Features

A Godsend twice over and Louis Voumard, Victoria’s authority on property law

Published

4 years ago

2023/01/15

Excerpted from a Life in the Law by Nimal Wikramanayake

When I took up residence in Equity Chambers I would often visit my friends on the third floor. During my visits, I saw a little old man wearing a crumpled suit and he always had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. For a couple of months I would stop and chat to this little old man. I thought he was the caretaker and I felt extremely sorry for him because he looked so lost and lonely. A delightful little friendship slowly built up and whenever I went up to the third floor I would see this little old man pottering around in one of my friends’ rooms.

One day, out of the blue, he looked at me and said, “My boy, I don’t think we’ve been introduced to each other.” I stuck my hand out and said, “I am Nimal Wikramanayake.” With a twinkle in his eye the old man said, “I am Louis Voumard.”

In 1973, property law work and conveyancing were the bread and butter of every solicitor in Victoria before successive governments in their wisdom decided to take conveyancing work away from solicitors and hand it to conveyancers. What an absolute travesty of justice!

Louis Voumard was the leader in the property field and his name was a household word in Australia. He was the son of Swiss migrants who had settled in Shepparton. They ran a milk bar. Their son was born in 1898 and they sent him down to Melbourne to study Law. He had an inauspicious beginning in the legal profession.

In the mid 1930s he had a bright idea. He would write a book on “The Sale of Land” and become an expert in property law. He devoured T Cyprian Williams’ classic work A Treatise On the Law of Vendor and Purchaser of Real Estate in more ways than one. He took large quantities of Cyprian Williams’ book and incorporated it into his work. He called his work Voumard: The Sale of Land in Victoria and it was published in 1939. This work was, I believe, one of the first of its kind in Australia and was soon called “The Bible”

I looked aghast at him and said, “You are Louis Voumard? The great Louis Voumard?”

The little old man smiled, his eyes twinkled and he said, “Yes’ I spluttered. “The great Louis Voumard?”

His eyes twinkled again and he said, “Yes, my boy.”

That was the beginning of a short but magnificent friendship. He was the only one in this great country of ours who gave me a helping hand. Over the next few months I would spend every single afternoon in his room, when I was not, on rare occasions, in court. He was always hard at work. When I walked into his room, he would look up at me with that gentle smile of his and say, “My boy, have you brought your fee with you?” and I would reply, “Can I put it on the slate?” and he would laughingly say, “Yes.”

We would then sit down and discuss art, music, politics and philosophy. This was not only refreshing but stimulating, because my conversation with my Australian barrister friends was limited to Aussie Rules football, which I knew nothing about, and cricket.

Louis was the most unusual man I have ever met. At that time he had a rival, Keith Aiken QC. Voumard never forgot his humble country roots and was known – even though he became a silk later in life and a giant in the legal profession – for the abominably low fees he charged. I have a clear recollection of something that occurred when I was his junior in a matter of advice shortly before he died. I sent a bill of $30 for my fees and the solicitor sent me a cheque for $20, saying that $30 was the fee that Lou had charged in the matter. Lou told me that he charged low fees, firstly because he did not need the money, and secondly, poor people should be ablA Godsend twice over and Louis Voumard, Victoria’s authority on property lawe to have access to his knowledge. At the time of Lou’s death in 1974, Keith Aiken was charging hundreds of dollars for an advice on law matters.

Then the first bombshell struck. Pat Gorman died and we were all in mourning for the great man. “Dashing” Des Whelan QC, who shared chambers with Pat Gorman, took over his magnificent room. Des Whelan was the leader of the Personal Injuries Bar, and later Chief Judge of the County Court. He was the father of a young barrister called Simon Whelan who came to the Bar some years later, took silk, was later appointed to the Supreme Court and later still to the Court of Appeal. Simon is a very gentle man and an exceptionally fine judge.

On August 15, 1973, I received an invitation from Des Whelan to come up to his chambers to celebrate the 75th birthday of Louis Voumard. We all went up to Des Whelan’s room that afternoon to felicitate dear, sweet Louis Voumard. I told Louis, “I know another great man whose birthday fell on August 15 and he replied, “Yes, Napoleon Bonaparte.’ Lou was born 119 years after Napoleon.

