GY blacks of note...take it away Dovey

Racism is alive and well, black youth say in national survey

BY ADAM NICHOLS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Many young blacks believe they are treated as third-class citizens in the U.S., ignored by a government that considers them the lowest of the low, researchers said yesterday.

The most comprehensive survey of black youth for years has found a community that sees itself as ravaged by poverty, crime and poor education - and kept down by leaders who represent only white America.

The University of Chicago survey found 48% thought even new immigrants are treated with more respect than blacks are.

Their sense of marginalization is so strong that the overwhelming majority believes the government sidelined the struggle against AIDS because it affected more blacks that whites.

"The most disheartening thing about this is that these are young people who have this feeling of isolation and secondary status," said Cathy Cohen, who led the research.

"What shocked me was the matter-of-fact way that young people, in what's supposed to be the post-civil rights period, just expect that the government will not respond to their needs," she said.

The nationwide survey questioned 1,590 blacks, whites and Hispanics between 15 and 25.

The findings included:

Most young black people believe racial discrimination stands in the way of success.

They think they get an inferior education to whites, they live in greater poverty, are more likely to be involved in crime and face police discrimination.

They believe the government is run by big interest groups and powerful people who care only about serving themselves and people like them.

Most put faith in their own communities uniting to deal with their own problems.

Only 11% believe they'll see an end to racism in their lifetime.

Many believe their own role models put down their communities. Though most said they listened to rap music regularly, they considered it violent, sexist and degrading.
"I don't think anything new is being said here," Sonya Jonson, a hairdresser from the Bronx, said yesterday.

"Why is anybody surprised we feel alienated? Do they remember what happened in New Orleans?"

Originally published on February 1, 2007


Source

Rita Dove Biography (1953– )

Rita Dove served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and as Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and, more recently, the 2003 Emily Couric Leadership Award, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1997 Sara Lee Frontrunner Award, the 1997 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, the 1996 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities and the 1996 National Humanities Medal. In 2006 she received the coveted Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service (together with Anderson Cooper, John Glenn, Mike Nichols and Queen Noor of Jordan — see the press release, newspaper coverage and photos).

Ms. Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. A 1970 Presidential Scholar, she received her B.A. summa cum laude from Miami University of Ohio and her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. She also held a Fulbright scholarship at the Universität Tübingen in Germany. She has published the poetry collections The Yellow House on the Corner (1980), Museum (1983), Thomas and Beulah (1986), Grace Notes (1989), Selected Poems (1993), Mother Love (1995), On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999), a book of short stories, Fifth Sunday (1985), the novel Through the Ivory Gate (1992), essays under the title The Poet's World (1995), and the play The Darker Face of the Earth, which had its world premiere in 1996 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and was subsequently produced at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Royal National Theatre in London, and other theatres. Seven for Luck, a song cycle for soprano and orchestra with music by John Williams, was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1998. For "America's Millennium", the White House's 1999/2000 New Year's celebration, Ms. Dove contributed — in a live reading at the Lincoln Memorial, accompanied by John Williams's music — a poem to Steven Spielberg's documentary The Unfinished Journey. She is the editor of Best American Poetry 2000, and from January 2000 to January 2002 she wrote a weekly column, "Poet's Choice", for The Washington Post. Her latest poetry collection, American Smooth, was published by W.W. Norton & Company in September 2004.

Rita Dove is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she lives with her husband, the writer Fred Viebahn. They have a grown daughter, Aviva Dove-Viebahn.

Source

Black History - Guyana

Mammy Fiffee: A Tradition of Bush Medicine -- by Mboya Wood

Mammy Fiffee was born as Agatha Williams. She was the last of eighteen children born to Georg and Tene Williams at Plantation Lusignan estate, on May 14, 1906, in, at that time, British Guiana. While growing up on Plantation Lusignan, she inherited the art of bush science from her great-grandmother Gang-Gang who was born into slavery. At age eighty-nine [at the time this article was written], Mammy is still the medicine woman of the village.

Agatha Williams was married to Albert Fiffee on May 2, 1934 in Buxton village, and together they made six children, four boys and two girls. She was then adorned with the name Mammy Fiffee.

Mammy Fiffee's ingenious potentials and miraculous performances on babies and adults form the pillar of her popularity. In the community of Buxton which she serves and other neighboring areas, people have come to respect her for the work she is doing. She ranks with the other great Buxtonian legends, Frederick Profit Wills, George Younge, Winifred Gaskin to name a few.

Some ailments and possible cures

Mammy Fiffee is just one of the many persons in Buxton who utilizes the science of bush medicine to treat such ailments as baby thrush, stomach problems, back pain, nara (belly pain), stricture (stoppage of water), impotence, constipation, head and chest colds, malnutrition and a host of female related sicknesses. Invariably, the remedies prescribed for these ailments usually follow after a diagnosis from a work-up of physical examination and history profile obtained from a question and answer period along with spiritual guidance. All of this take place at a makeshift clinic located at the bottom of her house in Buxton Village.
...
The importance of traditional medicine
In village life throughout Guyana, the survival of various forms of traditional cultural practices is assured by the fact that people often resort to these forms of traditional cure and rituals when orthodox medicines have failed them. In addition, many young people have inherited the teachings of these tribal forms of medicine, which often work to bring relief of some of the ailments from which patients suffer.

FYI: Mammy Fiffee passed away a few years ago at the age of 98, almost two years shy of her 100th birthday.

Source: These paragraphs were taken from an article out of NYC's ' Caribbean Daylight ' Newspaper, May 14, 1995.

Jamaican icon, Miss Lou

Legacy of Jamaican icon, Miss Lou, lives on at Harbourfront
Feb 02, 2007 04:30 AM
Christian Cotroneo
staff reporter

Her final resting place may be a plot of earth in Jamaica, but in a room overlooking Lake Ontario, they're leaving a light on for Miss Lou.

Thanks to a $250,000 grant from the provincial government, a yellow and orange room at Harbourfront Centre will bear the Jamaican cultural icon's name – and carry on her globe-spanning legacy.

Miss Lou's Room will be used as a multipurpose teaching environment for children, including a permanent interactive exhibit focusing on her life and achievements.

"She brought Jamaica to us," Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle said this week, kicking off Black History Month. Often, Miss Lou did it from the very room that will bear her name. Louise Bennett-Coverley, affectionately known as Miss Lou, died in Toronto last July, at 86. A smiling revolutionary, she changed the way Jamaicans view their own heritage and influenced generations of singers, storytellers, poets and even politicians.

