where political prisoners face multiple-decade jail terms. Judicial unfairness, get-tough-on-crime policies, guilty-until-proven-innocent mentalities, defense incompetence, racism and xenophobia (that country happily incarcerated thousands upon thousands of its own citizens because they were either born in or had ancestors in Japan - their ‘German’ counterparts were spared however) are hardly ever talked about by the holier-than-thou ladies and gentlemen in the US media industry, so ready to vilify anyone and everyone opposed to how Uncle Sam goes about doing business.

I’ve said this before but it needs to be said again. And again. The US prison-industrial complex is said to be one of that country’s fastest growing businesses and one which includes a private gulag, prisons for profit, with corporations running dozens of facilities housing tens of thousands of prisoners. The Wall Street Journal, no less, reveals that “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colours.”

There are over 2.4 million prisoners held in various facilities, at least 15 percent of that number estimated to be wrongfully convicted. I was surprised to learn that US prisons produce 100 percent of US military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. They also supply 98 percent of equipment assembly services, 93 percent of paints and paintbrushes, 92 percent of stove assemblies, 46 percent of body armour, 36 percent of home appliances, 30 percent of headphones, microphones and speakers, 21 percent of office furniture, and much more.

Bad news, friends, is made for under-the-carpet shoving. I mean, the really, really bad news. Bad news that embarrass but can be diverted into the accounts of individuals and not collectives or systems does get aired and perhaps this is why the wide-eyed about and in the USA believe that it is a functioning and vibrant democracy. It remains, however, as bad as it was when Malcolm X famously opined in the early sixties: ‘US democracy is actually hypocrisy and as for the “American Dream”, it is in reality a nightmare’.

Is this a USA-disease, though? Tony’s comment is valid for other parts of the world as well, other ‘democracies’ and ‘sunshine places’. There is a reason why pickpockets and pickpocketing make the headlines but corporate crooks and crookedness rarely does. The latter have the bucks and connections; they boost the advertising revenue of those who might undress them and routinely fund political campaigns to make sure they have adequate cover by way of political insurance.

The truth comes channelled, if it ever does. If we are not alert or critical, we would take things at face value, not realizing that half-baked is the standard. I return again and again to that brilliant tagline of the radical communications outfit Indy Media, which came into prominent during the anti-WTO protests in November 1999: Be the media.

We are all communicators. We pass information around. We absorb information. We reflect and synthesize. We might as well go about it seriously. We might as well pinch ‘given’ truth, dig deeper than expected of us, break silence and shout, and if that’s too loud for comfort, whisper!

If you are not willing to read between the lines and still want to be informed, you can stop buying newspapers. The same goes for television and radio. You don’t have to ruin the pavement if it unsettles aesthetic sensitivity, but you can most certainly grow things in your garden or apartment, for there is ‘Guerilla Gardening’ and ‘Urban Agriculture’ too. You can ‘google’, and if you are smart you’ll realize that search engines are also structured mechanisms for misinformation. You can therefore ‘scroll down’, or go to the 6th ‘o’ in goooooogle or even further away from ‘main page’. Being the media is hard work. It is fun, though. I would say ‘probably necessary’ in this Age of Communications.

[first published in the 'Daily News' on June 28, 2011]

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Reggie Candappa advertised life

Reggie Candappa died almost 15 years ago. I had interviewed him a year before that for the Sunday Island. He came up in a conversation last evening and I looked up the article. This is it. Advertisements enthrall me. The high quality ones as well as those that are ridiculous humour me and give my the kicks that help suffer social processes that are hard to celebrate. Advertisements are also revealing of social process in that they are a powerful medium of ideology dissemination.

I love windows and to the extent that they constitute a window into the minds of those who play with our minds, I have become an avid consumer of advertisements and a conscious bypasser of their subjects, i.e., the largely unnecessary products we are told to purchase.

Times have changed and the changing times have sent that creative breed called advertisers in new directions, not all of which can be celebrated. Today politicians contract advertisers to alter their suspect images and produce veritable cherubs for the voters to cuddle. Multinationals and their agents use them to push their agendas down the throats of the people they seek to plunder. Advertising campaigns are no longer limited to make popular a simple product or a brand name. Advertisers, therefore, have my respect, though not necessarily my admiration.

Reggie Candappa, by all accounts, is a special name in the advertising field. After all he is the Chairman of the leading advertising company in the country, Grant McCann-Erickson, among other things of course. At the ripe age of 82 he can certainly claim to have seen it all, from the early days of simple illustrations right up to the electronic age where drawing skills and word play have to be complemented by the ability to make thing dance on the computer. He had a story to tell, and as I found out, not just about his chosen field.

