Roots Journal

“Bring Your Family, Tell A Friend, Antigua’s Carnival 2010”

2010-05-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

It is a ten-day festival of colorful costumes, beauty pageants, talent shows, and especially good music. The festivities, which celebrates emancipation, are exciting and extensive, ranging from the Party Monarch and Calypso Monarch competitions of Calypsonians, the Panorama steel band competition, and the spectacular Parade of Bands to the Miss Antigua Pageant and the Caribbean Queen's Competition. In addition to these major events, the nonstop revelry of this eleven-day carnival includes innumerable smaller festivities, including local concerts, food fairs, parades, and cultural shows. Please join us at Carnival 2009, the Caribbean's greatest summer festival!

Antiguan Music

There are several different musical forms featured during Carnival. Calypso, the oldest, has its roots in slavery; a common explanation of its origins is that it began as a way for slaves, who were forbidden to speak in the fields, to communicate with each other. It is a polyglot, improvisational form that depends largely upon the skill of a soloist, (the calypsonian) who weaves the sounds of many cultures into a lyrical whole. Calypso competitions have long been a highlight of Carnival.

Steel drum music was created when the bamboo percussion instruments traditionally used to back up calypso were replaced by hammered steel pans cut from oil drums. Whereas there is no dispute that the steel pan was developed in Trinidad, the indigenous development of the steel band in Antigua and Barbuda was an outgrowth of the iron bands which were prominent at Christmas time. Steel drum music has been an important part of Carnival since that time, and Antigua is home to many of the Caribbean's finest steel bands. Soca is a musical form that grafts the slower beat of American soul music to the upbeat tempos of calypso. Soca began in the 1970s, and by the middle of the 1980s it had become an integral feature of Carnival. Another musical form popular on Antigua is reggae. Although it originated in Jamaica, reggae has been incorporated into the Antiguan music scene for years.

Antigua discovers more Stanford assets

2009-03-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

Just how much property does Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford own in Antigua and Barbuda?

The government thought it had knowledge of the full extent of his assets but now it may not be so sure.

The government says it has discovered that an additional 151 acres of land part-owned by Mr Stanford was not included in a resolution taken to Parliament at the end of February.

When Parliament approved the compulsory acquisition of about 250 acres of lands owned by Mr Stanford, the lands comprising two off-shore islands were not part of the package.

The authorities said they were not aware that the financier, who is accused of a $8bn fraud in the US, had bought the majority shares in an international business corporation which owned the islands.

Malaysian owners

Mr Stanford is said to have brought the assets of Guiana Island and Pelican Island, both off the country's north-east coast, for US$68 million and $17m respectively, last year.

The lands were previously owned by Malaysian investor Dato Tan Kay Hock who had purchased the property in the late 1990s but failed to develop a promised major tourism investment.

After coming to power in 2004, the Baldwin Spencer administration placed a caution on the lands and the matter is before the courts.

An international arbitration handed Dato Tan ownership but the government has appealed.

Both houses of Antigua and Barbuda's parliament approved the acquisition of the land before a US court appointed receiver, Ralph Janvey, moved to seize it.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a civil complaint against Mr Stanford, two associates and three of his companies.

They are alleging that they misled investors who bought certificates of deposit from the bank.

A judge overseeing the civil fraud case authorised Mr Janvey, a Texas lawyer, to freeze the assets of the billionaire and his main companies as regulators pore over their finances.

That includes his businesses in Antigua and Barbuda, where Mr Stanford held citizenship.

Antiguan interests

His businesses there include two restaurants, a newspaper, cricket grounds, a development company, a three-branch local bank and the headquarters of his offshore bank.

Together they employ some 800 people making Mr Stanford the island's largest private employer.

According to 2008 United Nations figures, the total population of Antigua and Barbuda is 83,000.

"We have to give ourselves a bargaining chip, so when the receivers come they have to deal with the government of Antigua and Barbuda," Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said after the House of Representatives approved the seizure.

Opposition parliamentarians abstained from the vote in both houses.

The opposition had said the government should wait for more evidence of wrongdoing, and to see whether US authorities would file criminal charges against Mr Stanford.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Caricom labours over free movement

2009-03-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

Two Caribbean prime ministers sound forth on freedom of movement in the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

Sometimes it seems like a mini war of words without the name-calling.

Lofty rhetoric or straight talking?

The Prime Ministers of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados have recently made public statements on the vexed question of the right of eligible nationals of Caricom member nations to move freely across the region.

Barbados is fingered in the regional media as the country most guilty of frustrating the will of the regional single trading market in this area.

The Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said he used very frank and robust language against such practices at a meeting in Bridgetown in January.