A stalwart ally of Jamaica's lower classes, she made patois an accepted language through radio and television shows, poetry and even comedy.

Indeed, at the time of her death, even while living in Toronto, Miss Lou had become such an icon she was buried in Jamaica's Heroes Park – joining the country's first prime minister, Alexander Bustamente, as well as legendary black activist Marcus Garvey and slave liberator Sam Sharpe.

At the end of this week's ceremony, storyteller Rita Cox offered a poignant tribute to Miss Lou. She sat next to a group of young children and told a story about an anansi – a popular trickster, in oral traditions.

"He's sometimes a man, he's sometimes a spider," Cox explained. "He's a rascal. But most of the time, we want him to win."

As she spoke, the children grinned and cheered. But they weren't the only ones. Politicians, police officers, artists and broadcasters in the crowd laughed and roared. It came to an end with raucous approval. But in Miss Lou's Room, it was only the beginning

Archibald Alexander Biography (1772–1851)

ALEXANDER, Archibald, educator, born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, 17 April 1772" died in Princeton, New Jersey, 22 October 1851. His grandfather, of Scottish descent, came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1736, and after a residence of two years removed to Virginia.

William, father of Archibald, was a farmer and trader. At the age of ten Archibald was sent to the academy of Rev.William Graham at Timber Ridge meetinghouse (since developed into Washington and Lee University), at Lexington.
At the age of seventeen he became a tutor in the fatally of General John Posey, of The Wilderness, twelve miles west of Fredericksburg, but after a few months resumed his studies with his former teacher. At this time a remarkable movement, still spoken of as "the great revival," influenced his mind and he turned his attention to the study of divinity. He was licensed to preach 1 October 1791, ordained by the presbytery of Hanover 9 June 1794, and for seven years was an itinerant pastor in Charlotte and Prince Edward cos.

In 1796 he became president of Hampden Sydney College, Virginia, but in 1801 resigned, and visited New York and New England. During his tour he went to see the Rev. Dr. Waddel, the celebrated blind preacher mentioned by Wirt in his "British Spy." The result of this visit was his marriage to Dr. Waddel's daughter Janetta. Immediately after he resumed his presidency, but, owing to insubordination among the students, retired, and became in 1807 pastor of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. The degree of died D. was conferred on him by the College of New Jersey in 1810, and in the same year he was elected president of Union College in Georgia, a fact which remained unknown even to his family until after his death. On the organization of the theological seminary at Princeton in 1812 Dr. Alexander was unanimously chosen as the leading professor. As the number of students increased and other professors were added to the faculty, he was enabled to direct his attention more particularly to the department of pastoral and polemic theology, in promoting which, with the general interests of the institution, he labored with zeal and success till his death, a period of nearly forty years. His powers both for pulpit oratory and polemic disquisition were extraordinary. He was always busy, and from 1829 to 1850 scarcely a number of the "Princeton Review" appeared without an article from his pen. His style was idiomatic and forcible. With the exception of occasional sermons and contributions to periodicals, he published nothing until he had entered his fifty-second year. His first work was "Outlines of the Evidences of Christianity" (1823), which has been translated into various foreign languages and is used as a textbook in Colleges. It was reprinted in London in 1828, and again with a new edition in 1833, accompanied with introductory notes by Rev. John Morison, D.D. This was followed by a "Treatise on the Canon of the Old and New Testaments" (1826); "Lives of the Patriarchs" (1835) ; "Essays on Religious Experiences" (1840) ; "History of African Colonization" (1846); "History of the Log College" (1846); "History of the Israelitish Nation" (1852), and other works. He also contributed largely to periodicals. He left several works in manuscript, of which the "Outlines of Moral Science" (1852) was pronounced by the "Westminster Review" to be a "calm, clear stream of abstract reasoning, flowing from a thoughtful, well-instructed mind, without any parade of logic, but with an intuitive simplicity and directness which• gives an almost axiomatic force." Other posthumous works were "Duties and Consolations of the Christian "; "Patriarchal Theology "; "History of the Presbyterian Church in Virginia "; "Biographical Sketches of Distinguished American Clergymen and Alumni of the College of New Jersey"; and "Church Polity and Discipline." He left five sons, of who three became ministers, and one daughter. The eldest son wrote the life of his father, and edited his posthumous works (New York, 1854).

*His son, James Waddel, clergyman, born near Gordonsville, Louisa County, Virginia, 13 March 1804; died at the Red Sweet Springs, Virginia, 31 July 1859. He received his academicals training at Philadelphia, was graduated at Princeton in 1820, and studied theology in Princeton seminary. In 1824 he was appointed a tutor, and during the same year he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey During 1825-'28 he was in charge of a Church in Charlotte County, Virginia, and from 1828 to 1830 was pastor of the first Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey His health failing, he resigned this charge and became editor of "The Presbyterian," in Philadelphia. He was professor of rhetoric and belles lettres in Princeton College from 1833 till 1844, when he assumed charge of the Duane Street Church in New York City. From 1844 to 1851 he was professor of ecclesiastical history and Church government in Princeton theological seminary, and in 1851 he was called to the pastorate of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where he remained until his death.

Among his published works are "Consolation"; "Thoughts on Family Worship"; "Plain Words to a Young Communicant"; a series of essays entitled "The American Mechanic and Workingman "; "Discourses on Christian Faith and Practice" (New York, 1858); " Gift to the Afflicted"; a biography of Dr. Archibald Alexander (New York, 1854); and more than thirty volumes for the American Sunday-school ninon. He was also a frequent contributor to the "Princeton Review" and the "Biblical Repertory." "Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander," was published by the surviving correspondent, the Rev. John Hall, died D., of Trenton, New Jersey (2 vols., New York, 1880).*His son, William Cowper, lawyer, born in Virginia in 1806; died in New York City, 23 August 1874, was graduated at Princeton in 1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and soon gained a reputation for legal knowledge and eloquence and took part in political affairs. For several years he was president of the New Jersey state senate. He was nominated for governor, and lacked but a few votes of election. After being a member of the peace congress of 1861, over which he was frequently called to preside, he withdrew from polities and devoted himself entirely to the business of insurance, having been elected president of the Equitable Life Insurance Company when it was organized in 1859, of which he was president at the time of his death.

