This fascinating short documentary, by filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam, tells the story of a small group of Sri Lankans of African descent and their attempts to “keep their culture alive in the face of falling numbers.”  According to Arunasalam, “… “historians say that the Kaffirs of Sri Lanka started arriving from the eastern shores of Africa in the 1500s with the Portuguese, and later in more waves with the different colonizers of Sri Lanka”

Kaffir is a racist slur used by whites towards blacks in Southern Africa (it was also in wide use among whites in the West in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century).  It also means unbeliever in Arabic, so some people may be surprised about the group’s name.