Reginald Sebastian Rodrigo Candappa was born in 1919 and was originally named Ragendra. His father, A. R. Candappa, a Colombo Chetty, a former Inspector of Police and a widower had at the age of 40 had one day gone to the Kelaniya temple with the vidanaarachchi... There he had met a 16 year old girl, Kalubowila Arachchige Dona Alice, who had come to offer flowers at the temple. The vidanaarachchi had been requested to make inquiries and Candappa Snr. had ended up marrying her, converting to Buddhism in the process. Tragedy struck, however, just three months after young Reggie was born. His father, a widower once again, is said to have checked the baby’s horoscope and had discovered that he was the cause of his mother’s death. The distraught man had wanted to give the child away.

"That Christmas, I was later told, there had been a party and a cousin of my father’s had come to play cards. I had been brought into the room and he had said ‘nice baby’. My step-sister had asked him ‘unkalta oneda meyava (do you want him)?’ and he had replied ‘yes’. Apparently he had been high at that point. A week later my step-sister is supposed to have made an appearance at his place in Kotahena carrying me. My uncle, John Cassie Chetty, a landed proprietor, living with his three brothers and sister, took me in. None of them knew how to raise a child, it had been like Snow White and the dwarfs. He had gone out and bought a cow so that I would have enough milk.

"Anyway, they showered me with love and affection, and gave me a good education. I was christened as Reginald, sent to St. Benedict’s and later to St. Joseph’s. I did not know my father until I was 12, when he came to see me, learning that I was sick."

Young Reggie had demonstrated early in life his latent talent for art. Apparently his talent was first recognised by J. P. de Fonseka, a teacher at St. Joseph’s and a famous literary figure of his day. It had been on Remembrance Day, November 11th, where the entire country had to observe two minutes of silence in memory of war heroes. Reggie had produced a sketch of a fat man on a wastepaper basket, smoking a cigarette hanging from a cigarette-holder with the words ‘Made in Japan’ written on it.
"Anything ‘Made in Japan’ was considered third rate at that time. I passed the sketch around the class and the entire class erupted in laughter. The teacher was naturally angry and demanded that the piece of paper be handed over."

Instead of being angry and punishing Reggie, Fonseka had laughed and wanted to know who had drawn it. He had said that Reggie possessed an extraordinary talent and gone on to talk about cartoons and cartoonists. Later that year, he had told the editor of the school magazine "Blue and White" to get Reggie to do the illustrations. He had also told Fr. Edmund Peiris about Reggie and that is how Reggie got to illustrate a series of text books authored by the priest.

"He wanted me to illustrate Aesop’s Fables, giving them a religious twist. He also wanted me to do the cover, suggesting that I have Christ standing on a moonstone, flanked by a boy and a girl and standing under a Kandyan arch. I hadn’t seen a moonstone nor a Kandyan arch, so he showed me Ananda Coomaraswamy’s ‘Medieval Sinhala Art’ and opened my world to Oriental Art."
Reggie warmly expressed his gratitude: "These teachers could have crushed me, and I would never have become what I am today. They had vision."

After the Matriculation exam, Reggie had set his sights on becoming an architect, since he did not see any scope in becoming an artist. He had joined the Technical College to study architecture. The courses had been at night, so he had attended art classes in the morning. While still a student, he had read an article in the Sunday Observer about one S. Shanmuganathan, an architect and a versatile man, and had been duly impressed. A couple of days later he had gone to Paiva’s Tea Room. As he parked his bike and looked up, he had seen a signboard with the words "S. Shanmuganathan, Architect".

Deciding that he must meet the man, Reggie had got some of his drawings and got an appointment. Shanmuganathan had said "I can give you a table, but no salary. You can work and learn here".
"He had a fabulous library, with books on typography, painters etc. I was soon doing posters, book covers etc., in addition to drawing plans."

The war intervened, naturally, and Reggie had moved with his family to Eheliyagoda. It was in Eheliyagoda that Reggie Candappa the Advertiser was really born. He had seen a classified ad calling for a free lance artist and had responded. He had then got a reply from the Managing Director of Swadeshi Industrial Works, who wanted him to get back to him with specimens of advertisements. Reggie, never having done advertisements before, had gone to Ratnapura and got copies of the Illustrated Weekly of India.

"I got some ideas and did some illustrations with Rani Sandalwood Soap. The Managing Director wanted 10 ads every month at Rs. 20 per ad. I was in clover!"

