Racial Prejudice -3

Earlier in part 1 of the entry of On racial prejudice i had tried to trace as much as possible my ancestry, that of my Grandfather's as well as my father's side with the hope that someday more will be revealed if I ever find my time and way to Sri Lanka and take an even closer look at the place and the people. On my mother's side i have to take you to Medan, Sumatra in Indonesia in a small place called Deli.

"Deli is a 1,820 km² state in east Sumatra founded in 1630. A tributary kingdom from 1630 until 1814, the state became a sultanate in 1814 when acquiring independence from Sultanate of Siak.


The ruler of Aceh converted to Islam in the mid-15th century.^[1] The Sultanate of Aceh was founded by Ali Mughayat Syah, who began campaigns to extend his control over northern Sumatra in 1520.^[2] The sultan, Iskandar Muda expanded Aceh by conquest. In 1612 Deli was militarily defeated and annexed. Dutch intervention in 1861, of which resulted in contract with the Netherlands East Indies the following year, helped to recognise Deli's independence from Aceh and Siak."
                                                                              Wikipedia
It is said that my grandmother was of the royal blood of one of the many Sultans in the Medan,Sumatra region where my grandfather was travelling when he joined the 'Bangsawan Troup' as a backdrop artist in his younger days and my grandfather was no ordinary man, he must have been good looking,. he was an artist, a heavy drinker and perhaps even a womanizer just like his grandson. It was whispered that his drinking buddy was one of the Sultans who arranged to have him marry one of his cousins, my grandmother. My grandmother  for as long as I remebered her was an elegant fair skinned lady who was highly respected among the Malys in Sungai Pinang where I was born and raised. Every once a year there would be some strangers who would drop by all dressed different from the local Malays bearing gifts ranging from Indonesian bateks and some jewelries. We knew who they were but never truly found out the truth behind this mysterious visitations; it was all hush, hush.
My late uncle, the man who adopted made trip to Medan once and visited a few of the 'relatives' but not much was discussed upon his return on the subject as no one was interested or cared about our past further than the fact that my grandmother was from Indonesia. It was said that both my grandparents had to leave their homes when the Late President Soekarno came to power and had all the Indonesian Sultanates abolished and in a pogrom had all the rulers assassinated together with their close  families. I still have an auntie alive whose stories i go by mostly and an an uncle adopted by my grandfather alive who has no doubt about the fact to these claims and these are not people who are prone to telling tales just to upgrade their status as a matter of fact to get them to talk about these matters can be a challenge. But suffice to say that to me this is a better explanation than not having one at all about why my mother was born in Deli, Sumatra.
Why would a crazy Sinhalese Artist end up in Deli or Medan and married to an Indonesian lady only later to end up in the middle of nowhere place in Kampong Selut, Sungai Pinang right smack in the middle of a tidal swamp.? ( I have tried to do justice describing this in my past postings)  Why would the Penang Special Branch even in the old days would drop by  at the house every now and then to make sure all was well according to my uncle.These are questions perhaps I will never have any answers for in truth, and nor am I particularly concerned about, but it is good to know a little truth than none at all about where your roots lie. At least when I am dead and gone my children born of two American mothers and a Swiss will have some fun trying to make sense of who they are; at least their father's lineage and ancestry.
One evening while sitting around shooting the breeze with my buddies at the 'Pondok' one of the guys who claims to have good knowledge of the history of the'Nusantara Malays' claimed that the true Malays originated from Deli a small place near Medan in Sumatra. He did not know of my background then yet and so I had a good mind to claim myself as a true Malay as in Islam the mother's bloodline weighs more than that of the Father's; I kept my silence; I am not overly concern of being a true this or that but it is a matter of personal interest to seek the answers.
So I say to myself 'Not bad Bahari! now that you have convinced yourself of being of a royal bloodline and a true Malay what then? Make a movie! A movie about an artist whose life encompasses East and West then some?!"

The three Princes of Deli, Langkat and Serdang - Indonesia

One of my regrets in this matter is the fact that I never did sat and talk with my father about his past and family history; now that he is no more I feel what a great loss; I will never know if I have an uncle, an aunt or a cousin or nephews and nieces in Sri Lanka today. When my father passed away I was living in San Francisco and I received a letter from my eldest brother to announce the sad news ten days late. What he said in the the letter that I could not swallow was that with my father's passing away 'the Ceylonese chapter of our family history has come to an end.'; I still keep the letter.