Ambalavaner Sivanandan, a Sri Lankan who was a key activist and thinker in the struggle against racism in Britain has passed away.
Sivanandan who left Sri Lanka, for the UK following the anti-Tamil riots in 1958 passed away in his Potters Bar home North of London, a few weeks after his 94th birthday.
His widely read novel 'When Memory Dies', a three-generational saga of a Tamil family's search for coherence and continuity in a country broken by colonial occupation won the 1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category for Europe and South Asia and the annual Saga award, given to first-time black authors.
He has also written widely on racism, capitalism, police brutality and black anti-racist struggle in Britain, with many of those essays appearing in his book, 'Catching History on the Wing'.
Sivanandan was one of the rare Sri Lanka Tamil immigrants who viewed the former colonial rulers of the western democracy, where he chose to live, as part of the problem than the solution.
He leaves behind his wife Jenny Bourne and Children Tamara, Natasha and Rohan.
Source : Journalists for Democracy Sri Lanka
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