Later, when Swadeshi expanded, Reggie was doing 20-25 ads a month. When the war ended, Reggie decided to set up his own office, his dream being to have one like Shanmuganathan’s. His office was situated in Prince Street, near Swadeshi and he had about three or four artists working under him.
His initials, RSRC had become quite famous and he was getting calls from various companies. Once he had gone to Lake House to get a block made. There he had met Bernard de Silva who later became the Government Printer. Bernard had seen the ad that Reggie had designed and had asked for permission to show it to D. R. Wijewardena. Apparently Wijewardena had also been impressed and had asked Bernard to offer Reggie a job at Lake House as an artist.

"I said ‘no’, but became bosom pals with Bernard. Later, when the artist at Lake House had gone on leave, Bernard got me to do some art work. I was asked to do a crest of the Royal Air Force. I had to go to the Department of Information. I went with a note from Bernard to Anandatissa de Alwis. Anandatissa soon became a friend. I was already friends with Pieter Keuneman, Doreen Wickremesinghe and Sanmugathasan and was well versed in Marxism. In fact I illustrated cover designs for them. Anandatissa was in charge of the propaganda for the war effort and wanted me to help him. Later I helped him start a journal called "Lanka". I financed it and illustrated it."

Reggie showed me a bound copy of the magazine. Even the most casual perusal was enough to tell me that it was a top quality product. The magazine had failed because, according to Reggie, they didn’t know how to handle the finances. Apparently a friend who was in charge of finances had pocketed a fair amount of their income.

It was around this time that something happened which changed Reggie’s life and lifestyle forever. As is often the case, it had to do with love. Reggie had fallen for the daughter of a Gate Mudaliyar. Naturally, the family didn’t want their daughter having anything to do with an artist and certainly not with one who didn’t have a steady income. A situation that called for drastic measures, and Reggie being the flamboyant character he is, had taken up the challenge.

He had gone to court with a habeas corpus application. The girl, Therese Senadheera, had been 6 months short of her 21st birthday and the judge had postponed the case for six months. Her parents had tried to force her to marry someone else, so Reggie had to contemplate eloping with her.
"Anandatissa and Anton Wickramasinghe (later Chairman of the Film Corporation) took me to an astrologer, Prof. Sunder. He told me that astrology is not a supposition but an exact science and predicted that I would never marry the girl."

The young couple had eloped, but Reggie was faced with a big problem. He didn’t have a place to take her to since all his friends were single, living with their parents. Anton had said he would speak with Prof. Sunder, who had agreed to let them stay at his place. About his prediction, Prof. Sunder had said "I knew all the problems, so I wanted to save you all the trouble".

Trouble was putting it mildly. The girl’s father had complained to Reggie’s family and they had threatened to cut him off. Naturally they were disappointed with him.

"I didn’t have a car, my wife’s family had cut her off too, so I told her that we will have to use bus. One day, on our way to see a film at the Regal, some drunks got into the bus and someone vomited all over. My wife refused to go by bus after that, so I bought two bikes for us. It was a disgrace for a Gate Mudaliyar to have his daughter riding a bike! Her father gave our marriage just 6 months, but we were together until six months ago, when she died.

"Things were bad, so I called up Bernard and told him I am interested in getting a job. He got me an appointment with D. R. Wijewardena, who interviewed me for two hours. I asked for a salary of Rs. 350 a month and settled for 300, which was quite good since the editor of the Daily News was getting only 500."

Reggie joined Lake House in 1946 and remained there for 12 years. "It was a great opening for me. I was trained in printing, print production, wrote articles, drew political cartoons, and illustrated the Sunday Observer. I became famous, and ended up with four desks, in the Advertising Department, Art Department, Engraving Department and the lithographic Department."

Six months after he got married, Reggie had been contacted by the propaganda officer of the Department of Commerce and Industry, who wanted him to do some slides. He was paid 500 rupees for the work and promptly bought a car for Rs. 1,500, which he had driven up and down the road in front of his father-in-law’s house!

Things had improved thereafter. His wife also got a job at Lake House, working for the Navayugaya. Around 1957, the American Embassy had offered the Lake House a scholarship for a journalist. Reggie had been nominated since the management wanted to give it to a working journalist. "They didn’t want to be seen as having been bought over by the USA."

"The scholarship involved two semesters at North Western University, a month each at two workplaces and a month of travel within the USA. I opted to work for Time Life and Sunset, in California. But three weeks before I was due to leave, George Gomes, Managing Director of Lake House told me that Grant Advertising had wanted to open a branch here and asked him to recommend someone to head it. He had suggested me for the job. I asked him what would happen to my scholarship and he said I could use it. His argument was that advertising was going to be important in the future and that he wanted a friend to head this international agency.