Inferior goods

Speaking to the media on his return home, Dr Gonsalves made no reference to Barbados, but he let forth on how he believes Caricom nations generally should behave when it comes to the rules of the single market.

He said: "No one country can cherry pick their way through these various instruments, that you take those most favourable to you and try to resist those you might consider unfavourable.

"In that regard, St Vincent and the Grenadines cannot be asked to purchase goods more highly priced from Caricom countries, sometimes inferior goods ... and yet you could make life difficult for my nationals to enter or stay in your country to work."

It is perhaps when he raised the term "managed migration" that it could be interpreted that he had Barbados in mind - because that is the term frequently used by Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson and his governing Democratic Labour Party.

They had used it in relation to the flow of Guyanese migrants into Barbados, one of Caricom's more well-off nations.

Phased introduction

This what Dr Gonsalves said: The revised (founding) Caricom Treaty of Chaguaramus established a system of managed migration and no country can substitute its own system of managed migration..."

As he indicated, the single market dreams of full freedom of movement, but has had to settle for a phased introduction.

Just a limited number of categories qualify at the moment, such as university graduates and media workers.

Dr Gonsalves said his comments at the Bridgetown meeting received backing from other member states, including Barbados.

At a news conference on 1 March, the Barbados Prime Minister was asked about the free movement issue.

"We are seeking to comply with what Caricom has asked us us to comply with," Mr Thompson said.

"But I can't promise you that we are going to eliminate all barriers to freedom of movement immediately in Barbados and I'm not going to allow any other Caribbean leaders to encourage me to be involved in a lot of lofty rhetoric."

Again, Mr Thompson did not give names.

Development fund

He said that his government aim was for those "invited" to the island's shores to enjoy adequate social services in line with what Barbadians enjoy.

"We have to have an orderly process to achieve that goal; the idea of just throwing open your doors is not going to be my approach to it."

Mr Thompson suggested that Caricom use its new development fund to improve the standard of living of disadvantaged areas of the region.

"If we try to increase standards across the board in the Caribbean then we can have an integration movement that makes a lot more sense."

--BBC Caribean.com

Caribbean News in Brief

2009-02-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

The Antigua and Barbuda government has hailed the formation of a new consortium taking over Allen Stanford's Bank of Antigua as an incredible feat.

The Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Financial Company was set up on Monday.

Finance Minister Errol Cort said they averted a disaster.

“What we as the government, the ECCB (Eastern Caribbean Central Bank) and the various indigenous banks have been able to achieve is an incredible feat.

“In essence we were able to successfully avert a disaster,” he said.

"Volatile environment"

The Director of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank(ECCB) has been talking about the challenging circumstances which have led to the formation of the sub-region's newest commercial bank.

Last Friday the ECCB seized control of the Stanford bank.

Mr Stanford is being investigated by US authorities on fraud allegations.

The Stanford affair is expected to be a prominent issue in the campaign for general elections scheduled for 12 March in Antigua and Barbuda.

To ECCB Director General Sir Dwight Venner it was a volatile mix.

"This is a very unstable and volatile environment", he said, "and not the most conducive for conducting such a delicate exercise."

Strike call

The leader of Guadeloupe's umbrella trade union body has called for a general strike to be resumed.

Elie Domota made the call on Monday in a speech to workers after more than 10 hours of talks with employers failed to a reach agreement over pay.

The unions are demanding an increase in salaries of 200 euros - about 250 US dollars.

All but one of the employer groups have agreed to a formula to give them 100 euros, asking the French government to make up the shortfall for 3 years.

The French government representative at the negotiations said on Monday evening that the state had already made it clear there was nothing more to give.

The unions say they expect an answer on Tuesday from the French government.

US-Caribbean "bridge"

The governor of United States Virgin Islands has said that he sees the US territory as a bridge between Washington and the Caribbean.

Governor John deJongh was speaking in the US capital after a meeting with White House officials.

He was among governors who met principally to discuss the economic stimulus plan of the Obama administration:

Governor deJongh said he told White House officials that he wanted the views of the Virgin Islands and other offshore territories to be seriously considered rather than regarded as an afterthought.

The bottom billion

A report for the United Nations says the world's poorest countries should move away from selling their natural resources and concentrate instead on manufacturing.

The UN's Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) says that making components for manufactured goods would be the best way to lift out of poverty what's called the "bottom billion".

The report says that, by contrast, poor countries heavily reliant on their raw materials tend to distribute wealth among relatively few people.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Stanford bank taken over

2009-02-26T15:41:00.000-08:00

The fallout from fraud allegations against Allen Stanford has regional repercussions
The Antigua government and five commercial banks are the new shareholders of the Bank of Antigua, previously owned by Sir Allen Stanford.