His son, Joseph Addison, clergyman, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 24 April 1809; died in Princeton, New Jersey, 28 January 1860, was graduated at Princeton, with the first honor in his class, in 1826, and associated himself with R. born Patton in the establishment of Edgehill seminary at Princeton. From 1830 to 1833 he was adjunct professor of ancient languages at Princeton, after which he spent some time abroad studying languages. In 1838 he was made professor of oriental literature in Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1852 was transferred to the chair of biblical and ecclesiastical history, which he held until his death. He was master of almost all of the modern languages of Europe, and as an orientalist had few superiors. This great linguistic knowledge is shown in his numerous exegetical works, which include "The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah" (1846), "The Later Prophecies of Isaiah" (1847), "Isaiah illustrated and explained" (1851), "The Psalms translated and explained" (1850), "Commentary on Acts" (1857), and "Commentary on Mark" (18,58). He also published a series of "Essays on the Primitive Church Offices" (1851), and numerous articles in the " Biblical Repertory" and "Princeton Review." Since his death his " Sermons " have been published (1860), and also a" Commentary on Matthew" (1861), and "Notes on New Testament Literature," prepared in conjunction with Dr. Charles Hodge (2 vols., 1861). His biography, by his nephew, Henry Carrington Alexander, was published in 1869. His son, Samuel Davies, clergyman, born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1819, was graduated at Princeton in 1838, and studied theology in Princeton seminary. He preached in various places, and in 1855 was settled over the Phillips Presbyterian Church in New York city.

He has contributed numerous papers to the "Princeton Review," and published "Princeton College during the Eighteenth Century" (1872); and a " History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland."

Obama, Barack (1961-)

United States Senator. Born August 4, 1961 in Hawaii, the son of Barack Obama, Sr., a member of Kenya's Luo tribe, and Ann Dunham. At the age of six, Obama moved with his family to Djakarta, Indonesia, after his mother remarried. Four years later, he returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend the esteemed Punahou Academy.

Obama graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science in 1983, and moved to Chicago in 1985 to work as a community organizer in some of city’s toughest neighborhoods. In 1991, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Obama taught for many years at the University of Chicago Law School and helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton’s election. He spent seven years in the Illinois state Senate, always putting working families at the top of his agenda. In 2004, he made a successful bid for the United States Senate, becoming only the third African-American elected to the Senate in more than a century. It has been rumored that Obama is considering making a 2008 presidential run.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, live on Chicago ’s South Side with their daughters, Malia and Sasha. In 2004, he published an autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. His second book, The Audacity of Hope, was published in 2006.

First African American Appointed Clerk Of U.S. House Of Representatives

Lorraine C. Miller, president of the NAACP Washington, D.C. branch and senior advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will be appointed Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Pelosi announced today. As Clerk of the House, Miller will become the first African American to serve as an official of the House of Representatives. She will take the position in February.
“Congratulations to Lorraine Miller for this high and historical mark of distinction,” said NAACP Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond. “Her longtime commitment to civil service is justly and rightly recognized by this prestigious appointment. We are proud that she is one of our own.”
“This is a tremendous honor for the NAACP to have one of its leaders be appointed to such an historic and important position in the House of Representatives,” said NAACP Board of Directors Vice Chair Roslyn M. Brock.
“The entire NAACP family is proud of Lorraine's achievement,” said NAACP President & CEO Bruce S. Gordon. “We are excited that her competence and commitment to public service is being rewarded."
Miller has nearly two decades of experience working for the House. In addition to her current role with Pelosi, she has worked for former Speakers Jim Wright and Tom Foley as well as Congressman John Lewis of Georgia.
A life-long supporter and member of the NAACP, Miller was elected president of the Washington, D.C. Branch NAACP in 2004. She served as official host of the Association’s annual convention last July when it was held in the nation’s capitol.
"After more than a decade of serving individual members of the House, I look forward to the opportunity to work on the behalf of the entire body," Miller said. "Having proudly served the leaders of this nation, alongside some of the brightest and hard-working staff, I am proud to undertake this new challenge to serve Congress and the American people."
Miller's government service includes work in the Clinton Administration, where she served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs for the House. In the late 1990s, she served as Bureau Chief for Consumer Information at the Federal Communications Commission and director of Government Relations for the Federal Trade Commission.
“With the management and leadership skills she has gained at the highest levels of government, Miller will ensure, that the House has the support necessary to effectively carry out our legislative responsibilities," Pelosi said. "Diversity has long been one of the greatest strengths of our nation, and as the first African American official of the House, Lorraine will bring that strength to the Office of the Clerk."
A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Miller holds an executive master's degree from the Georgetown School of Business. She is a member of the historic Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. where she sings in the Senior Choir and serves on the Henry C. Gregory Family Life Center Foundation Board of Directors.

link

John Agard
Born :1/1/1949 Country :Guyana
Best known for/as: Famous Poet & Writer

Biography: John Agard was born in Guyana and lived in the capital city of Georgetown 1949.
As a small child John enjoyed listening to cricket on the radio which in turn opened up his interest in the sounds of words.

At school he obtained his “A” levels in the languages; English, French and Latin, participated in school debates, wrote his poetry and performed in school plays.

In 1967 John left school and begun teaching the languages he studied in school: John worked in a library, then he worked as a sub-editor writing features for the local newspapers, meanwhile maintaining and further developing his interest in poetry. It eventually led to the publishing of his books in Guyana.

Agard became involved in a travelling troupe of Guyanese performers named 'All ah We', and appeared in one film, “If Wishes Were Horses”.

John left Guyana in 1977 and worked with the Commonwealth Institute from1978-1985 as a touring reader, where he visited over 2,000 schools across the UK talking about his Caribbean culture and experiences, giving talks, readings and workshops.

Agard also performed on television stations world-wide, blending his Calypso styled sensuous language with unique sounding spoken word. He published two collections with Serpent's Tail, Mangoes and Bullets and Lovelines for a Goat-Born Lady, and two with Bloodaxe, From the Devil's Pulpit (1997) and Weblines (2000).

In 1989 John Agard was awarded an Arts Council Bursary. In 1993 he became the first Writer in Residence at London's South Bank Centre, where he published A Stone's Throw from Embankment. In 1998 he was Poet in Residence for the BBC with the Windrush Project, the BBC season of programmes that marked the 50th anniversary of the first 500 West Indian immigrants from the Caribbean on the troopship, MV Empire Windrush, in May 1948.

One of my favorite Black Guyanese:

Unique stage and screen talents, Godfrey Cambridge

February 26
Godfrey
Cambridge
*On this date in 1933, Godfrey Cambridge was born. He was an African American actor and comedian, one of the most unique comics of the early 1970’s.

