” ‘A God cannot die’: Divergent narratives about the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” ‘by Giacomo Mantovan and Lola Guyot (Critique Internationale)

Giacomo Mantovan and Lola Guyot co-authored an article entitled ‘“A God Cannot Die”: Divergent Accounts of the Defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’. The article was published in the journal Critique internationale.

Summary

After waging a long war against the Sri Lankan government (1983-2009), raising high hopes of victory among combatants and activists in the Tamil diaspora, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were totally annihilated in 2009. Although they share the same objective, diaspora activists and ex-combatants in exile have developed very different narratives about this event. The former, on the one hand, gloss over the destruction of the armed movement and the death of its leader and play down the defeat by declaring that victory is within reach. The latter, on the other hand, give a detailed account of the annihilation of their organisation, as well as the ensuing collapse of their culture, their imagination, and their way of being in the world. In seeking to understand the reasons for these differences, this article examines the links between memory production and the mobilisation trajectories (demobilisation and remobilisation) of activists. The efforts of defeated actors to make sense of years of struggle, the experience of defeat, and political impotence are studied in light of their various political trajectories, between capitulation and attempts to resurrect the struggle.

source: Mantovan G. & L. Guyot, in Critique internationale, 101, n°4, 2023-12-01, p. 77-98

Exposition et une performance de VP. Vasuhan “Entre mémoires d’exil et rythmes solaires” organisé par Novi Collectif Invite Etni, le 28 mars à 20h, à Pantin

Entre mémoires d’exil et rythmes solaires, et pour fêter la haute saison qui revient à Metaxu, le samedi 28 mars s’annonce suspendu ! 

Au programme :

EXPO & PERFORMANCE : Nous aurons le plaisir d’accueillir l’artiste VP. Vasuhan (@vasuhan_paris) pour une exposition et une performance unique à 20h. Ses masques organiques, puisés dans les traditions populaires, explorent nos liens profonds entre culture et nature. 



SOUND LOVERS : Côté platines, le @novi_collectif, créateur de concerts et DJ sets à l’ambiance festive et conviviale autour de musiques comme le soukous, l’afrobeat et le zouk, transformera la péniche en salon tropical. Fidèles à l’esprit des fêtes familiales togolaises, il invitera Etni (@etnispirit) et son « Afromazonia House » pour un voyage entre musique homemade et percussions chamaniques. 

On se retrouve Place de la Pointe pour un samedi de foliiiiie !

Récap de votre soirée :
20h : Performance de VP. Vasuhan
19h – 2h : Exposition & DJ Set ETNI

Infos pratiques :
📍Metaxu, place de la Pointe, Pantin
📆 samedi 28 mars
🚇 Métro ligne 5 – arrêt Eglise de Pantin
🎟️ Lien en bio – GRATUIT

Conférences populaires 2024-2025 : Immigration et Interculturalité : Apports, clichés et folklorisation

Échange entre Ya-Han Chuang, sociologue et Delon Madavan, géographe, sur les migrations chinoises et tamoules en France et sur les spécificités des racismes qui touchent ces populations, de l’invisibilisation de ces communautés et de leur instrumentalisation à des fins politiques.

Mardi 8 avril à 19 h
Espace presse de la médiathèque du centre-ville de Ivry-sur-Seine (94). Entrée libre.

“A Letter To Lanka: Soil that Breaks, Soil that Binds” by by Ilakkiya Mariya Simon

We would like to share an article by Ilakkiya Mariya Simon about her documentary “A Letter To Lanka” and her reflection on the question of identity for a person from the second generation of an exiled family living in Norway.

to read the article

About “A Letter To Lanka” documentary

A Letter To Lanka moves between memories of the civil war to the present political turmoil during Aragalaya’s protests. Told through a poetic and personal journey of the filmmaker`s reconnection to land, soil and people, it invites the audiences into existential questions of belonging in a chaotic world. What does it mean to be at home in the world? What binds people together, and what can break them apart?

About Ilakkiya Mariya

Ilakkiya Mariya Simon has recently completed her Master of Visual Anthropology at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She holds a BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Bergen, where she founded The Ethnographic Film Club. Prior to getting into anthropology, she was a teacher and movement practitioner from different disciplines and arts. Her experiences with movement and her Sri Lankan ancestry are what underpins her anthropological interest exploring existential themes of home, belonging, identity, and the environment. Ilakkiya is passionate about her intimate and fragmented relationship to Sri Lanka.

“Essor et crise de la presse tamoule eelamiste à Paris” par Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan

Nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer la parution du livre, “Paris capitale polyphonique : Histoire de la presse réfugiée, exilée, immigrée”, Paris, Editions Atlande, 2025.

Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan ont rédigé un chapitre intitulé “Essor et crise de la presse tamoule eelamiste à Paris”, en s’appuyant sur l’exemple de l’hebdomadaire Eelamurusu (Les tambours de l’Eelam)

A propos de ce livre, Nicolas Pitsos, qui a coordonné cette publication collective, dit à juste titre : “Un antidote aux discours et réflexes xénophobes, un appel à une histoire citoyenne, inclusive et plurielle de la société française, un hommage aux héritages multiples de celles et ceux qui venant d’ailleurs, ont fait la richesse de la Ville Lumière et de sa presse ! “

 

“Mohammed Irshad’s story and the banality of violence in the Rajapaksa regime” by Niranjala Ariyawansha

“Minister Mervin Silva destroyed our entire family. I had no intention to leave this country. But, I would never return to this country. This is the world’s worst country in regard of the political culture. I never expect justice from this country” he says sentimentally.

“I reveal this after three years since I want none will face a similar fate in future. If I did this earlier, the Army officer who was beaten by Minister’s son Malaka Silva may not have said what he said.”

How many other Irshad’s must be there in our country?

Via http://groundviews.org/2013/11/05/mohammed-irshads-story-and-the-banality-of-violence-in-the-rajapaksa-regime/

source: Groundviews