After a few days of meeting between the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and sub-regional banks, a new entity - the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Financial Company Ltd - has been created to run the affairs of the Bank of Antigua.

The Central Bank took control of three Stanford-owned companies in Antigua on Friday, after US financial regulators accused the Texan billionaire of an eight billion dollar fraud scheme.

The Antigua and Barbuda government secured 25 percent of the shares of the new company to become the single largest shareholder.

Five other commercial banks from St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua have each secured 15 percent shares.

The banks are the Antigua Commercial Bank, National Bank of Dominica, St Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank, East Caribbean Financial Holding Company Limited (Bank of St Lucia) and the National Commercial Bank of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Central Bank and the new shareholders will be charged with the responsibility of capitalising the Bank of Antigua which has lost million of dollars after hundreds of customers withdrew substantial deposits last week after a run on the bank.

Politics

The Stanford scandal comes at delicate time for Antigua as the country is in full campaign mode for the March 12 general election.

This issue is expected to become a central one for the campaign, and already the opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) has spoken out against the government's attitude towards Mr Stanford.

It was the ALP, while in office, which had facilitated the Texan billionaire's presence in Antigua.

The ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) has had its run-ins with Sir Allen who has extensive business interests in Antigua.

--BBC Caribbean.com

US 'must rethink Cuban embargo'

2009-02-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

The US economic embargo on Cuba "has failed" and should be re-evaluated, senior Republican Senator Richard Lugar argues in a report.

"We must recognise the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuba regime in a way that enhances US interests," Senator Lugar says.

President Barack Obama has promised a new look at US policy towards Cuba, including easing travel restrictions.

But he has said he believes the embargo is an "inducement" for change in Cuba.

Senator Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a hugely influential figure in US politics, says Washington's policies towards Havana have been ineffective.

"After 47 years... the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people'," he says.

"It may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba's impoverished people."

Senator Lugar's views are contained in a report that was drawn up by a member of his staff and was due to be released on Monday.

"By directing policy toward an unlikely scenario of a short-term democratic transition on the island and rejecting most tools of diplomatic engagement, the US is left as a powerless bystander, watching events unfold at a distance," the report says.

It stops short of calling for the trade embargo to be lifted but does urge:

* an end to restrictions imposed during the Bush administration on travel and remittances to Cuba
* reinstituting formal co-operation on migration and tackling drug-trafficking
* allowing Cuba to buy US agricultural products on credit.

The report, which comes a year after Fidel Castro officially handed over power to his brother, Raul, suggests leadership changes provide an opportunity to rethink policy.

Growing consensus

Washington's long-standing economic isolation of Cuba is one of the most ideological and controversial elements of US foreign policy, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

But this report points to growing cross-party consensus that this policy has to change, he says.

President Obama has indicated that he would be open to dialogue with Cuba's leaders. He also supports easing restrictions on the number of visits Cuban-Americans can make to the island and the amount of money they can send.

During last year's presidential election campaign, Mr Obama said the embargo had not helped bring democracy to Cuba but he added that it did provide an "inducement" to change.

The Obama administration has so far not devoted much attention to Cuba and Latin America, given more pressing issues at home and abroad.

But an administration official told the Washington Post newspaper that it was "not unreasonable" to expect that Mr Obama would ease the limits on family travel and remittances to Cuba before he attends the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in April.

In a separate development, a bipartisan bill to restore the right of US citizens to travel to Cuba was presented in the US House of Representatives earlier this month.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Jacksons star in Nigeria resort row

2009-02-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

One of pop superstar Michael Jackson's brothers, Marlon, is involved in a controversial plan to develop a $3.4bn (£2.4bn) slavery memorial and luxury resort in Badagry, Nigeria.

The historic slave port is to be transformed through the bizarre combination of a slave history theme park and a museum dedicated to double Grammy-winning pop-soul group the Jackson Five.

The idea is that the band will help attract African-American tourists keen to trace their roots back to Nigeria.

The men behind the plan say it will honour the history of the transatlantic slave trade and provide employment opportunities for Nigerians.

But the plan has been condemned by Nigerian commentators.

Slave tourism

The African-American history trail is worth billions of dollars, the developers say.

Ghana and Senegal have successfully turned slave ports into tourist attractions.

The Jackson Five

The Jackson Five got discos moving in the 1970s and the 1980s
The developers say the Badagry Historical Resort will be marketed to African-American tourists as a mixture of luxury tourist attractions and historical education.

Visitors will be able to see the route their ancestors walked, shackled together as they were whipped toward the "point of no return".

They can then retire to their five-star hotel to drink cocktails by the pool.

Visitors will be able to pay their respects at the site of a mass grave for those who died before boarding ships across the Atlantic Ocean.