Born to parents who emigrated from British Guiana, he attended pubic schools in Nova Scotia while living with his grandparents. Cambridge finished his education in New York at Flushing High School and Hofstra College, then he began to study acting.

He made his Broadway debut in Natures Way in 1956 and was seen in Purlie Victorious in 1961. He also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions and won an Obie award for a 1961 role in the play The Blacks. Cambridge starred in a stock version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum in 1965. as a comedian he appeared on The Tonight Show and many other variety hours through television.

His material was very much his own style and was drawn off of the racial climate of the times. He played many dramatic characters, one of Cambridge’s most memorable roles was in the Hollywood film Watermelon Man 1970 in which he played a white man who turned black overnight.

During the 1970’s he remained in semi-retirement, making few public appearances. Godfrey Cambridge died on November 29th 1976, while working on playing the role of Idi Amin in a television movie about the raid on Entebbe.

Reference:
The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage
by Susan Altman
Copyright 1997, Facts on File, Inc. New York
ISBN 0-8160-3289-0

Norman Beaton
Born :10/31/1934 Died :12/14/1994
Country :Guyana
Best known for/as: Actor, the title character on the popular British comdey "Desmonds"

Biography: Norman Lugard Beaton was born in Georgetown Guyana to William Beaton was a civil servant, and Ada. Beaton attended Queen's College in Guyana until he was expelled for truancy and bad grades. He was given a second chance at the Government Teachers' Training College and graduated with distinction. Beaton taught School and played with the calypso band The Four Bees before leaving Guyana for London in 1960.

He took a job in the shipping department of a bookshop until his wife and children arrived in London. He then landed a job as a teacher in Liverpool, becoming the first black teacher to be employed by the Liverpool Education Authority.

Beaton would soon become frustrated with his job as a teacher and began writing plays, his first play the musical Jack of Spades centered on the doomed relationship between a black man and a white woman. The moderate success gave Beaton enough confidence to give up teaching to concentrate on the theater. He moved first to Bristol and then to Sussex where he he played the leading role in a musical he had written, Sit Down Banna at the Connaught Theatre. This was the beginning of his acting career.

In the early seventies, Beaton began to perform in plays in London's West End, in 1970 he played the role of Ariel Shakespeare's The Tempest, which he described in his autobiography as "the most important role of my acting career." In 1975, he helped to establish the Black Theatre of Brixton. In 1976, Beaton broke into television in the series The Fosters, however it was his 6 year run (starting in 1988) on Desmonds as the title character that would become his most well known. In 1991 he appeared as a guest on the Bill Cosby show, he also appeared in several movies including The Mighty Quinn (1989). After years of hard living took began taking it’s toll on his health, he flew back to Guyana in 1994 collapsed at the airport and died a few hours later at the age of 60. He is survived by 5 children from 3 marriages.

Cy Grant
Born :11/8/1919 Country :Guyana
Best known for/as: one of the first black actors to regularly appear on British Television

Biography: Cy Grant was born in Guyana, British Guiana as it was then called. He volunteered to serve in the Royal Air Force in 1941 and flew as a navigator in Lancaster Bombers in the 1943 raids on the Ruhr. He was, one of the very first "men of colour" to be commissioned in the RAF during WWII. During the second World War he was shot down and spent two years as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany.

After the war he qualified as a Barrister at Law, but unable to find work he decided upon a career as an actor on stage and in film, as well as a singer in concert and cabaret. His was the first black face to be regularly seen on British Television, singing the news in Calypso on television on the BBC TONIGHT programme.

During his illustrious career he played Othello on stage, co-starred in the Fox movie Sea Wife (1956), with Richard Burton and Joan Collins and was the lead actor in the Italian film Calypso in 1958. He also had major roles in 1973's Shaft In Africa and 1976's At the Earth's Core.

He was also cast as Lieutenant Green in the popular children's television show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. The character was the first black regular character in a Gerry Anderson show, and one of the first black characters ever to appear in children's television.

He has had his own series on radio and TV and his acting career is on record in BLACKGROUNDS, an Oral History Project housed at the Theatre Museum. He is the author of RING OF STEEL, Pan as Cosmic Symbol - natural harmonics and healing (Macmillan 1999). He was the Chairman/cofounder of DRUM, the London based Black arts centre in the 70's and Director of CONCORD Multicultural Festivals in the 80's.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Surrey, Roehampton and a member of The Scientific & Medical Network. Cy has just completed his major book/treatise Blackness & the Dreaming Soul - A journey of Self Discovery and a look at "the wilderness that Western man has failed to explore the dark continent of his own soul "He is an avid He is a practitioner of an eclectic alchemical meditation based on breath and sound.

Cy's Website

How many of you knew this? I did not.

First Black footballer, Andrew Watson, inspired British soccer in 1870s

A worn photograph, some yellowing newspaper files, a cryptic comment and a brief mention in a dusty census tome have been unearthed in Scotland in what has been described as the most important discovery in the history of Black footballers in Britain, the Chronicle has learned.

Andrew Watson of Queens ParkFC, Glasgow, circa 1879, courtesy of the Scottish Museum

"We believe the findings, dated between the 1870s and 1880s, could prove that the first black British footballer was Andrew Watson who played for Queens Park (Glasgow) and Scotland, said Ged O'Brien, director of the Scottish Football Museum and leading member of the Association of Sports Historians.

Born May 1857 in British Guiana, Andrew Watson lived and sired a family in Scotland and came to be known as one of the best players in the whole of Britain.

Details of the discovery read like pages from an archaeological adventure. Researchers sifting through old football programs and memorabilia noted the adolescent face and distinctive features of one Queens Park player and decided to investigate who he was. They combed through the pages of the Scottish Internationalist and the Who's Who 1872-1986. But after 5 years they still had no proper clues to the youth's elusive identity, said O'Brien.

But, scanning the recently digitalised 1881 census data put the researchers on the right track. The entry shows that an Andrew Watson, aged 24, lived with his wife and child at Afton Crescent in Govan. Newspaper interviews and articles of the day gave further clues. Photographs of Watson in the colours of the Queens Park Football Club, the most elite and famous amateur football club of the day, confirmed the discovery. "Our eyes were opened to a wider vision of Watson the man, the Scottish and international player, and club secretary, " says O'Brien.

In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle, Mr O'Brien revealed that Watson started his career with Maxwell FC in Glasgow. His next stop was Parkgrove in 1874. Then came the halcyon days of glory at Queens Park from 1880 to 1887. According to Scottish football researchers, Watson was "no mere scuffler on the field"; he was a respected player and team supporter.

