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Telling Stories of Seas, Islands, and ShipsA Sri Lankan Malay Perspective

Telling Stories of Seas, Islands, and ShipsA Sri Lankan Malay Perspective This article considers the crossings, modes of mobility, and affiliations that have shaped forms and contexts of storytelling within a small yet culturally resilient diasporic community: the Sri Lankan Malays, whose forefathers were sent from across the Indonesian archipelago to colonial Ceylon (Sri Lanka), beginning in the late seventeenth century, as exiles, slaves, and soldiers. Two storytelling contexts set in mid-to late nineteenth-century British Ceylon are discussed: the first centers on the Qur’anic tale of the prophet Nuh (Noah) and his ark, typically viewed as representing an age-old Islamic tradition; the second, based on stories and reports in a Malay newspaper, signals the drive toward novelty, progress, and modernity. The article explores how both storytelling contexts, despite certain differences, converge on the shared themes of travel, water, and islands and can be understood as overlapping and complementing one another. Both contexts taken together highlight the ways different temporalities, affiliations, and allegiances were concurrently relevant for colonial subjects. The article thus challenges the tendency to reduce colonial subjects’ experiences to interactions and engagements with the ruling Europeans and suggests that storytelling practices illuminate greater nuance and complexity in how people lived their lives while inhabiting different spaces, temporalities, and relationships simultaneously. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions Duke University Press

Telling Stories of Seas, Islands, and ShipsA Sri Lankan Malay Perspective

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Copyright
Copyright 2021 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-8722862
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article considers the crossings, modes of mobility, and affiliations that have shaped forms and contexts of storytelling within a small yet culturally resilient diasporic community: the Sri Lankan Malays, whose forefathers were sent from across the Indonesian archipelago to colonial Ceylon (Sri Lanka), beginning in the late seventeenth century, as exiles, slaves, and soldiers. Two storytelling contexts set in mid-to late nineteenth-century British Ceylon are discussed: the first centers on the Qur’anic tale of the prophet Nuh (Noah) and his ark, typically viewed as representing an age-old Islamic tradition; the second, based on stories and reports in a Malay newspaper, signals the drive toward novelty, progress, and modernity. The article explores how both storytelling contexts, despite certain differences, converge on the shared themes of travel, water, and islands and can be understood as overlapping and complementing one another. Both contexts taken together highlight the ways different temporalities, affiliations, and allegiances were concurrently relevant for colonial subjects. The article thus challenges the tendency to reduce colonial subjects’ experiences to interactions and engagements with the ruling Europeans and suggests that storytelling practices illuminate greater nuance and complexity in how people lived their lives while inhabiting different spaces, temporalities, and relationships simultaneously.

Journal

positions – Duke University Press

Published: Feb 1, 2021

References

  • Tales of the Prophets and Misc. (19th Century)
    British Library
  • Our Sea of Islands
    Hau‘ofa, Epeli
  • Baba Ounus Saldin: An Account of a Malay Literary Savant of Sri Lanka, 1832–1906
    Hussainmiya, B. A.
  • Finding Java: Muslim Nomenclature of Insular Southeast Asia from Srivijaya to Snouck Hurgronje
    Laffan, Michael Tagliacozzo, Eric
  • The Malay World, Expanded: The World’s First Malay Newspaper, Colombo 1869
    Ricci, Ronit
  • Anthropology, Politics, and Place in Sri Lanka: South Asian Reflections from an Island Adrift
    Spencer, Jonathan
  • Sepucuk surat dari seorang bangsawan Gowa di tanah pembuangan (Ceylon)” (“A Letter from a Gowa Nobleman in Exile [Ceylon]
    Suryadi
  • The 1868 Arica Tsunami
    University of Southern California Tsunami Research Center
  • Tales of the Prophets and Misc. (19th Century)
    British Library
  • Our Sea of Islands
    Hau‘ofa, Epeli
  • Baba Ounus Saldin: An Account of a Malay Literary Savant of Sri Lanka, 1832–1906
    Hussainmiya, B. A.
  • Finding Java: Muslim Nomenclature of Insular Southeast Asia from Srivijaya to Snouck Hurgronje
    Laffan, Michael Tagliacozzo, Eric
  • The Malay World, Expanded: The World’s First Malay Newspaper, Colombo 1869
    Ricci, Ronit
  • Anthropology, Politics, and Place in Sri Lanka: South Asian Reflections from an Island Adrift
    Spencer, Jonathan
  • Sepucuk surat dari seorang bangsawan Gowa di tanah pembuangan (Ceylon)” (“A Letter from a Gowa Nobleman in Exile [Ceylon]
    Suryadi
  • The 1868 Arica Tsunami
    University of Southern California Tsunami Research Center