And then travel a few yards in a buggy to play a round of golf.

They can visit a replica slave ship to see the conditions Africans suffered, before visiting the world's only museum dedicated to the career of the Jackson Five.

Academics believe up to two million people died and at least 10 million transported to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th Centuries.

The Jacksons' upbeat tunes like ABC and Blame it on the Boogie enlivened US and UK discos throughout the 1970s.

On display at the museum will be animatronic vignettes of the band, memorabilia and "holographic displays" of the group that launched the career of Michael Jackson.

'The right place'

"The Badagry Historical Resort development project will certainly enhance the quality of life for millions of people across Nigeria," promotional material for the resort says.

But critics have dismissed the project as a cynical money-making scheme, inappropriate for the subject of such seriousness as the transatlantic slave trade.

The idea to bring together slavery and the Jackson Five came during a visit to Nigeria by US businessmen and former Jacksons singer Marlon Jackson.

"The Jackson Family had been looking for a place to site their memorabilia collection for some time," says Gary Loster, a former mayor of Saginaw, Michigan, and chief executive of The Motherland Group.

"We visited the site of the slave port in Badagry and Marlon turned to me and said: 'Let's put it here, this is right'.

"It's such an emotional place, and I think we all felt that it was the right place to have the Jackson family memorial."

Money

But respected writer and historian Toyin Falola has condemned the project.

"It is not appropriate from a cultural or historical point of view. Those who are looking for money care about money and no other thing," he said.

The slave trade

The professor of history at the University of Texas and author of many books on the Nigerian diaspora and African-American history said the development was exploiting painful history.

"Money-making and historical memory are allies in the extension of capitalism. You cry with one eye and wipe it off with cold beer, leaving the other eye open for gambling," he said.

Writer, columnist and PR consultant C Don Adinuba said if the resort was being built by a company run by a white person, there would be uproar.

"This plan is morally reprehensible, it's like dancing on the graves of dead people and telling them you're honouring them."

The developers say they will treat the slave memorial with sensitivity.

They hope it will become a "historical destination" similar to the Holocaust museum in Berlin.

The luxury hotels near the site will provide jobs and development to the local economy, they say.

'Aggressive'

The developers, who include the creator of the hit TV series Power Rangers, have ambitious plans for the resort.

The Motherland Group says the resort alone will pull in 1.4m visitors in the first year, rising to 4.4m in five years.

But that would represent an incredible increase.

Mr Loster says they will have to work with the government to change some of the bureaucratic restrictions on tourists if their project is to attract the numbers it needs.

Currently fewer than 300,000 tourists a year visit Nigeria, they say.

It is impossible to get a visa without a letter of invitation.

Flights to Nigeria are expensive, and there is little tourist infrastructure to cater for European or American consumers when they get there.

And then there is the country's reputation as a chaotic and violent place.

Mr Loster admits their projected figures are "aggressive."

"We know the problems facing us, we have visited Nigeria several times," he said.

Antigua bank crisis

2009-02-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

Customers have been queuing up to withdraw their funds from Bank of Antigua

Authorities in Antigua have been scrambling to shore up the banking system, in the wake of the fraud charges laid against the island's biggest private employer, Allen Stanford.

On Tuesday, US financial regulators charged Mr Stanford in connection with an alleged $8 billion fraud scheme involving three of his companies.

Customers have been queuing up to withdraw their funds from the Stanford owned Bank of Antigua.

But representative of the local Bankers Association, Everette Christian, said the entire financial system could be destabilised if customers continue to withdraw their deposits.

+ + +

ALP welcomes election date

The opposition Antigua Labour Party has welcomed the announcement of an election date.

However the ALP leader Lester Bird said the March 12 polling day could pose a problem for incoming observers.

Mr Bird says that regional and international organisations would have little time to set up missions to observe the elections, with only 22 days notice.

+ + +

Sarkozy to meet Guadeloupe officials

The French President Nicholas Sarkozy is to meet with lawmakers from Guadeloupe today, in an effort to end the ongoing strike against the high cost of living.

The meeting follows a fresh round of violence on Wednesday night, which saw security forces coming under fire.

Officials said five shots were fired at the police near the capital Pointe-a-Pitre, in the latest incident.

No one was wounded but the security forces withdrew from the area.

Hundreds of extra police and paramilitary gendarmes have been sent to the French island, since the strike degenerated into looting and violence earlier this week.

+ + +

Protest planned against deportation

Activists in the United States have called a protest for Saturday, as Washington moves to deport over 30,000 Haitians.

Hundreds have been put in detention centres or on electronic monitoring at home, in preparation for repatriation.

US authorities complain that deportations have been dragged out because the Haitian government has failed to provide proper documentation for the trips.