"Grant Advertising was one of the 10 largest agencies and was based in Chicago. So instead of going to Time Life and Sunset, I thought I would work at Grant offices in Chicago and Hollywood. I went with my wife, stopping in countries where Grants had offices, getting a good overall view of the organisation. When I returned I held an exhibition of photographs titled ‘One World’, the theme being that people are the same everywhere in the world when it comes to their day to day engagements, their poverty, their laughter etc."

Grants had given him just a thousand dollars to start things in Colombo. "This included my salary, starting up costs, rent, legal fees etc. I started at home, on my dining table. I had contacts with all the business houses because of Lake House and managed to get a lot of business to Grants."

From that dining table, beginning as an employee, Reggie Candappa went on to own the company (which now only has a management contract with the parent organisation) with over 140 employees.

I asked him if he always thought like an advertiser. He said "in a way, yes". And yet, Reggie is certainly more than that. He is a painter, having held four one man exhibitions. In 1988 he was honoured with the "Kalapathy" award by the Ceylon Society of Arts, when it celebrated its centenary, for his contributions to art and culture. In 1993 he was conferred the national honour of "Deshabandu". He is also a trustee of the Ceylon Society of Arts as well as the George Keyt Foundation, the President of the Colombo Chetty Association, the President of the Community Concern Society, an organisation that rehabilitates poor children, and the Chairman of the Colombo Club, one of the oldest clubs in Asia, re-elected for the 10th time last December.

Reggie acknowledges that advertising as a field has undergone vast changes. "Back then, if you could write and draw, it was enough. Now you have to do research and be conversant with the technology and that is something that changes fast. This is why we have a division called ‘Strategic Planning’."

An amiable man and an excellent conversationalist whose anecdotes flow from one to another much like a series of images that helps enhance the marketability of a given product, Reggie is nevertheless someone who revels in a healthy work ethic. I asked him what gives him the drive to do all things he does, even at his age. "I want to excel. I have always been a versatile reader. I want to learn. Even now I am taking classes so that I can be up to date about the internet. It is these things that have kept me alive and keeps me abreast of things."

Listening to Reggie, it occurred to me that it is probable that the most creative among us are being sucked in by the advertising industry, perhaps because we have, as a society, by and large been consumed by the money ethic. Artistic genius, instead of focusing on bringing out the finer sensibilities of the human being is being channelled into enhancing the worth of a given product; instead of honing our critical faculties, enslaving us, shaping our tastes. That, after all, is the ultimate goal of any advertisement.

Reggie, a consumer himself (like us all), seems to have escaped from that unhappy prison for I found his remarks about politics and power to be extremely cogent. I could see how he would endear himself to all his friends. As a comrade in a political situation he would have been indispensable. Maybe the fact that he has lost nothing of his humanity even on that which I consider to be "the other side" in the broader division of ideological terrain, is enough. Maybe what is more important is not that he is an advertiser but that his life itself is an advertisement, for he advertises life, in all its colours, all its subtle nuances and delicate melodies.

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Provincial Councils, anyone?

The terms of the North-Central, Eastern and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils expired in September 2017 and those of the Central, Northern and Northwestern Provincial Councils will end this September.  As of now, there’s no sign that the Government is interested in holding these elections. 

Perhaps being decimated at the local government elections in February 2018 has made the Yahapalana bigwigs wary of facing the people. Perhaps they feel it’s best to wait for a winner-takes-much General Election of a winner-takes-even-more Presidential Election rather than risk another debacle that would take away whatever oomph is left in the regime, we don’t know for sure.  The government is sitting on the matter, that’s clear. 

The Chairman, Elections Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya is not pleased. He knows what’s happening. He has summoned representatives of political parties and told them that he had informed the Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faizer Mustapha not to delay the PC elections any longer, it is reported.  It is also reported that he had vowed ‘to take stern action’ if elections were postponed.  

Perhaps this ‘stern action’ includes taking the matter up in courts, we do not know.  In such an eventuality what the courts would determine we do not know either. I wouldn’t bet on either Deshapriya or the courts.  

The Yahapalanists are terrified of facing the people. This is clear. Those who want to oust the Yahapalanists, i.e. the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, don’t seem interested in provincial council elections either, but for different reasons. 