Some months later I when chatting with Lou in his room, he looked up and said, “My boy, I understand that you are helping Sonny with his book. Would you like to help me with my work? If you help me with my work you can take it over if anything happens to me. You will be made.” I was delighted and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. I then gave Sonny the sad news that I would not be working on his book but would be helping Lou with his work.

In the meantime Lou gave me a copy of his work. I did not dare tell Lou that I knew nothing about property law. At Cambridge, Property Law I was studied in the second year of the Law Tripos, and Property Law II was studied in the third year. In my second year, I studied International Law in preference to Property Law and in my third year I studied Roman-Dutch law in preference to Property Law as Roman-Dutch law was the law of Ceylon.

In Ceylon, although my master had a large property law practice, I did property law only during the six months that I was reading with him. After that I did not look at a property law brief. So when Lou asked me to help him with his work, I had not seen Contract for the Sale of Land in Victoria. I did not know what a defect of title was nor did I know what requisitions on title were. In fact, I knew nothing about property law.

I opened Lou’s work and could not understand a word of it. But over the next couple of months, I found some new authorities for him and my little friend was delighted. When my parents came out to Australia in December 1973 I invited Lou home to meet them. He drove up in his old Wolseley motor car with his paraplegic daughter, Susan. Susan was the cross Lou had had to bear for over 30 years.She had been a nurse and had been driving to Lou’s holiday home at Mt Martha many years earlier when a drunken driver swerved across the road, smashed her car, smashed her body and destroyed her life.

Noel Rice

It was the month of September 1973 and the barristers on the four big lists had a surfeit of work. Sometimes they had multiple briefs every day. I would spend most of my time twiddling my thumbs and listening to my neighbours ,Paul Bennett, who was on Foley’s list, and Paul McPhee, who was on Spur’s list, discussing the briefs they had and the income they had earned that year. Sad to say, both my dear friends are now dead. Paul Bennett proudly declared that he had earned $16,300 that year and McPhee triumphantly remarked that he had earned $17,000. I totaled up my fees and found that I had earned less than $5,000 for the 11 months of that year.

Then I had a stroke of luck in October 1973 in the shape of John McCartney and Noel Rice, the principal of the firm of Anderson, Rice and Nicol. Noel Rice was the solicitor who acted for the RACV Insurance Company in most of their motor car collision cases or what we commonly called “crash and bash” in the Magistrates’ Court. He was unable to find a barrister and Calnin telephoned me to ask whether I could go down and do a “crash and bash” at St Kilda.

Noel Rice as the RACV solicitor always acted for defendant motorists. In this particular instance he had paid in 80 per cent of the claim into court. This is what is called “a payment into court”. It is open to a defendant in a civil claim for money to pay what he or she thinks is what the complainant/plaintiff will receive by way of judgment. If the successful complainant/plaintiff receives judgment for less than the money paid into court by the defendant’s solicitor, the complainant/plaintiff is required to pay the defendant’s costs incurred in defending the proceeding.

The magistrate Kevin O’Connor took a liking to me and I managed to have my client found 60 per cent negligent and the other party 40 per cent negligent. I beat the payment into court by 20 per cent so the complainant had to pay the costs my client incurred in defending the proceedings. When I returned to chambers I gave Noel Rice the good news and he was delighted.

I heard nothing from him for about two weeks when he rang me up without going through Calnin and briefed me in another “crash and bash” He had paid in his usual 80 per cent and I got him an award of 60 per cent. This result led to a long and fruitful relationship over the next four years. He then started briefing me, first with one brief a week, and then two and soon I was receiving three briefs from him a week.

In December 1973, our happy chamber relationship came to a grinding halt. Patkin, Bennett and McPhee, having signed the Bar Roll in March 1971, were all offered rooms in Owen Dixon Chambers. However, the Victorian Bar had taken the fourth floor of Equity Chambers. I was given the choice of the rooms on the fourth floor so I took a large room looking out on to Bourke Street.

In March 1974 a new list was formed and a number of barristers on the new list – Muir’s – joined me on the fourth floor of Equity Chambers. A young barrister on our floor, Ian Sutherland, was double-booked and offered me a brief in the Magistrates’ Court. I grabbed it with both hands. It was from one of the leading solicitor’s firms in Melbourne – Corrs.

A young solicitor from that firm, Christopher Wren, came along with the client, a ruddy-faced little Jewish man. Yes, his Jewishness is relevant because he was discriminating against me because of my colour. His face was a feature when he saw me. He asked me what I knew about the law. I pointed to my certificate hanging on the wall and told him that I took a Second-Class Honours at Cambridge University and had qualified as a barrister in England in 1959, some 15 years before.