Mr O'Brien said that Watson roamed far afield to play the game, as was common in those days, He was much sought after by clubs in England as well as Scotland. Records show he played in 36 competitive games for Queens Park. He also appeared for the London Swifts in the English Cup championships 1882, making him the first Black player in English Cup history.

Commentators of the day regarded Watson "as one of the best players in Britain". He earned 2 Scottish Cup medals and 4 Charity Cup medals during his career; the Who's Who acknowledged his performances in international matches.

Watson's place in football history extends to the highest echelons of the game. As Club Secretary for Queens Park - the man who arranged the team schedule and managed its affairs - Watson was first Black in a British club's boardroom. He helped build up the profile of his club and prestigious tournaments, and ensured the loyalty of future generations of fans and spectators.

Watson's stellar attributes marked him as special for his times.(The Football Association, the game's governing council, was formed in 1863 and professionalism was legalised in 1885). Undoubtedly, Watson was there at the birth of organised football out of its "aimless, chaotic", often violent, roots in workingmen's culture. No mean feat for a first generation immigrant in a game where nonwhites were rare, and in a city like Glasgow where African Caribbeans were nearly invisible.

Though much more investigation is needed, a few tentative conclusions can be drawn. The discovery could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of Black history in football, said Mr O'Brien. It can provide the impetus for further research into football as a proper area of academic study.

Without doubt, sports observers will have to update their records. Prime examples include Paul Vasili, author of Colouring Over the White Line: The History of Black Footballers in Britain (Mainstream 2002) and Al Hamilton and Rodney Hinds writing in Black Pearls: The A-Z of Black Footballers in the English Game (Hansib 1999). The authors mistakenly cite as "firsts" Arthur Wharton, born in Ghana, who joined Preston North End in the late 1880s, and Walter Tull, of Barbadian descent, who played for the north London club Tottenham Hotspurs in the early 20th century.




The Watson discovery will also stimulate a radical rethink of prejudices about Black footballers' abilities, on and off the field. Andrew Watson, as a player and club administrator, put Scottish and British soccer on the world map. He pioneered a narrative of Black progress in British football that can be regularly tapped for inspiration.


Mistakenly cited as a "first" Arthur Wharton

"Watson was a man of intelligence, foresight and entrepreneurial skills" said Mr O'Brien. Rescuing him from obscurity is one of the most exciting and important events in what remains a murky field of British football history.

SOURCE

SIR JAMES DOUGLAS
August 15, 1803 - August 2, 1877

Sir James Douglas is best remembered as the founder of settlement, trade and industry for British Columbia and in particular Vancouver Island - The Father of BC. Douglas also helped the Hudson's Bay Company become a trading monopoly in the North Pacific.

James Douglas was born in Demerara, British Guiana (presently known as Guyana) in 1803. He has been described as "Scotch West Indian" the son of Scottish Merchant and a free coloured woman. At the age of twelve, he was taken to Lanark for schooling and at age 16 he was apprenticed to the North West Company and entered the Hudson's Bay Company's (HBC) employ on the merger of the two companies in 1821. Four years later, while attached to Fort St. James in the New Caledonia district, Douglas accompanied Chief Factor William Connolly on the first annual fur brigade to Fort Vancouver. There he met Amelia, Connolly's part-Indian daughter, and on April 27,1828 the couple was married.

George Simpson, governor of Rupert's Land who met Douglas at Fort St. James in 1828 described him as "stout powerful active man of good conduct and respectable abilities," but one who became "furiously violent when aroused". This tendency brought Douglas into conflict with the Carrier Indians and caused Connolly to obtain Douglas' transfer to Fort Vancouver to serve under John McLouglin in 1830. There Douglas became Chief Trader in 1835 and Chief Factor in 1839.

In 1843, Douglas began constructing Fort Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island to replace the existing northern coastal forts. Anticipating the eventual withdrawal of the HBC from Fort Vancouver after the British accepted the forty-ninth parallel as theboundary between the United States and Canada in 1846, he also had a new brigade trail blazed on British territory from New Caledonia to Fort Langley on the lower Fraser River. Fort Victoria became the main pacific depot in 1849 for furs being transshipped from the interior. The fear of American expansion northward caused Britain, January 13, 1849 to lease Vancouver Island to the HBC for ten years. Douglas the supervisor of the fur trade since 1845 was appointed HBC agent on the island.

Meanwhile Britain had selected Richard Blanshard for governor, a barrister willing to serve without salary. Blanshard arrived in March 1850 and shortly resigned and departed Vancouver Island in August 1851. His abrupt departure was a result of harsh local conditions, HBC's treatment of striking miners at Fort Rupert, fears of Indian attacks and most importantly Douglas' refusal to soften his Indian policy. Consequently, Douglas was appointed Governor of Vancouver Island, October 30, 1851.

This appointment inevitably led to conflicts. It was difficult for Douglas to reconcile the interests of governor and company official. The only revenue available for public buildings, schools, churches and a road was from liquor licenses. Qualified and educated men were in such short supply that Douglas appointed his own brother-in-law as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And in 1856, Douglas was instructed to establish an Assembly for the island. He was opposed to universal suffrage and believed that people really wanted "the ruling classes" to make their decisions. Based on this belief, property qualifications for the franchise and for membership in the Assembly were set so high that only a few landowners could qualify.

Then gold was discovered in the Fraser Valley in 1857. This event brought on an onslaught of American miners searching for a "stake". These American miners also had strong American sympathies and could easily bring about the annexation of British Columbia. Due to this immigration and due in part to the shortage of qualified men, Douglas extended an invitation to California Blacks to settle in British Columbia, specifically Fort Victoria. Both the miners and first black settlers arrived on Sunday, April 25, 1858.

Interestingly enough, prior to the discovery of gold, Douglas had already claimed the land and the minerals for the Crown. After the discovery of gold, he began to license the miners and to stem an invasion, to stop foreign vessels from entering the river. For this action which appeared to protect the HBC monopoly he was reprimanded. Also as a result of the gold discovery, Britain cancelled the special privileges granted the HBC until March 1859.

Meanwhile, a new colony on the mainland was created by a parliamentary Act. Douglas was offered the governorship on condition that he sever his fur trade connections. He would be given extensive political power since it seemed unwise to experiment with self-government among men (mostly miners) who were dubbed "wild, miscellaneous and perhaps transitory. In November 1858, Chief Justice M.B. Begbie inaugurated Douglas still governor of Vancouver Island, at Fort Langley as governor of British Columbia.