They have gauged the temper of the electorate. They can factor in a further decline in the popularity of this regime. They can do the relevant arithmetic. Perhaps they are confident that they are politically poised to capture power in a major election. ‘Why waste resources, then?’ they might have asked themselves. Makes sense. 

That, however, is politics as usual. More about power than about democracy. More about political fortunes than about basic principles.  We can talk about all relevant political forces being disinterested about the importance of holding elections on time. We can talk about how postponement costs those who do the postponing. Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the SLFP were swept out in 1977. J.R. Jayewardene and the UNP caused a bloodbath in the eighties. The Maithri-Ranil coalition were humiliated in February 2010. However, there’s a small matter than is being ignored in all this.

Chairman of the SLPP, Prof G.L. Peiris, put a finger on it.  He said ‘people would question the practical need for provincial councils if the government delayed elections to them any further.’  Well, it is not that the people have not had reason to question the practical need for provincial councils until now. After all they were thrust down the people’s throat by a belligerent neighbor with a salute and courtesy from a weak leader, J.R. Jayewardene.  Peiris’ observation, however, is interesting, not because it might make the people ask questions, but the near absolute silence on the part of diehard devolutionists about the implications of not holding provincial councils.

The North Central, Eastern and Sabaragamuwa provinces did not dissolve and disappear from the map of Sri Lanka in the 10 months that have passed since the relevant provincial councils ceased to function.  It is unlikely, also, that the Central,Northern and Northwestern provinces will collapse into utter chaos or that there will be rampant famine, war and such.  

The point is, these provinces are not worse off than they were when the relevant PCs were functioning. A study into the before and after of it all would probably reveal that there are other factors which impact the wellbeing of the people and the economy of the area, and that the PCs are in fact far less relevant than they are made out to be (e.g. warranting an invasion, the imposition of constitutional amendment).  

Now the argument can be made that effectiveness has been blunted by not implementing the 13th Amendment to the letter. However, the counter argument can be made if unnecessary medicine does nothing the remedy is not to prescribe a bigger dosage. 

The second and more telling point is that this delay in holding elections has not prompted any howls of protests from those who treat devolution as an article of faith. They are not the least bit bothered, it seems.  But why not?  

Have they dropped the conviction that devolution (plus) is a non-negotiable for reconciliation and peace? Have they found other income sources, those who considered devolution ranting their bread and butter? We don’t know.

However, when the previous regime held provincial council elections in a staggered manner, we did here the so-called civil society cry out in horror about democratic principles being violated. One can’t help imagining what they would have said had the previous regime postponed PC elections. It would not have been about democracy alone that they would have screamed. They would have tossed in devolution, reconciliation, majoritarianism and what not to spice up their agitational soup. 

So why, this silence?  Well, it looks like their thinking is shaped by the political logic of the Yahapalana government and in particular the UNP sections within it.   Is ‘Whatever Ranil says’ the framework within which they have to (or prefer to) operate? 

If they are not interested and if it doesn’t make any difference to the citizens (including those in the North and East), then why not scrap the 13th altogether? That’s where we are at.  The fortunes of parties and politicians do impact our lives, unfortunately, but if something positive were to come out of the postponement of provincial council elections, then let it be the acknowledgment that they really don’t matter. 

Let’s spell it out: a) provincial councils have no overwhelming impact to warrant their existence, b) the administrative apparatus despite flaws, delivered, c) no one is upset about elections not being held.  It’s time to take all this to the logical conclusion: repeal of the 13th. Less politicians to rob, less money wasted on bodies that do nothing of any serious consequences, a more healthy citizenry.  

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. malindasenevi@gmail.com. Twitter: malindasene. 

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Angampora: a tradition of combat, repository of history, an art of living

There is a man by the name of M.A. Jayasinghe currently living in Kalawana.  He’s old and is said to be the last known exponent of the Koti Netuma, or the dance of the Cheetah.  The Koti Netuma apparently is a dance form adapted from the Koti Adiya, a fighting technique that’s part of the seven styles based on the ways of animals, the others being Eth (Elephant) Sinha (Lion), Valas (Bear), Naga (Cobra), Ukus (Hawk) and Gurula (Phoenix).

All of them constitute just one element of a larger school of fighting, Angampora. These animal-techniques apparently were subversively transformed into dancing styles when on the 5th of October 1818, Angampora was banned by the British.  

Angampora is a discipline that is seeped in military philosophy, spirituality, and was the at the very foundation of Sri Lanka’s 2,300 years of independent rule. 

 The British decree to ban Angampora
came in the wake of the
Uva-Wellassa freedom fight in 1818. 

