Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya: African identity in Asia: cultural effects of forced migration

Abstract

In Artificial Intelligence research, we have been familiar with sponsors favouring work on particular topics, to the exclusion of others. We have seen research leaders making use of external events to make the case for a major investment in their specialist area. When the waves die down, and calm returns, we try to evaluate what has been gained from a particular programme. Often we may conclude, when reviewing the state of the art (Ennals 1987) that other promising lines of research have been neglected. Historians can tell a similar story. In the years before 2007, the bicentenary of the British Parliament’s abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807, there was a ready made readership for histories of slavery. There was a predetermined official script in the UK, with a focus on the heroic efforts of Wilberforce, persuading Members of Parliament to change their votes, and making an irreversible change in the moral climate. Some writers took different perspectives, either offering a revisionist account of Wilberforce, or highlighting the extent to which British economic prosperity and social stratification were linked to slavery and the slave trade. Human Rights campaigners took the opportunity to raise awareness of forms of modern slavery, such as trafficking women for sex. Others again chose a central theme of control and participation, and identified ongoing issues in working life (Ennals 2007). ‘‘African Identity in Asia: Cultural Effects of Forced Migration’’ comes as a breath of fresh air. Rather than illustrating a single ‘‘black and white’’ story, based on the Atlantic Ocean, with Europeans cast as villains, transporting millions of Africans to the New World as slaves, Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya introduces a more complex and nuanced drama. As she argues: