Kaffirinha - the spurned folk art
Baila and kaffirinha are forms of dance and music that conceptually
interlink and are often seen to be treated with implied condemnation by
the music elite. It is totally unsafe to mistake baila and the
kaffirinha for a specific variety of fast rhythm songs because baila is
a type of dance and kaffirinha is the music that is attuned to the
rhythm of that dancing.
It is well within the realm of possibility that baila and Kaffirinha
are forms of folk dance and music jointly created by Portuguese and the
cafre (Kapiri or Negroes) in Sri Lanka - a peculiar type of folk music
that enjoys a widespread popularity in certain areas in Sri Lanka. The
label of kaffirinha refers to a specific variety of music played by men
few decades previously in the city of Colombo and the outlying regions
to the accompaniment of violin, banjo guitar, viola, flat drum (rabana),
maracas and Spanish guitar. This term that had earned high popularity
some time ago, has now become almost outmoded and obsolescent because
the word baila has come to replace it grabbing its original meaning.
Kaffirinha, which traces its origin to Portuguese times, still remains
among small groups of people as a distinctive musical genre particularly
in Trincomalee, Puttalam, Negombo, Batticaloa, Chilaw, Puliankulam,
Galle, Wahakotte and Thambowagama.
A unique genre
The Sinhala Vishwakoshaya flatly defines the fusion of Kaffirinha and
baila as a type of fast musical dance that stimulates intoxicated men
and women in dance. The music and rhythm are well adjusted to the
dancers’ free movements, steps and gestures. It is possibly better to
say that these songs become ‘electrifying’ to the dancers with plenty of
twists of rhythm to keep the dancers on patterned succession of steps to
the last. This is to say that the lyrics, tune and rhythm of these songs
are imbued with a consciously youthful tone and a measure of sly humour
in certain points. The word Kaffirinha is made by adding ‘Cafre’ (a
Portuguese derivation meaning negroes) to ‘inha’ to denote a type of
music that is played in excellent accompaniment of baila dance which is
unsoundly understood to be a type of fast rhythm of songs. After the
exodus of the Portuguese, Kafirs and Sinhalese brought the Kaffirinha
through oral tradition by the name of baila composed in a combined
language of Sinhala and Portuguese! Most often, the language of
Kaffirinha and baila is far less charged with literary meaning as the
composers’ overriding concern has been to keep strictly to the rhythm,
melody and beat.
Kafirs in Sri Lanka
The Kafirs were bought and employed as slaves, hired labourers or
soldiers by Portuguese in Sri Lanka and, there were about 300 Kafirs in
the country at that time. The anthropologists identify Kafirs who belong
to the ethnic group of Negros of Africa as a popular tribe. Under
Portuguese and Dutch, they enjoyed a comfortable life and engaged in
minor occupations such as fanning government officials, cleaning,
cutting roads, or as watchman.
They are exceptional in their praiseworthy capacity to mingle well
with Sri Lankan communities and the marked tendency of nonintervention
in the cultural and political affairs of the country.
They were successful in merging into Sri Lankan surroundings and they
worked for the welfare of their limited community with strikingly
peculiar character traits.
They were widespread in slums in Trincomalee, Rajagiriya, Slave
Island (Kompanya - a Portuguese derivation), Mihintale, Ritigala and
Beli Atta during the dark epoch of World War the second. It is said that
by 1807, there was an army of 700 Negros (Kapiri) under English in
The birth certificate of a Kafir indicates him as a Ceylon Kafir in
ethnicity and Roman Catholic in religion. They could speak in Sinhala
and educate themselves in Sinhala or Tamil medium but they speak
fragmented Portuguese. Fun and frolic is the intrinsic passion for most
of the Kafirs from the child to the old man and at least a broken raban
drum or a similar instrument can easily be found in their slums.
They display a fine sense of fun and humour whenever they get
together at their own functions and virtually most Kafir youth have a
collection of Portuguese Kaffirinha songs. Typically they prepare
themselves for such parties at the darker stage of twilight with a large
bonfire, oil lamps and reed bags full of sweets and savoury food.
Playing a cock against the other (a cock fight) is an inevitable item
amidst music and dancing while some spectators savour drinks and food in
the moon lit night. Some popular Kaffirinha songs they sing are ‘Tirano
tinano’, ‘Nigrimba bassoe de mangera’, ‘Jua se manjua’, ‘Thera isthi
thera’, ‘Singali nona’, ‘Arabi chayaka lore’ and so forth.