In the face of its outlawing in 1818, and active persecution of practitioners until Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948, Angampora’s deadly techniques and esoteric practices were transmitted to the present day through ingeniously concealing knowledge in many forms, which include dances and other exotic cultural performances.

The subversion took many forms. For example, the Kandy Perahera is a veritable repository of what may be called ‘Angampora Secrets’; the ves thattuwa or the ornamental decorations that adorn the dancers are but vestiges of the armour plates and relevant motifs used by the fighters.   What made such gear-switching possible was the fact that embedded in Amgampora was a lot of things that are not immediately associated with combat. There is medicine, meditation, human-creature relations, food and nutrition and of course a sense of place, history and purpose.  

Most of this is unknown.  There’s a six-page note in a book P.E.P. Deraniyagala wrote in the 1950s which covers the traditional games of Sri Lanka. It is brief and inaccurate, apparently, but points to another subversive move to preserve the form.  

The conscious explorer however could find enough evidence scattered around the island both in archaeological form and in oral history.  A keen eyed anthropologist on the other hand would find how it survived by adaptation, how it was hidden in dance and other art forms. Such an individual would no doubt piece things together even using cultural and social facets and practices.  

‘Angampora: a nation’s legacy in pictures’ does not claim to be an anthropological treatise. Yasas Ratnayake, who has been a mover and shaker from beginning to end of this particular ‘Angampora Project,’ said it all began in 2011. 

‘Reza Akram, a freelance photographer had seen a picture of some Angampora practioners posted by a friend, Fazil Rahman.  It led him to do a photo essay which was later picked up by Huffington Post. I got involved only after I returned to Sri Lanka after completing my studies in 2014.  

Reza is two years older than I; we’ve known each other through scouting. We wanted to do business together. He was looking for a project. All this led us to an Angampora practitioner in Fazil’s office who took us underground, so to speak!’

Why the Korathota Lineage of Angampora practitioners, I wondered, because today there are several ‘schools’ which claim to be ‘the true practitioners’. 

It was not a random selection. There are various schools and they were all thoroughly researched. The Korathota practitioners had stood out because they had the best complement of weaponry, solid documentation and their story was supported by evidence in the chronicles. 

The Korathota Lineage is from Kaduwela. By the way, that’s from the kadu hangapu wela or the field where swords were hidden.  They lay claim to 700 years of recorded history; the ‘Rajavaliya’ (Chronicle of the Kings) mentions names of the families and clans    

“Angampora: A Nation’s Legacy in Pictures” is written by Deshamanya Ajantha Mahanthaarachchi, photographed by Reza Akram, and published by Oceans and Continents. The book will be available for purchase at Rs.9,500 at the venue. Photography prints too will be available for purchase during the event. You can inquire by writing to the contact details below. The project has a prominent presence on multiple social media platforms, and can give viewers an insight into this long and eventful project.

‘We found that Deshamanya Dr Ajantha Mahanthaarachchi, the Angam Mohandiram and the heir of the Korathota lineage, had already written on the subject. It was text-intensive. There were tons of interesting and unique information gathered from over 10 years of research,’ Yasas said. 

Today, there are several families in the Korathota Lineage practicing the art. They even train Army, Air Force and Special Task Force squads. There are both women and men who are trained in this tradition even today.  They give life to the tradition no doubt, but a visual preservation of the art form can do no harm, certainly.

This is how they found that the art is evidenced in temple frescoes, ornaments, wood carvings, combs, pettagam (large caskets made of wood or metal), envelope knives and even medicine holders. Clearly Angampora motifs have been popular in decorating lots of consumer products. It was obviously not some secret underground thing, but was of and for the society it was born to, was nurtured by and which it protected.

‘In fact it’s there even in the Dalada Maligawa (the Sacred Temple of the Buddha’s Tooth Relic, Kandy). Inside the ranweta (the golden railing) on the ceiling there are lots of paintings.  Much of this is corroborated by historical information which speaks of two fighting school in the Kandyan Kingdom, the Sudaliya (probably dating back to the 15th Century) and the Maruwaliya (to the 15th or even before), both trained by the Korathota practitioners,’ to paraphrase Dr Mahanthaarachchi. 

Ethunu Kaduwa

The folk tradition is as rich. There are claims to connections with Ravana and pre-Vijayan history dating back 30,000 years.  There are stories that speak of Mahasammata Manu, Kataragama Mahasen and Tharaka. The art, they say, has kinship to the martial arts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, especially the Kalaripayattu where present day practitioners believe their art came from Parasurama, an incarnation of Vishnu.  