I studied his complaint, which disclosed that his neighbour had bulldozed his boundary wall with a tractor. The claim had been brought in negligence. I told Chris that it would have been preferable if it had been brought in trespass because it was strict liability. He would only have to prove that his neighbour bulldozed his fence, but in negligence he would have to prove a duty of care on the part of the neighbour.

The client started screaming and yelling at me at the top of his voice: “What the hell are you talking about? Trespass, negligence, what the hell does it matter? My fence has been demolished. You are just like my neighbour. You don’t know what you’re doing’

By this time I had had enough. Corrs may be the one of the biggest firms in Melbourne and I needed them. I was only two years at the Bar and no one in his right mind would insult a client of Corrs, but I was not going to put up with this nasty little racist man. I picked up the brief and threw it at him, saying, “Take your brief and bugger off.” I never got another brief from Corrs.

In January, we spent a happy day with Louis Voumard at his holiday home in Mt Martha. I am proud to say that I am one of the few members of the Victorian Bar who has been to Lou’s holiday home in Mt Martha and to his home in Kew. The months then flew by and I remember that fateful day – Thursday, May 2, 1974. We were chatting in his room that afternoon when the evening shadows slowly closed in, and we went on chatting until about seven at night. Lou drew me aside and told me, “My boy, this book is killing me.” He added, “I am very, very tired” We said our goodbyes and he left – and I was never to see him again.

On Friday morning something made me go down to see Lou. I found his room closed with a notice saying that he was ill and that he would not be coming in that day. I telephoned his home and Susan answered the phone. She told me, “Dad walked down to see his doctor in the High Street. He was having a pain in his chest and thought he had better see his doctor about it.” The silly old man had walked a mile to see his doctor when he was obviously having a heart attack.

I went into work on Monday morning and was reading The Age newspaper when the telephone rang. It was my friend Ronny de Kretser. He said, “Nimal, have you seen today’s papers?”

“Yes, but I’ve been reading the sports page”

He told me to turn to page two. I did so, and found there a huge appreciation of the life of the late Mr Louis Voumard who had died the previous Saturday, May 4. I sat there stunned. I was in a state of shock: my whole world had collapsed around me. The only dear friend I had known and would ever know in Australia had died. Who was going to help me? Whom could I turn to? I put the phone down, put my hands on my head and sat there sobbing softly. What was to become of me?

But then, as Benny Hill was wont to say, “The pickled pinger of pate intervened.” During the previous year in Equity Chambers and my close friendship with my dear friend Lou, I had also become very friendly with his secretary, Kathy Scheinman. Dear sweet Kathy was responsible for my second real break at the Victorian Bar, Noel Rice having been the first. She wrote off to the powers-that-be at Law Book Company and told them that a young man had been helping Louis Voumard with his book when he died.

The managing director, Tony Lees, wrote to me and asked whether I could take over writing the work. Tony then flew down to Melbourne, interviewed me and retained me to write “THE BOOK” I was terrified. I knew nothing about the sale of land, let alone land law.

I decided to take a chance and do the work. I telephoned my friend, John Rutherford, who was a solicitor at Cook and Cussen. He came down to see me with a contract for the sale of land and took me through the essential requirements of a contract. He also explained to me the purpose of requisitions on title and spent a couple of hours initiating me in the mysteries of land law.

This is the truth. Well, what was I to do with Voumard? I read Voumard from cover to cover 40 times during the next four years. I remember going to Italy for a holiday in 1977 and I read Voumard going over on the plane once, then read it again coming back on the plane.

The editing of the third edition of this work was in the hands of Sir Alistair Adam. I gave Sir Alistair what I thought were the relevant authorities. My knowledge of property law was non-existent, despite my having read this work so many times. As a result of my lack of knowledge, I omitted to give Sir Alistair the controversial decision of the House of Lords on part performance – The case of Steadman v. Steadman. Ross Sundberg QC reviewed this third edition and crucified my work. I was heartbroken.