The Haitian government also insists that Port-au-Prince is not in any shape to handle a major return of refugees.

But activists and immigrants alike have called a protest rally for Saturday in Broward County just north of Miami.

They are demanding an end to arrests and deportation of Haitians, the right to work, and the release of hundreds of Haitians held in detention centres across the country.

+ + +

Financial crisis affects Dominica carnival

The weakened global economy appears to be affecting carnival celebrations in Dominica.

President of the Calypso Association Kelly Williams says compared to previous years, attendance at carnival shows this year has been poor.

Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago and the French Caribbean celebrate carnival this weekend.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots & Culture: Alex's Carnival diary

2009-02-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

DAY 1 - Monday Feb 16th

An early flight brought me into Piarco International, and securing my Trinidadian dollars, collecting my bags and making my way through customs was a smooth affair. You immediately feel the full national impact of Carnival when a customs officer stamps your passport and says: "Make sure you don't overdo for the Carnival!" I must have looked like a usual suspect.

I stayed my first night with some Trinidadian family of mine who live in Trincity in the east of Trinidad, and within an hour of my arrival, had been caught up on all the island's 'bacchanal' - some debacle between Machel Montano and Shurwayne Winchester at a concert last weekend, the postponement of the popular party "Jamboree" due to heavy rain and the island's feverish preparation for the upcoming Summit of the Americas (probably in that order!). Having the inside track of local family, is a bit like staying with a Royal in London or Rihanna in Barbados - you get an Access All Areas pass!

Most radio stations are at 100% Soca Music rotation, and so far Hunter's slow chutney soca "Jep Sting Naina" is one of my favourites! The television advertisements are fully endorsed by soca artists and their songs, so even the TV on in someone's house sounds less like a TV and more like a fete.

Lastly - a little story. I asked a Trinidadian en route here, what I must see at Trinidad Carnival. The response was: "It's not what you must see, it's what you must eat!" So far, I've eaten: doubles, pholourie and home cooked fried fish, and I have decided that I am willing to gain weight this week. As the Trinis would say..."don't study it!"

--By Alex Jordan: Port of Spain, Trinidad
BBC Caribbean.com

Jamaican ghetto upholds Marley legacy

2009-02-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

"I remember when we used to sit/ In the government yard in Trenchtown.../ And then Georgie would make the fire lights/ And it was logwood burnin' through the nights/ Then we would cook cornmeal porridge/ Of which I'll share with you..."

These days, people in Trenchtown, a gritty, violence-wracked district of Kingston, don't gather around logwood fires, sup on communal broth and sing songs any longer.

Life has moved on in Bob Marley country.

But 26 years after the death of the reggae superstar, Trenchtown, which gave birth to reggae music and its legend, is trying to showcase its most prominent resident's legacy.

It is all happening in the "government yard", the public housing project where Marley lived and which he sang about famously in his songs.

This was also where he wrote his first songs, learnt to play the guitar, met fellow musicians like Peter Tosh and went on to form the Wailers, reggae's most famous band. He also travelled to a studio from the ghetto to record their first album, Catch A Fire.

This yard - a warren of 16 cramped rooms where Marley and his friends lived - are being restored by Jamaican architect Christopher Whyms-Stone with help from donations from the British, German, Canadian and American embassies.

Marley memorabilia have been put up in the rooms, the interiors have given up a fresh lick of paint and the legend's first guitar is also on display.

In the singer's impossibly small home with a concrete kitchen counter and a small bed, there is a fraying poster of the Wailers.

Even his beat-up 1970 Volkswagen, which was rescued from the detritus with graffiti reading "Live and let others live" intact on its windows, may be repaired and retro-fitted by the German automobile maker.

"Marley and his fellow residents hardly lived in their one-room homes. They would only sleep in the room at night. The rest of the time they would spend time outside with neighbours. They lived in the verandas, courtyards and streets and mingled with the people," said Mr Whyms-Stone.

Social engineering

It is not easy to attract visitors to the "culture yard", as the Marley home is now called.

Trenchtown's image as a violent neighbourhood in crime-ridden Kingston scares away most tourists, who would otherwise like to make the place their main stop on the Bob Marley memory lane trip.

"The problem is wooing the local tour operators to come to the area. The way to counter [the image] is through reducing crime and by massive advertising," says Mr Whyms-Stone.

Marley lived in one of Jamaica's most ambitious social engineering exercises - a cluster of homes with cedar doors and windows and gable roofs built around courtyards with communal bathrooms - all to encourage a thriving, but orderly community life.

Residents of the yard, set up in the early 1940s, had to abide by stern laws. You could not display or keep poultry in a cage, cut down fruit trees or let bathwater run into the area.

