The Store Keeper
Mustaffa Mohamed Atham Bawa
Mustaffa Mohamed Atham Bawa has worked in his family business since leaving school at the age of ten. From his small shop in the heart of Batticaloa, he reflects on changes to working life, the violence the town endured during the war years, and how Muslim and Tamil communities have slowly rebuilt trust.
Mustaffa Mohamed Atham Bawa began working in the family shop when he left school at ten. His own family was poor, but his uncles ran a small business in Batticaloa town and took him on as an apprentice. After they passed away, the shop became his responsibility.
Known to customers simply as “MME,” he sat at the front of his busy shop as people came and went, buying an assortment of household goods. As he spoke about the past, Tamil and Muslim customers continued to move through the narrow aisles, exchanging greetings and small talk.
During the 1990s Batticaloa experienced periods of intense communal violence. The Tamil Tigers attacked two mosques in the town, deepening tensions between Muslim and Tamil communities.
“Those days when they came across each other, Tamils would attack Muslims and Muslims would attack Tamils. There were abductions and killings,” he recalled.
Relations between the communities, he said, had slowly improved.
Later we heard the maulavi’s call to prayer from the central mosque a few streets away. Mr Bawa closed his book of receipts, tidied the register and placed a bundle of rupee notes into an old safe behind the counter.
We walked together through the streets toward the mosque, passing older shopfronts with wooden shutters and doorways that had been there for decades. MME had been coming to this mosque since he was a young boy.
The Imam kindly allowed me to photograph the prayer inside. As the Imam led the prayers, Mr Bawa bowed his head in rhythm with the others, joining the movements of the group as the men around him touched their foreheads to the floor.
Batticaloa
August 6, 2013
Transcript and translations
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Subjects discussed
"He comes to my house. I can go to his. We talk."
We weren’t sure whether we’d reach home safely. To come to work too wasn’t certain. They shot and hijacked vehicles. There were checkpoints everywhere. They’d check what’s in the cars. Even on the way to Kattankudy, they would check us.
Those days, when they came across each other, Tamils would attack Muslims. And Muslims would attack Tamils. There were abductions and killings. We couldn’t go outside. We couldn’t go anywhere. We couldn’t go to Paduvanthurai.
It happened during the evening prayers, around 6 pm. It happened at two mosques in Kattankudy. One was the Meera Jummah mosque and the other was the Hussainiya mosque. The shooting took place in these two mosques at the same time. It was so sad when I returned home seeing that. People were crying after seeing those things. People who survived the shooting were still in the mosque. They couldn’t come out. What could we do?
It was dark. There were no lights. No electricity. It went on like that. I came out from the mosque when the shooting stopped. I stood up and when I heard there wasn’t any firing, I went home.
The others at home were worried, crying, and thinking about their children, their uncles, and others who went to the mosque. Within an hour we knew who had died and who had survived. Those we survived just went home. Those who died were taken from the mosque directly to their funerals.
One hundred and one people died. You can see their names written in front of the mosque. At the Meera mosque, but not the Hussainia mosque. The names are written there.
I was very frightened. They were shooting in the mosque. But I managed to escape.
As they were shooting, I managed to escape.
All of our elders, all those who supported us are gone. My uncles, grand uncles, cousins, and others all died.
Now the people have forgotten, no? Now both communities are living together happily. There is no violence or any bitterness. He comes to my house. I can go to his home. We talk. We can go anywhere. Do anything. There’s nothing now. We are now living without any trouble. There are no arguments.
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