(To be continued)

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Features

Defend civic space upon which peace is built

Published

21 hours ago

2026/09/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

by Jehan Perera

International Peace Day was observed on 21 September. It finds Sri Lanka with a genuine achievement to record and a demanding test to meet. The UN’s theme this year was “Invest in Peace: For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day.” It also honoured the “everyday architects of peace”—people driving local action and building a lasting peace from the ground up. In the 2026 Global Peace Index, Sri Lanka rose 30 places, from 97th to 67th among 163 countries. Over the same period, global peacefulness declined for the twelfth consecutive year to its lowest level since the index began, and South Asia suffered the sharpest regional deterioration. The test is whether the government will protect the civic space in which those architects of peace work.

Sri Lanka’s improvement is real and deserves acknowledgement. In this year’s review, issued a few weeks ago, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights acknowledged progress in the form of action against corruption, arrests and investigations linked to political killings, enforced disappearances and the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, and continued official denunciation of racism. A ranking, however, records conditions at a particular moment. It does not guarantee that they will last. Sustainable peace will depend on three factors. These are whether the government addresses the unresolved causes of conflict, whether it strengthens accountability for past and present abuses, and whether it protects the civic space in which peace is built from below. On the first two the record is incomplete. On the third, the draft NGO law threatens to weaken the very organisations that press for the other two.

What holds Sri Lanka back from a higher place are the same things that fed the war at home and also feed international conflict that rages elsewhere in the world. These are racism or ethnic nationalism that is narrow-focused, corruption and lawlessness. Equality, accountability and the rule of law are their remedies. The present government has committed itself to these, and is a significant improvement over governments of the recent past. But these pillars are not held up by governments alone. Peace is made in villages, workplaces and university campuses. It is made by families who insist on the truth about their disappeared, by journalists and lawyers who expose abuse, and by community organisations that bring Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese into practical cooperation.

Unfinished Work

The UN High Commissioner’s report to the current Human Rights Council session, covering October 2025 to July 2026, shows how much remains to be done. The Prevention of Terrorism Act is still being applied, producing arbitrary arrests and long detention without charge. The report calls for a moratorium pending repeal and for the release of long-term detainees. Military-occupied land has not been released, memorialisation lacks support, and tensions over land and religious sites persist. The Batticaloa district illustrates how such problems endure. In the past three years, two Presidents, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, have visited and instructed that the dispute over grazing land in Mailaththamadu and Mathavanai be resolved. It is a dispute between Tamil cattle farmers and outside Sinhala cultivators, and it has not been resolved. When two Presidents issue instructions and nothing changes, the fault lies in the machinery of State. An unresolved dispute does not stand still. It hardens into the next grievance.

Accountability shows the same pattern. The report documents torture and deaths in custody, and surveillance and intimidation of activists, journalists and civil society. Serious cases remain stalled for years, among them the killing of seventeen aid workers of Action Contre la Faim in Muttur two decades ago. Sharper still is the case of the Eastern University refugee camp at Vantharamoolai, where in 1990 the army took away 158 persons in a single day. They were never seen again. The camp’s officer-in-charge, Dr T. Jayasingam, later Vice Chancellor of the university, identified the officers responsible. More than three decades on, those officers have not been questioned. These cases are still remembered because families, survivors and independent witnesses have refused to let them be forgotten. Meanwhile several commissions of inquiry have completed their investigations but nothing further has happened.

What South Africa, Argentina and other post-conflict societies have found indispensable are four pillars of what is called “Transitional Justice” which are truth, accountability, reparations and non-recurrence. In Sri Lanka’s circumstances, truth means credible, independent investigation of what happened to the disappeared, and support for memorialisation. Accountability means prosecuting Muttur, Vantharamoolai and comparable cases, and removing credibly accused persons from senior office. Reparations mean compensation for victims and the return of military-held land. Non-recurrence means repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, releasing those held under it in the meantime, and resolving local disputes such as Mailaththamadu before delay hardens them. A country that buries its past does not escape it. The past returns in the next generation.

Civil Society

It is against this background that the draft NGO law is most troubling. The proposed legislation contains sweeping provisions for State oversight and control of civil society organisations. Among these are enforcing a licensing requirement on NGOs, which is to be renewed every three years, and severe penalties for not submitting reports on time, or for spending on emergency flood relief (for instance) when the NGOs mandate is peacebuilding (as an example) with possible sanctions including deregistration and having to shut down. Civil society groups have warned that it would confer excessive discretion over their registration and operations. Officials in Sri Lanka have abused such powers in the past. Additional power without effective checks invites further abuse. Sound regulation would have clear criteria for registration, an independent registrar and a right of appeal to the courts. What cannot be justified is a regime in which registration becomes a licence to be withheld from organisations that scrutinise policy, expose abuses or advocate for the rights of citizens.