During his term as British Columbia's governor, it appeared Douglas was chiefly concerned with the welfare of the miners. For example, he relied on his gold commissioners to lay out reserves for the Indians and thus eliminate the threat of warfare; to record mining and land claims; and to adjudicate mining disputes. For the gold colony he devised a land policy which included mineral and pre-emption rights. His water legislation met the needs of the miners who employed rockers and flumes.

During the winter of 1858, he had used voluntary labour to make a pack trail to the mining area above the Fraser gorge. By 1862 he was planning to finance by loans (about which Britain was not fully informed) a wagon road 640 km long following the Fraser to distant Cariboo where gold nuggets had been found. It was extended in 1865 to Barkerville, an ebullient mining community.

Towards the end of his term as governor of British Columbia, Douglas had allegedly developed a singularly aloof manner. Some historians attributed this to Douglas' sensitivity over his and his wife's background. Indeed, historical reports included that some of his old friends complained about his pomposity. New associates complained about his despotism. New Westminster merchants complained about having to pay customs duties. The effect appeared to be cumulative. Douglas' term as governor of Vancouver Island expired in 1863; since British Columbia was about to be given a more liberal type of government, it seemed to Britain an opportune time to retire him. Praise for his works and his talents and being knighted Sir James Douglas in 1863 softened the blow.

After his term as governor, Sir James Douglas continued to reside in Victoria until his death August 2, 1877. He was 74.

For More Information On Sir James Douglas Check Your Public Library, Local Bookstore, or BC Public Archives or check our links.

References:

Blakey Smith, Dorothy. James Douglas: Father of British Columbia
Oxford University Press, 1971

Gardner, Alison F. The Canadians: James Douglas
Fitzhenry & Whiteshide Limited Don Mills, Ontario 1976

Pethick, Derek James Douglas: Servant of Two Empires, Vancouver
Mitchell Press, 1969.

SOURCE

MORE ON SIR JAMES

One for the Berbicians:


Beryl Gilroy: Innovative Caribbean Writer
By Peter D. Fraser

Beryl Gilroy, who has died of a heart attack aged 76, was a novelist, writer, London's first black head teacher and one of Britain's most significant post-war Caribbean migrants.
Born in Springlands, Berbice, Guyana (then British Guiana), she grew up in a family with a commitment to learning - rather than the current rigid system of schooling. The interplay between valuing curiosity and the thorough acquisition of skills helped foster a mind of great creativity. She was also growing up at a time when anti-colonial radicalism and pro-worker politics inspired hope.
From 1943 to 1945, Beryl attended Georgetown's teachers' training college, leaving with a first-class diploma. After graduation, she taught and lectured for the Unicef's nutrition programme.
She always maintained that her decision to go for further study in England, rather than the United States, was decided by exchange rates rather than visions of Britain. Arriving in 1951, after initially facing problems in finding employment as a teacher, she taught from 1953-56 in Inner London Education Authority schools. It was a period recounted in her autobiographical Black Teacher (1976).
The publisher softened her book, fearing for its sales, but it was a harsher account of the conditions of her mainly white, working-class pupils, and of the obstacles facing black teachers, than that of ER Braithwaite's To Sir With Love (1959). Braithwaite was one of the first post-war West Indian writers resident in London whom Beryl got to know. She also retained a special affection for the writer and editor Andrew Salkey.
For a key period in the 1950s, Salkey was the writer-in-residence and main presenter in the BBC World Service's Caribbean section, and he was generous in his support of young, especially women, writers. Taking women seriously as writers - unless they were dead - was unusual among that group. At a conference to honour Salkey, held a few years before his death in1995, she forcibly stressed that point.
Her own creative writing for adults would be delayed for decades. She continued to add to her academic qualifications - and found people who shared her radical politics. The broad progressive alliances that she knew from Guyana she met again in England.
Most importantly, in a personal sense, she found her English husband Patrick. With their loving marriage to support her, from 1959 to 1968 - when she rejoined the ILEA - she devoted her energies to bringing up her family, but managed to fit in writing textbooks and books for children.
As the parent of "mixed-race" children - a curious term seeming to question the humanity of one parent - she encountered as much nonsense from the supposedly better-educated as she had in her working-class schools. Her own good sense and Patrick's support helped her remain unscathed.
In 1968, she became deputy head and then head of Beckford primary school. Some of her experiences are in Black Teacher, but a sequel never appeared. In 1982, she joined London University's Institute of Education and the Ilea's Centre for Multicultural Education.
This ended her direct involvement in schools but opened a new phase in her career, in which she applied her psychological knowledge to her teaching experience. Later, she got a doctorate in counselling psychology.
The death of her husband in 1975 affected her and her children deeply, but she learnt from it. All this contributed to her understanding of children, which she passed on to friends and teachers, both in Britain and the US. The hideous politics of Guyana stopped her doing that work there. She was also a founder member of Camden Black Sisters.
The mid-1980s marked a return to her abiding interest of writing. She showed herself once more an innovator. Her first novel, Frangipani House (1986), set in Guyana, explored issues of ageing, hitherto absent in West Indian novels. She began to explore the history of the Caribbean and African diaspora in the period of slavery. Steadman And Joanna (1996) was the first of these; her most recent, the as-yet unpublished She Wore Silk, has as its central character a black woman involved in the Gordon Riots of 1780. Her qualities as a writer were more slowly appreciated by critics than readers.
For her work in education and her writing, the Institute of Education made her a fellow, and the University of North London conferred an honorary doctorate.
She is survived by her son Paul, her daughter Darla, and two grandchildren. Jessica and Eric Huntley write: Years after she left her birthplace of Springlands, on the banks of the Corantyne River, and sharing a border with Dutch-speaking Suriname, Beryl Gilroy transformed its oral history into prose and poetry.
The young Beryl, at a time when most children were at school, spent time with her grandparents and many aunts, immersing herself in the folklore, sayings, knowledge of medicinal plants, and stories of the Ndjukas, across the river in Suriname. There was no learning by rote for her, and her fantastic memory stored those days to become the subject matter for her stories.
In Georgetown, after graduation, the authorities provided early recognition that she was an especially gifted teacher. Unicef aside, she became head of the infant section of Broad Street government school - a premier institution in its day - teaching by activity, as her extended family had in Springlands.
In a sense, that 1951 arrival in England meant that she had come home, for, like many of her generation, she was a colonial at heart, even if those early years in the "mother country" tested her resilience. But there were those other expats to relieve the gloom: people such as Andrew Salkey, George Lamming from Barbados (whose The Emigrants was published in 1954), and Samuel Selvon (The Lonely Londoners, 1956).
We had the pleasure of working with Beryl on the Bogle-L'Ouverture reprint of Black Teacher (1994). She was the best publicist of her work, always full of confidence - even in the last few months when her work was obviously inhibited by illness, she was planning an American lecture tour.
For the past 26 years, Beryl was a widow, much like those aunts of her childhood. "It is not easy being a widow, or a widower for that matter, although lonely widows always buzz around a man on his own," she wrote to us last December. She had written a story on the subject, based on a friend's experience of how he had made his choice between four women. "They all had to cook," she went on. "Three made elaborate meals and one gave him 'Welsh Rabbit', his favourite: he had cooked it for himself since his wife died and eating it was one way of being with her, in loving intimacy."
* Beryl Gilroy, teacher and writer, born August 30 1924; died April 4 2001
(Reprinted from the Guardian.)