The community thrived in the yards and spawned great talent. Reggae pioneer Joe Higgs, West Indian cricketer Collie Smith, Rastafarian elder Mortimer Planno, black nationalist William Grant and a host of cracking musicians, including Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, lived and worked here.

Old-timers here still fondly remember Marley, who died of cancer in 1981, as a man who put a run-down Jamaican neighbourhood on the world map.

They tell stories of how he played football when he was not singing, how he drove around with fellow Rastafarians in his Volkswagen, how he would return to the ghetto with bagfuls of money to distribute after he found money and fame.

Spiritual legacy

The most popular of all stories involves Vincent Ford aka Tarta, the legend's childhood friend who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown.

People in Trenchtown believe that Tarta not only taught Bob how to play the guitar but also wrote the words to No Woman No Cry, about their time in the yard.

Others, including many critics, say Marley credited Tarta with the words, so that his friend, disabled and ravaged by diabetes, could fend for himself all his life.

Trenchtown old-timer and Marley pal Cutty, who runs a stew and fish house, remembers the time when the singer would play football in the evening every evening.

"If he hadn't become a singer, he would have definitely become a great footballer," he says.

Across town, every year some 2,500 people visit Marley's posh-looking colonial bungalow, with latticed windows and marble stairway, which has been turned into a museum. They also buy T-shirts at the souvenir shop and snack on Ethiopian food.

Here, Marley rehearsed five albums and even survived an assassination attempt. His musician children continue to record at the in-house studio.

But Trenchtown remains the place where Marley's spiritual legacy is truly alive and well. The yard, set in bleak surroundings, receives at least 50 tourists a month without any advertising.

As old-timers say, the ghetto gave Marley the real vibe. As he sings in Trenchtown Rock: "One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain... /Hit me with music now, oh now, hit me with music now."

--BBC Caribbean.com

Plaque honours memories of Marley

2009-02-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Reggae legend Bob Marley has been honoured with a heritage plaque at his former north London home.

The plaque, the first to be endorsed by the mayor, was unveiled at 34 Ridgmount Gardens in Camden on Thursday.

Jamaican-born, Robert Nestor Marley remains a top-selling reggae artist but died from cancer, aged 36, in 1981.

The event is part of Black History Month, a season of events promoting the contribution of African-Caribbean communities in London.

Marley's widow Rita said: "My husband's music is loved all around the world, although he had a special affinity with London.

"The family is pleased that he is being honoured with a commemorative plaque in London and we truly look forward to seeing it the next time we are in London. Jah bless you all. One love."

Marley lived at Ridgmount Gardens in 1972 when he first came to England, just as his group the Wailers were making a name for themselves.

The plaque has been organised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust in partnership with the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

Marley remains a powerful force in international music

Mr Livingstone said: "Like many people, I have appreciated and admired the work of Bob Marley for decades.

"He was quite simply a musical genius, and he remains a much loved international, iconic reggae artist.

Sharon Saunders, acting Jamaican High Commissioner, said it was a proud day for the Caribbean nation.

"I'm particularly proud as a Jamaican to see Bob visibly represented on a building here in London."

Marley, who was behind songs such as Get Up Stand Up and One Love, was presented with Jamaica's Order of Merit a month before his death in Miami.

This week he was listed as one of the world's top-earning dead celebrities, by US business website Forbes.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Buena Vista bassist Cachaito dies

2009-02-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

Buena Vista Social Club founding member Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez has died in Cuba aged 76.

The double bass player died in a Havana hospital from complications after having prostate surgery.

Lopez became a worldwide sensation as part of the group of elderly musicians who were living quietly in Cuba before being brought together in 1996.

He was considered to be Buena Vista's "heartbeat" in the band's mix of traditional Cuban rhythms.

"It is a great loss for the group and for Cuban music because he was a superb bassist and a brilliant band mate," said Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, the group's trumpeter.

"He was an excellent person and the quality of his music was, honestly, unparalleled."

Manuel Galban, a Cuban musician who played with Lopez for decades, said he had lost "a great companion".

"I will remember him as marvellous, both in his music and as a person," he told the Associated Press.

Family members plan to cremate the body but there was no immediate word on funeral services.

International fame

The Buena Vista Social Club, which was brought together by American guitarist and producer Ry Cooder, has lost many of its key members of late.

Singer Compay Segundo, pianist Ruben Gonzalez, and vocalists Ibrahim Ferrer and Pio Leyva have all died in recent years.

But Lopez was also a star in his own right independent of Buena Vista, with his debut album Cachaito winning a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in 2002.

Born in Havana in 1933, Lopez hailed from a family of at least 30 bass players, including his uncle, legendary bassist Israel "Cachao" Lopez.