Democracy is based on checks and balances. Those who press for accountability are part of those checks. The contradiction is plain. A government that has pledged accountability, equality and the rule of law ought not to be preparing to weaken the very organisations that press for their fulfilment. The organisations most exposed are those working on disappearances, land, memorialisation and reconciliation in the North and East, where the State’s record is weakest and the need for independent witnesses greatest. Silencing them would not remove the grievances they document. It would remove the channel through which those grievances are addressed peacefully. The government appears to be relenting, which is welcome, but a pause is not a withdrawal. The bill should be withdrawn and any replacement drafted in genuine consultation with those it would govern.

Investment in peace as called for by the UN in its International Peace Day theme implies commitment over time, with returns that come slowly. Sri Lanka’s 30-place rise on the Global Peace Index is a first dividend and nothing more. It can be built upon only if the government matches its commitments with action: withdrawing or fundamentally redrafting the NGO law, repealing or suspending the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and bringing Muttur, Vantharamoolai and Mailaththamadu to resolution. A higher place in a global index is not a certificate of success. Sri Lanka’s higher ranking is an encouraging start, but it will endure only if the space in which citizens speak, question and organise is protected. Peace is built from below, and a government that is serious about it will treat civil society as a partner rather than a threat.

Features

Africa is buying: Sri Lanka must start selling

Published

21 hours ago

2026/09/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

A call to Sri Lankan exporters and agencies: Can Sri Lanka compete with China and India in Africa?

By Kana V. Kananathan
Former Ambassador

Sri Lanka has spent decades concentrating its exports on traditional markets in Europe, North America and Asia. Yet across the Indian Ocean lies a rapidly expanding market that remains significantly underdeveloped by Sri Lankan exporters: Africa.

The opportunity is not theoretical. Sri Lanka already exports packaging, textiles, rubber products, pharmaceuticals, paper, machinery and electrical goods to African markets. The question is whether these modest beginnings can be transformed into a serious export strategy—and whether Sri Lanka can compete against the enormous commercial presence of China and India.

The answer is yes—but Sri Lanka must compete differently.

Kenya: Gateway to East Africa

Kenya should be the starting point.

Sri Lanka exported approximately US$32.08 million to Kenya in 2025, while importing US$11.41 million. But US$32 million is tiny compared with the opportunity: Kenya imported more than US$24 billion in 2025. Even a 1% share of that market would represent nearly US$240 million in annual exports.

And the commercial base already exists. Sri Lanka’s 2025 exports to Kenya included approximately US$9.99 million in paper and paperboard products, US$9.73 million in knitted fabrics, US$3.64 million in pharmaceuticals, US$1.24 million in rubber products and US$1.20 million in machinery.

Kenya’s import structure is equally revealing. In the third quarter of 2025, industrial supplies represented 34.4% of imports, machinery and capital equipment 19.2%, food and beverages 9.0%, and consumer goods 7.3%. The opportunity for Sri Lanka, therefore, extends well beyond consumer goods—we can become a supplier to African industry.

But competition is fierce. Asia supplied around 70% of Kenya’s imports in 2025, with imports from China rising 16.5% and those from India 11.3%.

Sri Lanka cannot challenge China and India across every product category. Nor should it try. We must target sectors where quality, specialisation, reliability, technical capability, smaller production runs and flexibility matter more than simply offering the lowest price.

Where Can Sri Lanka Compete?

Packaging is an obvious starting point. Cartons, boxes, bags and labels are already among Sri Lanka’s exports to Kenya. Importantly, some Sri Lankan companies operating in Kenya are themselves importing these products from Sri Lanka. The market already exists; the challenge is to scale it.

As Africa’s food-processing, pharmaceutical, apparel and consumer-goods industries expand, demand for sophisticated packaging will grow with them. Sri Lanka already possesses the manufacturing capability and industry experience to capture a larger share.

Industrial rubber products, tyres, gloves and specialised rubber components offer another opportunity where Sri Lanka has established manufacturing expertise.

The apparel supply chain is equally promising. Rather than competing directly with African garment factories, Sri Lanka can supply fabrics, elastics, labels, packaging and specialised textile inputs.

