My Comments on IRCHSS-2015

ỌNỤKWUBE ALEX ALFRED ANEDO (PhD)

NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA

FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN & ASIAN STUDIES

Email: onunedoal@yahoo.comalexanedo@yahoo.com

+2348037859249; +2348149225739

In fact, I do not know how to reflect on my experiences in Sri Lanka. I do not know where to start and where to stop. It was really amazing and interesting. First of all, when I was telling a Chinese Director of Confucius Institute in NnamdiAzikiwe University, Nigeria where I work, that I would be attending an International Conference in Sri Lanka, he seemed to discourage me saying that Sri Lanka was a poor country engulfed with long time crises. Of course, he said other things which space may not permit me to relate. However, what interested me first, was to meet my dear friend, DrGaminiRanasinghe with whom I studied in Xiamen, China and not the distractions from the Chinese guy. I also intended to expose some practices of Igbo people to Sri Lankans who I felt, might have similar culture with us as I have witnessed in China in their tying of wrapper which we also do.  Nevertheless, my fear before departing Nigeria was prevalence of natural disaster which I thought, did happen in Sri Lanka as in other Asian nations.

 Having this fear, I was surprised to have seen a different thing.  I saw that Sri Lanka from the areas that I visited has level fertile land like Nigeria. To our surprise, my friend and I witnessed a warm welcome from DrGaminiRanasinghe and friend at the Airport. 

They came with a bus to carry our luggage and a pleasure car to take us to the University. Immediately we got to DrGamini’s residence, took shower, changed our clothes, Gamini and a friend of his treated us to a dinner party where we tasted nice Sri Lankan menus.

Weloved that.  I want to say that before the dinner, they had taken us to Sri Lankan network provider, the Diaolog which earlier welcome us immediately we switched our mobiles on. There, we registered with them to enable us communicate with our families.

By the second day, 2^nd December, 2015, so many friends of Gamini who have heard the news that we were in town, started requesting him to take us to them as their quests. I can recall how the former Vice Chancellor of University of Sri Jeyawardenapura, entertained us in his house. I saw humility in the man so highly placed in the society. He took us round his humble and simple but great compound showing us his rich Medicare garden. I personally enjoyed it because as a Medical Anthropologist, I am interested in collecting and preserving traditional medical barks, roots and leaves of trees and herbs. So, we gained a wealth of experience from the Professor.

From the Former Vice Chancellor’s house, we visited a couple who were so kind and humble. This couple who was a friend to DrGaminiRanasinghe entertained us till we were tired of eating. They really surprised us. They immediately took us as their own brother and sister. Now, I must say without mincing words that DrGamini is a very nice man and we pray that he will never lack anything good. Could you imagine that though too busy with the activities of the conference, DrGamini, still had time to take care of us? DrGamini never missed getting up as early as possible, to prepare hot tea and then rice with cocoanut for us. The surprising thing is that, I do not know, he thought that we have come to eat and nothing but eat, eat and eat. He never allowed us to rest without bringing something to eat. For this attitude of his, we nicknamed him, “killer” and jokingly asked him, not to kill us with food. DrGamini was and still is a wonderful friend I have made in Sri Lanka.

So, what am I trying to say? Early in the morning of 3^rd December, the day of the Conference, DrGamini woke up, prepared our tea and later rice. As a hardworking guy, after eating, he left us behind so as to get to the conference venue for necessary preparations and later came back to the house to pick us.

I must commend the organizers of the conference for adhering to the time schedule because before we could get to the venue, everything was ready. Registration started accordingly and the ladies on table were all minding their duties. I listened to the Keynote Presenter, Prof Laura from Australia and found him and his speech very amazing. It is quite rare to see person delivering a keynote address of such lent without a paper to look on. He really amazed me. However, one thing I will like the Government and people of Sri Lanka which I heard people said at the conference and I later experienced, was inability of most students of the University to understand English language. No matter how bad British might have treated Sri Lankans in the past, it should not be a reason to deny the young ones access to outside World. This is because; not being able to speak and understand English is an automatic impediment to relating with other peoples of the Globe. The Government of Sri Lanka should do something urgently.

I am saying this out of experience. I could recall that during our stay in Sri Lanka, so many people wanted to interact with us and know more about us but they could not because of language barrier. Could you imagine that a student, whom DrGamini asked to take us to the bank and to the marked because he travelled, could not find it easy to interact with us even when we needed his interaction most? I really pitied Aruna, the student who helped us got money from the bank and made our purchases because he was handicapped linguistically. This was also the case with the little beautiful school children who wanted to talk with us.

As for the conduct of the conference, it was generally good. The Organizers did fine. The University community was good. In fact, from my judgment, Sri Lankans are nice people. They are really hospitable, treating foreigners as their own. I think, that is the way humanity should be all over the Globe. If so, our world will be at peace. I only wish that I may have the opportunity to spend my Sabbatical leave in Sri Lanka so as to have more study about them.

I have started telling good stories about the people and environment. I was telling some of my friends back home that we were fed four times on conference day and they could not believe it. Some who have travelled for an International conference confessed that they did not experience such treatment. Of course, the foods were good. I really had wonderful experience in the feeding. Almost in every meal, there must be cocoanut. The cocoanut source of course, was nice. I will not forget the wonderful performances of the students and or members of staff that entertained the quests in the night. They performed wonderfully well.  

The Galle Forte visit was a wonderful experience too. It was when we got to the sea side where the Portuguese, Netherlands and or British had man-made cave where they used to keep both human beings and ammunitions that I came to know that man’s inhumanity to man in the pre-independence time, was not meted only to Africans by the so called Colonial masters. I really pitied humanity especially, the Africans and the Asians who still suffer the same thing till date. After my visit to Galle Forte, I said to myself that Africans and Asians need reparation from the West who maltreated them.

Anyway, apart from such an ugly experience, our visit to Galle Forte was really educating and interesting. I saw a flying individual who could fly from a high rock into the sea.

A very risky venture! That was nice entertainment which the Government should look into and takes care of those individuals organizing the entertainment and makes their activities, a source of revenue. I must say that the journey was worthwhile. We really enjoyed ourselves especially at the beach.

I want to thank the organizers and their kind gesture.