Lopez originally played the violin, but eventually took up the bass after his grandfather urged him to follow in the family's musical footsteps.

But he only gained international fame after joining the Buena Vista Social Club.

German film-maker Wim Wenders released a documentary titled Buena Vista Social Club, in which he profiled the musicians whose talents had all but been forgotten. It was nominated for an Oscar in 2000.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots Sports Report: Time for a win

2009-02-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

West Indies cricket legend Sir Vivian Richards thinks the time is ripe for the Caribbean side to turn the corner and put some more wins under their belts as they face England in a four test series.

The first test match began on Wednesday at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

"I believe it's about time, if you are a professional person and you have been playing for some time and been at the receiving end of some hidings, the work would have been in such a place for you to get things in place to turn things around," Sir Viv said.

The West Indies have lost their last four series against England and 13 of their last 17 test matches against the tourists.

The last time the teams met at Sabina Park, the West Indies were bowled out for 47 runs and lost the match within three days.

Sir Viv, who holds the distinction of being the only West Indies captain to have never lost a test series, is in Jamaica this week.

The Antiguan said so many resources had been invested in West Indies coaches and the team, that there comes a point when all that investment must start to reap benefits.

"I believe there is a time where you must have a settled unit in order for you to be successful. We cannot afford to be making these changes over and over again, " he said.

Be consistent

Richards pinpointed the current Windies Captain Chris Gayle, whom he has termed "lackadaisical", and batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan as two players who have promise.

But he said they need to be consistent and live up to the hype which surrounds them.

"It is the people you have that you are going to go along with, the ones you are confident that would be the ones to take it to the next level...this is why I say this series has that turning point where all these things should fit into place."

Meanwhile the former skipper warned that England's chances of winning the series should not be discounted despite the recent upheaval in the country's cricket.

He said what makes the team most dangerous is the fact that they are not at home.

"Touring away from home is always the greatest in terms of the camaraderie, the spirit that you bring...away from home there always seems to be a much closer unit.

"Teams in my opinion do better when they are away from home and this may be an occasion for England to feel that this is the opportunity away from home to go back saying we have achieved whatever against odds," Sir Viv said.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Three deny SA reggae icon murder

2009-02-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

Lucky Dube was an internaionally recognised reggae

Three men have denied at the high court in Johannesburg murdering the internationally-acclaimed South African reggae star Lucky Dube.

Julius Xowa, Sfiso Mhlanga and Thabiso Maroping also deny unlawful possession of firearms and attempted hijacking.

The shooting of the 43-year-old musician outside his brother's house in Johannesburg in October 2007 shocked the country.

Lucky Dube's family and friends were in court for the opening of the trial.

The accused - all in their early 30s - were denied bail when they appeared in court in November last year.

It emerged at the time that one of the suspects had been out on bail on a separate charge when he allegedly took part in the murder of the reggae star.

This angered opposition parties and members of the public who questioned the country's judicial system.

But police were praised for making quick arrests.

Death penalty calls

Four suspects were initially taken into custody, but one was later released under the instruction of the directorate of public prosecutions.

Lucky Dube was shot dead in front of his son and daughter in Rosettenville, a southern suburb of downtown Johannesburg.

The killing led to renewed domestic calls for the restoration of the death penalty in a bid to stem one of the world's highest murder rates.

The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says South Africa's international image has been tarnished by its alarming crime levels.

Nearly 19,000 people were murdered last year, according to official statistics.

Millions of visitors are expected for next year's football World Cup.

Lucky Dube, who recorded in Zulu, English and Afrikaans, began his career by singing mbaqanga (traditional Zulu) music and recorded his first album with the Super Soul band in 1982.

He later moved into reggae, producing Rastas Never Die, which was banned by the apartheid government.

His albums Slave, Prisoner and Together As One won him global recognition.

The trial is expected to last about a month.

______

Roots Sports Report

England's biggest obstacle

By Pranav Soneji

Chanderpaul made his debut against England in Georgetown in 1994

Shivnarine Chanderpaul enjoys long stays, both at the crease and currently at the top of the Test cricket's world rankings.

The West Indian star sits comfortably above the likes of Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, Kevin Pietersen or Sachin Tendulkar. But unlike them, he is the epitome of substance over style.

Considering the West Indies managed only one win in nine Tests in 2008, Chanderpaul's coronation as the International Cricket Council's Cricketer of the Year last September is nothing short of a remarkable achievement.

So if 2009 is anything like the previous two years, England's biggest challenge in the Caribbean in the Test series which starts on Wednesday will be penetrating fortress Chanderpaul.