SOURCE

Jan Rynveld Carew, Emeritus Professor Northwestern University, was born in Agricola-Rome, Guyana, South America on September 24, 1920. Novelist, poet, playwright, educator, Carew describes himself as "an inveterate wanderer for whom travel is like the breath of life." In addition to his education at Howard and Western Reserve Universities in the United States, he also studied at the Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia and the Sorbonne in France.

He is a founder of the field of Pan-African Studies. Jan Carew has served as lecturer, professor or program director at Princeton, Rutgers, George Mason, Hampshire, Lincoln and London Universities.
Writer, artist, and educator, Jan Carew moved to Louisville in Fall 2000 as a Visiting Scholar-in-Residence with the Pan-African Studies Department. An authority on fields ranging from Third World studies to Caribbean literature to race relations, he has also served as an advisor to the heads of state of numerous nations on the African continent and in the Caribbean.

A founder of the field of Pan-African Studies, Carew entered academia after living for years in Britain as a writer, and in an Emeritus Professors of African-American and Third World Studies at Northwestern University. Among the many universities that. He is a permanent advisor to the University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia and to the St. Petersburg University of the Pedagodical Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He has been a major contributor to the Journal of African Civilizations and Race and Class. He is the author of Grenada: The Hour Will Strike Again (1985), Fulcrums of Change (1988), and Ghosts in Our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England and the Caribbean (1994). His essays include: "Estevanico: The African Explorer," "Columbus and the Origins of Racism in the Americas," and "Moorish Culture-Bringers: Bearers of Enlightenment."

Jan Carew is also the author of Black Midas (1958), The Wild Coast (1958), The Last Barbarian (1962), Green Winter (1965), The Third Gift (1981), Children of the Sun (1980), Sea Drums in My Blood (1981), and Rape of Paradise (1984).

He has resided in Mexico, England, France, Spain, Ghana, Canada and United States. The men and women that he has interacted with include W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Shirley Graham DuBois, Maurice Bishop, Cheikh Anta Diop, Edward Scobie, John Henrik Clarke, Tsegaye Medhin Gabre, Sterling D. Plumpp and Ivan Van Sertima. They all form a veritable pantheon of illustrious African scholars and activists.

Honourable Mr. Robert H. O. Corbin, MP
Leader of the People's National Congress Reform
Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition of Guyana

Mr. Robert H.O. Corbin, M.P., Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition of Guyana and the Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, has given distinguished public service for the past thirty-nine years as a Teacher, Public Servant, Youth Leader, Professional Social Worker, Politician, Legislator, Minister of Government and as a member of the Guyana Elections Commission.

Born in the mining Town of Linden, his early upbringing was rooted in the Presbyterian Church where he spent many years actively working in the Youth Ministry. A graduate of the University of Guyana and the Hugh Wooding Law School he holds the Diploma in Social Work, (Dip. S W); the Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL.B); and the Legal Education Certificate, (L.E.C), of the Caribbean Council of Legal Education.

As a social worker, Mr. Corbin worked in many hinterland and rural communities of Guyana promoting social and economic development. From 1966 to 1977 he was widely recognized as a youth leader skilled in organising, mobilizing and training young people for nation building. During this period, he held positions of Executive member, General Secretary and later National Chairman of the Young Socialist Movement, the Youth Arm of the Peoples National Congress. It was his work in this organisation that propelled him to the forefront of the movement to secure national independence and self reliance.

Mr. Corbin has also been an elected member of the Central Executive Committee of the People’s National Congress for the past thirty years and has served as its Senior Vice Chairman and General Secretary. He was elected Chairman of the party at its Biennial Congress in August 2000 and was returned at the Biennial Congress in August 2002 for a further two-year term. Consequent upon the sudden death of Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte, he was elected Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform at a Special Congress held on February 1, 2003.

An elected Member of Parliament for twenty-four continuous years from August 1973 to October 1997, Mr. Corbin held a number of Ministerial portfolios. These included, Cooperatives and National Mobilisation; Youth Sports and National Service; Regional and National Development; Local Government; Agriculture and Forestry; and, Works, Communications and Public Utilities. He was also Deputy Prime Minister between 1985 and 1992. As an Opposition Member of Parliament between 1992 and 1997, he was Shadow Minister for Works, Communications and Regional Development. He was re-elected to Parliament at the 2001 General Elections and was elected Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition on May 2, 2003.

During his years of service, Mr. Robert Corbin traveled extensively throughout Guyana, acquiring vast knowledge of the needs, challenges and potential of the various communities and actively worked in many of them, promoting their development.
Mr. Corbin has ably led many delegations to various international conferences in pursuit of Government and Party Business, the earliest of which was as a member of the Guyana delegation to the Non Aligned Summit in 1970 held in Lusaka, Zambia. He has also effectively represented his Party and country in numerous countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

His indomitable strength in the face of adversity, his resolute calm in situations of crisis, his political acumen, leadership skills together with his vast knowledge of the history and development of his Party and country, have all served to fashion this man who has never faltered in his commitment to the Peoples National Congress Reform and Guyana. A protégé of the late, Dr. Ptolemy Reid and Forbes Burnham and a trusted advisor of the late Desmond Hoyte, Robert Herman Orlando Corbin, a committed nationalist is dedicated to rebuilding and strengthening the Peoples National Congress Reform to realize its vision of a modern, prosperous, developed and united Guyana.

Robert Corbin, a practising Attorney At Law is married and has five grown children. He has always been a keen sportsman and was active in athletics, swimming and other games. He still finds time to keep fit by playing squash. Among his hobbies are boating, hunting and horseback riding.