Some Sri Lankan apparel manufacturing and export companies already established in Kenya, Togo, Ghana and Ethiopia are importing several of these inputs from Sri Lanka. The supply chain, therefore, already exists. The next step is to move beyond supplying Sri Lankan-owned factories and become a competitive input supplier to the wider African apparel industry.

Other sectors deserving systematic market development include pharmaceuticals and medical consumables, processed foods, biscuits and confectionery, coconut products, cinnamon and spices, electrical products and cables, industrial chemicals, ceramics, light engineering, agricultural equipment and food-processing machinery.

Sri Lanka should also look beyond physical goods. IT, fintech, banking technology, engineering, healthcare, hospitality management and professional services largely escape the freight disadvantage confronting merchandise exports.

The Tariff Problem Can Become an Opportunity

Market access cannot be discussed without tariffs.The East African Community applies a Common External Tariff with bands of 0%, 10%, 25% and 35%, while certain sensitive products attract still higher protection. Simply filling containers in Colombo with finished consumer goods will therefore not always be commercially competitive.

But that obstacle points towards a bigger opportunity: manufacture in Africa.

Sri Lankan businesses could export intermediate materials while undertaking final assembly, manufacturing, processing or packaging in Kenya. Packaging companies could establish converting plants; electrical manufacturers could assemble locally; pharmaceutical companies could explore manufacturing or packaging partnerships; and food companies could undertake final processing closer to consumers.

Kenya would then become more than an export destination. It could become Sri Lanka’s manufacturing and distribution gateway into East and Central Africa.

With the East African Community now comprising eight partner states and extending geographically from the Indian Ocean towards the Atlantic, establishing a regional presence is increasingly more important than viewing each African country in isolation.

West Africa Cannot Be Ignored

Sri Lanka simultaneously needs a West African strategy.

Ghana offers potential as an English-speaking commercial gateway and host of the AfCFTA Secretariat. Nigeria, with its enormous population and consumer economy, should be approached as a major market in its own right, despite its greater regulatory, currency and operational complexity.

ECOWAS tariff bands of 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 35% again make product selection critical. Sri Lanka should concentrate on products with sufficient differentiation and margins to absorb freight, tariffs and distributor costs.

Pharmaceuticals demonstrate both the opportunity and the challenge. Nigeria imported approximately US$766 million in pharmaceuticals in 2025, with India supplying roughly US$394 million and China US$131 million. Ghana imported approximately US$301 million, with India supplying about US$140 million.

Sri Lanka cannot simply offer another generic product and expect to beat India on price. We must identify specialised products, reliable supply arrangements, partnerships and, where commercially justified, local production or packaging.

Stop Promoting Sectors—Identify Products

Sri Lanka now needs an Africa Export Opportunity Study based on individual products, not broad sectors.

The Export Development Board, Foreign Ministry, chambers and private sector should jointly identify 15–20 priority products. For each product, Sri Lanka should calculate the HS code, African annual import demand, principal suppliers, Chinese and Indian market shares, applicable duties, freight from Colombo, regulatory requirements, distributor margins and final landed price.

That will tell us where Sri Lanka genuinely has a competitive advantage.

The Commercial Test

Before spending resources promoting a product, apply one simple test:

African import demand + Sri Lankan production capability + tariff + freight + distributor margin + regulatory cost = final landed competitiveness against China, India and local African production.

Only products that pass this test should receive concentrated export-promotion resources.

This would move Sri Lanka away from exhibitions, delegations and general discussions towards what ultimately matters: specific products, specific buyers, specific distributors and actual export orders.

Give Our Missions Targets

Commercial diplomacy must become results-driven. The Government should set clear annual trade and investment targets for every Sri Lankan mission in Africa.

Missions should be evaluated not merely on diplomatic activity, but on buyers and distributors identified, business introductions made, investments facilitated, market barriers resolved and measurable exports generated.

In a competitive Africa, our missions must become active economic frontlines not merely diplomatic outposts.

A practical strategy could operate through three commercial gateways: Nairobi for East and Central Africa, Accra for selected West African markets and Lagos for Nigeria.

Sri Lanka’s total exports of goods and services reached approximately US$17.25 billion in 2025. Capturing even a small additional share of Africa’s enormous import market could, therefore, make a meaningful contribution to export earnings, investment and foreign-exchange generation.

