Beyond the shouting and placards
Like walking through a fog not knowing what’s on the other side……..
Protesting is a civic right and Sri Lankans have the freedom to voice their opinion about the failings and shortcomings of their government. However, these past few weeks, as people took to the roads shouting for change brandishing placards, flags waving high, not many knew what to call out for or what the next steps forward for the country should be, other than asking the President to go home.
While she appreciated the protestors’ enthusiasm and spirit, activist Sachini Perera realised that there was a lack of information and knowledge at ground level. Having campaigned at local, regional and global levels on women’s issues over the past 14 years, she was used to being involved in protests where specific demands were clearly listed and called out for.
Intent: The audience at the first teach-out held at Independence Square. Pic by Sachini Perera
You do need the lightness that comes with the catchy tunes and funny slogans to keep going but at the same time non-partisan didn’t mean non-political so it felt important to make the protests a site for political education as well, Sachini notes.
“While there was enthusiasm and energy, I think if we also don’t have very specific demands, after a certain point you go back home and wonder what exactly it is you’re asking for. Then it felt as if there was a vacuum there around what our demands are and also around how we build our own knowledge about what these demands are and why,” Sachini says adding that it was this lacuna in educating people and sharing knowledge that led her to reach out on social media about the need to have teach-outs at the peripheries of people’s protests.
Historian Shamara Wettimuny responded to say she could speak at a teach-out on the history of protesting if Sachini knew anyone who was organising one. At the time, there weren’t any being organised but Sachini suggested that they should just go to an open space like Independence Square and start a conversation. Sachini also reached out to Luwie Ganeshathasan, a lawyer to speak on the executive presidency and the economic crisis. Fellow activist and friend, Hyshyama Hamin also got on board to help with logistics.
Thus, on April 6, the very first ‘Teach-out at the protest’ was organised in order to ‘create strategies to maintain momentum as well as build a collective political consciousness about this moment’. Around 100-200 people gathered to hear from the two speakers in the Independence Square building. In order to be inclusive, the sessions were conducted in English, Sinhala and with Tamil translation (this has continued to happen with participants stepping up generously to provide whispered translations when needed).
“So many different people came together to make it happen, from the queer community who joined after their protest at Lipton Circle to the Yellow for Democracy group who brought in their protest crowd. We went into it thinking, okay this is an experiment, we’ll see how it goes and depending on that, we will organise more sessions,” Sachini recalls. Now, they have had six teach-outs through April covering topics from history, politics and economics to ethnicity, violence, corruption, law and more, with speakers such as Kaushalya Perera, Andi Schubert, Umesh Moramudali, Kolin Peter and more. These have caused a ripple effect across the country with teach-outs being organised by different groups in different areas.
In a public space: A picture from the sixth teach-out at Independence Square. Pic by Nazly Ahmed
“I have to say that, at every session, we have learned new things about these issues and I think that helps because it gives you the knowledge to ask the right questions. Our speakers are communicating at different levels, to break down these issues because the audience ranges from children to adults and the elderly,” Sachini adds.
Asked what she hopes is achieved through these teach-outs she says that a lot of these discussions usually take place behind closed doors and by intentionally having the teach-outs in a public space open to anyone, no matter their age group or language, “we are democratising how we share knowledge and how we consume knowledge. The final intention is that there is some sort of cultural reset where this becomes a practice and this civic education gets intertwined into how we interact in everyday life.”
Serika Siriwardhana, 19, speaks on behalf of the Yellow for Democracy team - a youth organisation that was formed in view of the current situation in the country.
“When we initially organised the protests on April 4 it was a knee-jerk reaction to the government having imposed a curfew on the day that there was to be a huge protest at Independence Square. We saw a lot of engagement from the youth and we noticed at these protests that there was anger and frustration, but there was no direction to it,” she says adding that when Sachini organised the very first teach-out, it was clear that people wanted to learn.
It was thereafter that the Yellow for Democracy team themselves stepped up to organise teach-outs. “It should be both an expression of dissent, but also a platform through which information can be disseminated,” Serika says noting that the reason that Sri Lanka is in this situation is because of a lack of both education and political engagement amongst citizens as we opted for short-term benefits rather than long term solutions.
Their speakers have included former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Ambika Satkunanathan who looked at the history of impunity and Dr. Jayampathy Wickremaratne who expounded on understanding the 21st amendment to the Constitution.
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