Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of

Sounding the Indian Ocean: Musical Circulations in the Afro-Asiatic Seascape

“…While Sinhala people are the ethnic majority of Sri Lanka, constituting roughly 75 percent of the population, the island is home to significant Tamil and Muslim minorities and smaller groups such as Burghers who trace their ancestry to Portugal, Holland, and other parts of Europe (Kumari Campbell 2005) and Afro-Sri Lankans, also known as Kaffirs, 3 whose presence on the island stems largely-though not exclusively-from the slave trade from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries (Jayasuriya 2005). The highly iconic and catchy style of music, Sri Lankan baila, developed mainly from the interaction between these ethnic groups particularly with Portuguese Burgher káfriinha (Ariyaratne 2001;White-Radhakrishnan 2021;Sheeran 1998Sheeran , 2004). 4 Baila is the most popular music genre on the island in terms of record sales and is recognized in India 5 and other parts of South Asia.…”

“…Scholarship on Sri Lankan baila has increasingly focused on these historic intercultural processes (Sheeran 1998(Sheeran , 2004) and more rigorously explored links between the genre and its related forms. These include Portuguese Burgher káfriinha and Afro-Sri Lankan music (Ariyaratne 2001), which has become quite a popular form of cultural performance in recent times.…”

“…Despite also having a Portuguese association, the term bailasphere, being associated by etymology rather than identity and place, foregrounds the diverse cultural convergences, be they African, Asian, Portuguese, or from elsewhere in Europe, and cross-cultural processes without being defined by one or more of them. 8 Descriptions of Sri Lankan baila as variously Portuguese, Afro-Portuguese (Jayasuriya 2014) or Afro-Iberian (Sheeran 2004) are examples of this kind of definitional straitjacketing. While such descriptors are not inaccurate in their identification of the major cultural influences, they are somewhat limiting in that they erase the other layers of influence and the processes.…”

“…For example, they bring together influences associated with African music, including syncopation and hemiola, largely Asian vocal styles, melodic influences and performance contexts, and largely European-derived diatonic melodies based on primary chord structures or dance formations (Kartomi 1997Sarkissian 1995;Kabir 2021). Yet the interculturality of these forms often contrasts with past and contemporary understandings and attitudes shaped by the racial legacies of colonialism (Sheeran 2004;cf. Radano and Bohlman 2000).…”

Káfriinha, Kaffringha, and the Bailasphere—Sri Lanka and Beyond

“…While Sinhala people are the ethnic majority of Sri Lanka, constituting roughly 75 percent of the population, the island is home to significant Tamil and Muslim minorities and smaller groups such as Burghers who trace their ancestry to Portugal, Holland, and other parts of Europe (Kumari Campbell 2005) and Afro-Sri Lankans, also known as Kaffirs, 3 whose presence on the island stems largely-though not exclusively-from the slave trade from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries (Jayasuriya 2005). The highly iconic and catchy style of music, Sri Lankan baila, developed mainly from the interaction between these ethnic groups particularly with Portuguese Burgher káfriinha (Ariyaratne 2001;White-Radhakrishnan 2021;Sheeran 1998Sheeran , 2004). 4 Baila is the most popular music genre on the island in terms of record sales and is recognized in India 5 and other parts of South Asia.…”