The ‘project’ took Yasas and Reza to Ellore in Maharashtra, a place which holds one of the only remaining early statues of Ravana.  The visit to South India was essentially to make the point that further research is necessary to establish which tradition is older, which fed the other and what kind of cross-fertilization there was, and of course to see how far back in time we should go to obtain the early history of Angampora.  The claim is that ‘Angam’ is a combat craft that is precursor to many a martial art in the world.

As for dating, the book claims that the unusual nomenclature for combat techniques indicates that it predates the Sinhala language and signifies ancient foundtions.  For example, the following: Ï Ahavala, Rakkha padhigäna herala, Rakkha sabalha herala, Rakkha yamara bandha, Rakkha rakkhäna herbal, Rakkha mora herala, Gassäkatha herala, Müsüla phala herala and Angängatha Herala.  

The book is the outcome of six years of intensive research and photography.  In the 436 pages and through more than 600 photographs, ‘the book aims to raise awareness internationally and locally about the last remaining vestiges of a colorful cultural legacy that shaped Sri Lankan society over the centuries.’  

The book showcases an exotic array of never-before-seen ancient artifacts including unbelievable weapons (the oldest in the book is a sword from 200 BC) including the ‘Ethunu Kaduwa which had up to 25 blades, six feet in length and which could be word as a belt.  There’s information about the importance of pressure points of nila. Apparently there are 108 such points on a human body. Pressure on certain points can turn someone blind and then there are time-based nila which can kill or heal a person in a week, a month or later. 

It speaks of fighting against and alongside animals. Then there’s Maya Angam or black magic and voodoo. All these as well as colorful and yet unseen cultural practices on the brink of extincion have been preserved faithfully through secret and unbroken warrior lineages, the book claims.

‘There were oils that could make one bullet proof, meditational techniques to improve vision and expand peripheral vision,’ the text explains. There are stories about drums and whips which make us think of military displays.  I would venture that after perusing these pages the Kandy Perahera would be seen very differently.  Of course there’s much more than all this in the book.

Angampora: A nation’s legacy in picture,’ then, speaks the long story of the tradition, those who developed the techniques, the art of weapon making, the forces that from the Yaksha clans that came to defend king and country in critical moments, the legendary commanders including women who were revered by their followers and feared by their foes, the ‘special forces of Rajasinghe the First (Illangakkaruwan) the sources from which information was garnered, and of course the battles from ‘the decisive battle at Mullériyäwa in the 16th Century, where the Portuguese invaders were decimated by the ruthless fighters of Räjasinghe (one of the finest testaments to the ferocity of the lethal delivery of the Angam craft’) to the rebellions in 1803, 1814, 1818 and 1848.

The project, which cost approximately 13 million rupees is a first of its kind. It is crowd-funded but sponsored by Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC (Heritage Sponsor), Sri Lanka Army, Brandix PLC, Sampath Bank PLC (Legacy Sponsors), Sri Lanka Air Force, Sri Lanka Navy (Patriot Sponsors), Siam City Cement Lanka (Pvt) Limited, and Q&E Advertising (Flag-Bearer Sponsors).

What ‘Oceans and Continents,’ a collective of creative professionals based in Colombo have done, along with one of the last heirs of Angampora’s cultural legacy, have done is historic.  It is as close to a visual anthropological text as we can get given constraints and will no doubt spur much needed research to complete the tapestry of the island’s colorful and yet deep story and thereby unearth clues to the resilience demonstrated even today, against both invader and tyrant. 

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Compensation for ex-LTTE cadres. Compensation??? We've already paid!!!!!

In the midst of the brouhaha over Rev Galabodaaththe Gnanasara Thero’s prison term and the unbridled triumphalism demonstrated by those who were ‘shocked’ when people expressed joy that terrorism had been defeated we have the less ‘sexy’ issue of compensating former combatants belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Minister of Rehabiitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs Deva Manoharan Swaminathan has once again submitted a memorandum to the cabinet seeking ‘enhanced compensation’ for ex-LTTE cadres.

Would that put an end to things?  Once it’s done (if it’s done), will all relevant groups and individuals who supported and support the likes of Swaminathan and Prabhakaran declare that they accept and affirm the unitary character of the state? Will they guarantee that there will be no more talk of separatism and that there will be no return to arms?  

Well, it is unfair to mix these things. No one can guarantee such things. These may be concerns, sure, but they need to be raised elsewhere and resolved in different ways. One can’t say ‘we will pay you and you, in return, shall acknowledge and seek forgiveness for all wrongs done, solemnly pledge to give up separatism and never to walk that path again.’  One can’t do that, because minds cannot be fettered and situations don’t remain static.  