Africa Will Not Wait

Sri Lankan exporters must stop looking at Africa as a distant or difficult market and start treating it as a strategic growth market.

We cannot compete with China and India on scale, but we can compete on quality, specialisation, flexibility and reliability. Exporters must identify country-specific opportunities, establish strong local distributors, build partnerships with African businesses and use Sri Lankan companies already operating on the continent as gateways into regional supply chains.

Where freight and tariffs weaken competitiveness, businesses must be prepared to move towards local assembly, joint ventures and manufacturing in Africa. Exporters cannot do it alone. They need aggressive, measurable and results-driven commercial diplomacy from Sri Lanka’s missions.

Africa is buying. Its markets are being captured now. Sri Lanka must stop watching from the sidelines. We must enter, compete, build our presence and secure our share.

(Ambassador Kana Kananathan is a businessman, Diplomat, lobbyist and an expert in African affairs, with over four decades of experience on the African continent. A long-time resident of Africa, he served as Sri Lanka’s envoy to Uganda and Kenya, with concurrent accreditation to 22 African Nations, and was the permanent representative to UN Habitat and UN environmental Programme. Over the years, he has been the Elections Monitor across the continent, working closely with African governments, and built enduring partnerships with African leaders. He also served as Economic and Investments Advisor to former President Professor Alpha Condé of the Republic of Guinea)

Features

Memories and Midnight Magic: Recipe for a perfect 31st Night dance

Published

21 hours ago

2026/09/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

The heart of a great 31st Night dance is memory, and memories come rushing back when those 70s, 80s and 90s golden oldies begin to play — those timeless tunes that make revellers, young and old, rush to the floor and dance the night away.

A perfect 31st Night is not just a party. It is a journey. A journey through time.

The music should flow like a love story. Start slow, start soft. Let couples glide into a waltz for romance. Let the floor come alive with a twist, a rock ‘n’ roll, a jive. Let nostalgia build with beautiful sing-along oldies generally associated with a New Year’s Eve dance.

This is the art that many of our entertainers seem to have forgotten.

The final hour, before midnight, is sacred. It should be collective energy at its peak. The entire crowd, on the dance floor, linking arms, swaying together, singing, at the top of their voices, those sing-along favourites.

Yes, I’m referring to those immortal, nostalgic favourites that unite the world: ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ ‘When The Saints Go Marching In,’ ‘Roll Out The Barrel,’ ‘Celebration,’ ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain,’ ‘Happy Days Are Here Again,’ and so many more.

One wonders if some of our modern entertainers have even heard of these nostalgia anthems that traditionally lead up to the dawning of the New Year! This is not just music; this is ritual.

Then comes THE moment: Lights dim. Music pauses. A hush falls. The countdown begins — 10, 9, 8… — hugs, wishes, tears of joy, and then … ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ Hands crossed, voices united, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new. That moment makes or breaks the night.

Here is the truth that many genuine 31st Night revellers feel but hesitate to say — an overdose of baila music at New Year’s Eve events is NOT welcome.

Of course, baila is required. Baila is our Sri Lankan heartbeat! But a 31st Night dance is for everyone.

When it’s ONLY baila, the twist and rock n’ roll lovers, the waltz kings and queens feel left out. And they are the very people who MADE nostalgia! They are the die-hard revellers who have kept the 31st Night spirit alive for decades.

A family mentioned to me that they went along with friends for a 31st Night dance, in the city, to usher in 2026, and were thoroughly disappointed with the setup.

The bands in attendance, they said, failed to generate the excitement generally associated with a 31st Night event.

If given a free hand, the music at certain Colombo venues will be mostly baila, and that is going to disappoint many. Some are already worried that it will be just a baila scene this year, as well.

A memorable 31st Night respects all rhythms … yes, a waltz for romance, a twist and rock n’ roll for that 60s magic, a cha-cha, a slow foxtrot, and then the baila, after the countdown anthem.

That balance is what makes it inclusive, classy, and truly fun-filled.

Organisers, especially in Colombo, should keep this in mind: let it be 70% nostalgia – Western, and 30% baila, with the last hour left for pure baila madness, after the New Year is in!

Organisers must work out the programme for their 31st Night and instruct the entertainers to follow those instructions. The band should not dictate the night; the spirit of nostalgia should.

This New Year, let’s give Colombo what it truly wants — memories, midnight magic, and music for every soul on the floor.

Let’s dance into 2027 with class.