The kafirs particularly in Puttalam view Baila and Kaffirinha
tradition to be as intertwined with wedding ceremonies as wine and cake
are. On the east coast of Batticaloa live Sri Lankan Burghers, the other
group of inheritors of Baila and Kaffirinha and the descendants from
Wedding ceremonies and birthday functions are the ideal occasions
where Burghers sing Kaffirinha and later sing Bailas they have heard on
radio or TV. Tamil Bailas too are there. Most of Kaffirinha and Baila in
Batticaloa bear the marks of recent composition and some are instantly
suggestive of melodies of old English favourites. In other instances,
they glorify Batticaloa by the song ‘Thara isthi thara’ which is vaguely
suggestive of the melody of M. S. Fernando’s ‘Rasa ahara kawala’ while
the melody of “We miga amortha baila” resembles that of “Mee wadayaki
jeewithe” by C. T. Fernando.
Sri Lankan maestros
B. S. Perera, a one time director of SLBC orchestra, composed novel
Baila tunes for the first time to be popularly influential in the years
to come. Subsequently the late Olynton Mervin Bastyan (Wally Bastian)
introduced some memorable Baila compositions and gave a new colour to
the modern trend of Baila tradition in Sri Lanka. He was an expert
guitarist and a top class Baila artiste who notably gained influence
over the successive generation of Baila singers.
His melodies reflect the impact of English melodies on him but he
managed to preserve the overall identity of Bailas and provided a
creative precedent for later Baila artists to follow. His memorable hits
include ‘Eirin josephin’, Nona mage nurse nona’, ‘Yaman bando’ ‘Nondi
simayya,’ ‘Muhude yamu masun maranna’ etc. While in police service, he
seems to have been adequately inspired by the western melodies played in
the March Past and has attractively used them in his own tunes. He sang
on varied themes and his lyrics exhibit a queer linguistic combination
of colloquial English and Sinhala.
A certain level of inspiration from Kaffirinha style remains explicit
in some creations of eminent musicians like W.D. Amaradeva. This
influence is noticeable in his film songs Pipi pipi renu natana and
Malin male renu ura’ etc. Other classic examples of Kaffirinha influence
over film songs are ‘Tharuna sithata mihira’ by Premasiri Khemadasa (Senasuma
Kothanada), ‘Puruthugisi Karaya’ by Sunil Santha (Sandeshaya). ‘Avilla
avilla Sinhala avurudda’ by M.K. Roksami (Deewarayo) ‘Wella simbina
Another prominent virtuoso in the Baila and Kaffirinha style is M.S.
Fernando who popularised the style to a greater extent and won the title
of ‘Baila (Kaffirinha) maestro.’ Elien Soiza, Anton Johns, Dhanapala
Udawaththa, Walter Fernando, P.L.A. Somapala, Saman de Silva and many
others were the foremost Sri Lankan vocalists who sang Kaffirinha (Baila)
songs and other songs which had elements immensely bore from the style
Simply because the style of Kaffirinha and Baila tradition originated
from Kaffirs in slavery and Portuguese soldiers, it has failed to match
up to the expectations by elite masses of music. Consequently the
lyrical tradition of Kaffirinha and Baila has not evolved as a literary
style and its tempo was limited only to the 6/8 beat that gave it a
shade of monotony.
It is simply spurned as a style of folk music. What adds to the
general condemnation of this music genre is its trend to be confined to
parties or festivities and to be used by men and women dancing on
At that, it is distressing to conclude that no adequate research has
been conducted into the positive aspects of this old but unique style of
music. Yet an eminent scholar, Prof. Sunil Ariyarathne successfully
coped with the mammoth challenge of exploring wider aspects of this
music style a few years previously.
The singers as he points out do not take responsible measures to
improve the quality of their compositions and proceed with the developed
quality of the style to have a powerful impact on the music lovers.
That is precisely why the authorities of television channels and
radio stations adopt a lethargic policy of broadcasting Kaffirinha
songs. As Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne points out, a better literary quality
should be injected to the lyrical structure of Kaffirinha.
“Mara nuthen fundu - minya veeda parthira
Roova nuthan laagu - minya morthe parleva
Amor ja fala - minya juntu to mure
jambaya pau resa - ela larga ja kure
Penthiya Kabelu - none mara konde grandi
Asethi noothen falo - loda minya sangi”
“The sea is not deep enough to sustain my life. The road is not wide
enough to take my dead body along. I told my lovergirl to live forever
with me. But she fled away before my poverty. O’lady comb your hair
Source: Sinhala Vishwakoshaya