We can get a better sense of all this if we address the following question: why compensate in the first place?

What is compensation, anyway? It is typically an amount of money awarded to someone in recognition of some kind of loss. Also, it is typically extracted from someone who has caused this ‘loss’.  

These ex-LTTE cadres have lost much, of this there can be no doubt. They’ve lost much or all of their youth, they have sacrificed opportunities to equip themselves with knowledge and skills that may have helped secure better life chances, they have perhaps been injured and lost a limb or eyesight or hearing, they may be damaged psychologically and so on.  Need we even go into the issue of ‘loss’ concerning parents, spouses and children of those cadres who laid down their lives for the cause they believed in?  

No, ‘loss’ is something we need not argue over.  What we must discuss however is why the state and of course the tax-payers should pocket out money to compensate for these losses. Well, those losses that can be measured, say, for we know that no money can bring back to life those who are gone forever.  Trauma on account of all that or even injury to mind and body and opportunities lost/squandered cannot be gauged; but then again, that’s not an argument for not addressing or helping in some way.

There is however, the vexed issue flowing from the ‘why?’ of it all.  

The narrative cannot be truncated to the conditions that the ‘aggrieved’ find themselves in. There is a past. There were things that were done and that doing did not exactly result in the overflowing of joy in those at the receiving end. 

Now one might say ‘they were freedom fighters.’  Fine.  Nothing wrong in using such labels.  The problem is that the ‘freedom fighters’ were not kindergarten boys and girls brandishing water pistols. They killed people and not all those they attacked were carrying guns. They killed people and thousands of those killed perished in acts of brutal terrorism.  If such people have suffered ‘loss’ (and they have, as we acknowledged), then they cannot really expect those who lives they were prepared to take to pay for it, surely?

Some kinds of ‘compensation’ don’t come with that label, let us not forget. That’s what reconciliation truly is, but again, that doesn’t come with a ‘reconciliation’ label either.  Consider the following:

These ex-terrorists (yes, let’s use the correct terminology here) are alive. They could have perished in battle. They could have swallowed the infamous cyanide capsules that their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran did not swallow. They could have joined the LTTE’s suicide squad and been ‘martyred’ while they ‘martyred’ hundreds of unarmed civilians.  They didn’t.  They are alive. Unlike their ‘comrades,’ shall we add?  For all the losses they engineered directly or by association, they’ve not had to pay. For he losses incurred along the way, well, let’s say they got enough to console.  The consolation prize of life is huge, under the circumstances.

Consider this also: they could be languishing in a prison (like people who did less, in places operated by the US military such as Guantanamo Bay). They are free. 

Consider this: unlike those who earn the wrath of militaries in the West for thinking differently and wielding arms, these boys and girls were accorded the opportunity to prepare and sit for exams, learn marketable skills and return to their respective communities. All the costs, let us not forget, were borne by the state.  That’s us, you and I and all of us. Tax-payers.  That’s not ‘compensation’ because the term is wrong; it implies a wrong done that’s being corrected. It’s not compensation, it’s generosity. It’s about forgive and forget. It’s reconciliation more real than anything that can be written in Geneva (i.e. the UNHRC recently described by the USA as a ‘cesspool’) and implemented here in Sri Lanka.  

Consider this: the state and the citizens of a third world country spent oodles of money to build hospitals, roads, schools and on other infrastructure and programs that directly or indirectly benefit these individuals whose ‘work’ was about destroying all that.  

Consider this: If these people who had dedicated their lives to kill and destroy are ‘compensated’ then it’s murder and destruction that’s being rewarded.  What a precedent! It would follow, then, that every individual who has committed any crime (and what greater crimes are there than murdering people?) such as pickpocketing, embezzling, cheating, injuring etc., etc., deserves ‘compensation’ too. 

Yes, their families should also be eligible for compensation for the trauma they have to suffer.  The citizens, including those who were short-changed in the process, have to pay to alleviate their sorrows.  

Compensation? We should should talk about it more. We should unravel the entire narrative. Those who killed, maimed and destroyed families, communities, infrastructure, livelihoods and landscapes can of course be remorseful. They can and should be forgiven.  All of that can be forgotten. We should put it all behind us and move on. This, however, is not the way, because it will re-open wounds, it will make victims remember what they are now ready to forget. It will not be compensation for what they suffered but a punishment bestowed upon them.  

If they are talking about ‘compensation’ then, we can say ‘we’ve already paid!’

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