July 27, 2021

International Day of Friendship is a United Nations (UN) observance that promotes the role of friendship between peoples, countries, and cultures. In the face of world crises and divisions – like those of poverty, violence, and human rights abuses – the Day of Friendship aims to inspire peace efforts and the building of bridges between communities through the simple act of friendship. The UN also encourages governments, organizations, and community groups to hold events, activities, and initiatives to encourage solidarity, mutual understanding, and a respect for diversity.

In celebration of this day, Emeritus Professor Edwin Thumboo (NUS English Language and Literature) reminds us of the power and beauty of friendship in ‘Notes on Why Friends, Why Friendship into Poems’ (Asiatic, 2013). Through his poetry, Prof Thumboo traces his own experiences with the friendships he forged, how they had come to impact and shape him as a person, and his understanding of a uniquely Singaporean nationhood.

Prof Thumboo starts the essay by detailing the colonial history of Singapore, and the difficulties that a multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-language nation faced. This was exacerbated by how colonial masters depicted races with biases and inaccuracies. It was only through lessons and histories told from his uncle about British imperialism that Prof Thumboo became aware of alternative interpretations to the structure of British life around him.

This nascent political consciousness carried on into university, as Prof Thumboo started to feel a growing need for a hinterland that could afford him richer inheritances in culture and literature. It was also then that he realised how his friends were great opportunities for the cross-sharing and learning of different cultural experiences – what he acknowledges no amount of reading could match up to.

Going further, the essay intersperses poetry with ruminations on race, history, and culture, as Prof Thumboo takes the reader through shared conversations with friends. Readers can glean how these dialogues have profoundly shaped Prof Thumboo as a person – and perhaps more significantly, how they have come to imbue his poetic, and national, imagination. At the same time, we are also made aware of the powerful influence and importance of friendship that teaches us core values of care, responsibility, sacrifice, and the essential putting of others before ourselves.

Despite his initial struggles in locating a hinterland due to Singapore’s difficult, chequered history, he ends the essay with an ode to our island, stating affectively, “majullah singapura”.

Read the article here.