Cuffy - a National Hero
1763 Berbice Slave Revolt

Cuffy is one of Guyana Heroes. He along with Akara (another Hero) lead the 1763 Slave Revolt on 23 February, 1763 from his base at Plantation Lilienburg, The 1763 Monument which was designed by Brother Moore is a respectable tribute to the African slave Cuffy and the history of the proud Afro-Guyanese people. Cuffy and his followers overthrew the Berbice governor van Hoogenheim and took over his leadership as Governor of Berbice.
Some of the plantations that Cuffy and his army captured were Mon Repos, Magdalenenburg, Lilienburg Juliana, Essendam, Hollandia, Zeelandia Elizabeth and Alexandre and Fort Nassua.

Akara was known as Cuffy's Deputy. He led attacks on Dageraad at a time when the European reinforcements were already in place. The African slave army suffered defeats. The European reinforcements soon recaptured Berbice. However, Akara is still recognized as one of African Guyanese heroes since he rallied in the struggle for freedom.

"King Fighter" - Guyanese calypso musician

Source: Trinidad Guardian

written: January 1, 2000

A number of personalities in Trinidad and Tobago, where the Guyana-born [Sherland] Wilson developed his composing and singing career, fondly reminisced about him following his death two weeks ago in a Grenada hospital, reportedly from a stroke.

Often referred to as the "Pyjama Suit Man" after one of his calypsoes, King Fighter was known for his wit and humour.

He would dramatically snatch off his ever-present hat, showing his bald head, before bursting into "Come Leh We Go (Sukie)" - another favourite calypso piece.

His "People Will Talk" also remains among the most requested vintage calypsoes.

King Fighter was ranked among calypso's legends, a title not often bestowed upon a non-Trinidadian, especially at a time when Sparrow and Melody ruled the calypso world tightly.

King Fighter goes back, a survivor of calypso wars and hard times in-between calypso seasons, to champion the cause of good lyrics and respectable delivery. Singing for over 30 years, King Fighter performed with some of the most respected bards in the business, breaking calypso barriers.

Fellow calypsonian and friend Fred Mitchell (Composer) remembered King Fighter as an extremely jovial person who was always mentally alert.

"Nobody could pass anything by him, there was never a topic or conversation that he couldn't contribute."

Composer, who shared several stages with Fighter, says he met the bard in the late 50s and the two remained friends.

"He had a very melodic voice. (He was) a very nice person to be around; people would talk to him just to hear his Guyanese accent and he would oblige."

Composer, a past president of Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO), said that many are not aware that King Fighter could claim one of the greatest calypso classics of the 20th century - "People Will Talk."

"It's unfortunate that his passing has gone unnoticed," said Composer, noting that when King Fighter became ill, he didn't share this with everyone, since he wanted no special treatment.

Without exception, everyone who knew Fighter agreed he was a very pleasant and witty individual.

Radio broadcaster and producer/presenter of a local radio programme, Vintage Calypso, Winston Maynard, said Fighter's genre was calypso wit.

"He was not handsome, he was bald and he loved to poke fun at himself."

Maynard said calypso fans used to look forward to his coming from Guyana for the calypso season.

He was one of a battery of Caribbean calypsonians - including Lord Coffee and Lord Canary - who made the annual pilgrimage during the build-up to Carnival.

A calypso connoisseur, Maynard says the closest King Fighter came to a Road March win was with "Come Leh We Go Sukie."

After his success, Fighter got married and took a sabbatical.

However, when he tried to return in the 90s he found that there was no longer a place for him in local calypso tents, with the traditional calypso music making an evolutionary change with new sounds.

Local entertainer and calypso collector Dennis "Sprangalang" Hall remembers King Fighter as a "gentle soul", and not a "rowdy fellow."

Hall said, "He had a nice voice and made nice tunes. He was a kind of tunesmith, one who understood the mix of calypso and East Indian music."

Always a favourite when it came to going down memory lane, King Fighter was given his big calypso break by Syl Taylor to sing at the Original Young Brigade (OYB), one of the top-ranking calypso tents.

One of the ultimate nostalgia men, King Fighter went on to become an integral part of historic "The Glamour Boys" Tour which successfully played in Montreal, Boston, Baltimore and New York.

Pelham Goddard, top calypso arranger and musician, who worked on one of the last recordings with King Fighter, also recalls the "gentleness" and simplicity of the calypsonian.

"I first met Fighter through Art De Coteau in the 70s while we were working in the recording studio and later when we were putting down the tracks for Living Legends of Calypso - The Glamour Boys Again. He was a nice and humble person and a very melodic singer.

"Before that, I provided musical back-up for him at a show in St Thomas."

Goddard says the calypsonian was not one for extravagance and when asked to wear a suit and tie for the filming of the CD insert, King Fighter turned up in what he called his "Caribbean bacchanal shirt."

"He was a true, true calypsonian."

King Fighter's legacy in his music will live on a CD salute to the "golden years of calypso."

Former Grenada Calypso Monarch Elwin ("Black Wizard") McQuilkin, who performed in Trinidad for a number of years alongside Fighter, remembered him best this way.

"He like(d) to take off his hat while performing and show his bald head and the crowd would roar," McQuilkin recalled.

"He was a very good performer on stage and a very witty calypsonian. He was not well rewarded as a calypsonian, though," Wizard told Cana.

King Fighter's last public performance was as a guest artiste during the Grenada National Song Festival in October, when he received an award for his contribution to the development of regional calypso.

He was known as the Singing MP - during LFSB's govt.

He lived at Peter's Hall. I remember passing by his house going to school & seein g him playing the steel pan.

Sunday, February 26, 2006
Lord Canary: Guyana 's oldest living calypsonian


By Melanie Allicock
At 69, Lord Canary is the oldest living local calypsonian.

He has however proved that he still has what it takes to excel at the art form when he grabbed the coveted crown from a field of 12 younger competitors to become the 2006 Calypso Monarch two Saturdays ago at the National Park.

His piece “Show me de love” won the hearts of the judges for its excellent musical arrangement, coupled with good stage performance and clarity of diction.

According to `Canary,' the song took a candid, critical look at whether the ‘love' being touted by a number of entities, both locally and internationally, is actually being given to those who need it.

The sweet, clear melodious voice of the `Canary' was an added dimension to the piece and helped clench the title.

The singing experience of Lord Canary - born Malcolm Corrica - spans some five decades and extends to the Caribbean region and wider afield. Locally he has contributed significantly to the sustenance and improvement of calypso, not only through his participation in numerous contests but also during his tenure as Minister of State for Culture which he held during the 1980's. He also coordin