In his last two series against England, the left-hander has averaged 72.83 and an astonishing 148.67 - even the great Don Bradman could not match the latter over a single series.

In the 2007 series in England, he averaged nearly 12 hours at the crease in total, compiling 448 mostly unspectacular, yet equally priceless runs.

"He doesn't give anything away," England fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom has said. "Even when you beat the bat, he still hangs in there.

"Nothing seems to affect him and if you are slightly off line, he will punish you.

"He plays the ball very late, which may be why he plays and misses quite a bit because he doesn't follow the ball. You have just got to be patient yourself and make him play as much as possible."

Attempting to describe Chanderpaul's technique to someone who has never seen him bat without using the word "unorthodox" is impossible.

The bail-bashing ritual to mark his guard which greets his arrival at the crease, the tweak of the pad, the doff of the helmet, the periscope back lift with his feet pointing towards mid-on - it's all so, well, un-West Indian.

He may not possess the savage butchery of Sir Vivian Richards or Clive Lloyd, nor the artistic finesse of Brian Lara or Rohan Kanhai.

But after 20 Test hundreds and and 50 half-centuries, Chanderpaul has become one of the all-time Caribbean greats.

The 34-year-old shares his name with the Hindu God Shiva, but their temperaments are polar opposites.

Shiva is the destroyer, known for his untamed passion which leads him to extremes in behaviour; while Shiv is the creator, known to frustrate opponents with his crab-like stance as impenetrable as it is unique in tranquil and serene fashion.

Yet Shiva the destroyer has had a profound effect on Shiv the creator.

A devoutly spiritual man born to Indo-Caribbean parents in Guyana, Chanderpaul has a picture of Shiva in his right pocket every time he bats.

And occasionally, creator turns destroyer - a 67-ball century against Australia in 2003, the fourth fastest in Test history, or smashing a six to win a one-day match off the last ball against Sri Lanka in Port of Spain in April last year.

606: DEBATE

Chanderpaul has always been obdurate, but his adhesive qualities have become almost Superglue-like in the past two years.

And according to former England international Graeme Thorpe, Chanderpaul's greatest strength is his simplistic approach to batting.

"He has worked his game out - he understands how to build an innings," Thorpe told BBC Sport.

"He's patient when he needs to be, knows the areas where he is strong, when to get out of the way of quick bowling and when to take it on.

"He also has an incredible amount of mental strength.

"He is able to clear his mind after each ball - whether he has hit it for four, six, played a horrendous swipe or been beaten by an absolute jaffa."

Despite his unique style, Chanderpaul is a refreshingly uncomplicated cricketer. Take the two dark patches under his eyes when batting emblazoned with a sponsor's logo.

An elaborate ruse at publicity from a savvy agent? Not quite - turns out he bought the stickers at a supermarket because he needed something to reduce the glare when he was batting.

Very no-nonsense. Very Chanderpaul.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Bob Marley would have been 64 on February 6

2009-02-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

Open your eyes and look within
Are you satisfied with the life you're living?
We know where we're going
We know where we're from
We're leaving Babylon
We're going to our father's land
— Bob Marley, "Exodus," 1977

__________________________

Bob Marley: 1945-1981
The king of reggae finds his Zion
by Timothy White

Reprinted from Rolling Stone -- Issue 346. June 25, 1981

Death took Bob Marley in his sleep on May 11th at the age of thirty-six. It was around noon, just forty hours since he had flown to a Miami hospital after checking out of Dr, Josef Issels' West German clinic, where he had been treated for lung liver and brain cancer. Days earlier, Chris Blackwell, a close friend and head of his record label, Island, had shown Marley a photo taken of him when he was sixteen, on the day he was married to Rita Anderson. Looking over Blackwell's shoulder, gazing at her slight son as he lay in bed, his dreadlocks gone due to the illness, Bob's mother said that he looked the same now as he did back then.

"Once a man and twice a boy," Chris Blackwell said later. "That's the way it was."

The pervasive image of Bob Marley is that of a gleeful Rasta with a croissant-sized ganja spliff clenched in his teeth, stoned silly and without a care in the world. But, in fact, he was a man with deep religious and political sentiments who rose from destitution to become one of the most influential music figures in the last twenty years. His records have sold in the multimillions and have been covered and/or publicly adored by Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Linda Ronstadt and Paul Simon, among others. Marley was also incredibly prolific, writing and releasing hundreds of songs that were bootlegged under nearly half as many labels in an equal number of far-flung locales. There was hardly one kid in the Caribbean who did not want to meet, if not be, Bob Marley.

On the day before his triumphant Madison Square Garden concert in 1979 — a sold-out event that would prove to be a turning point for commercial recognition of reggae in this country — Marley talked about his first record, the solo single "Judge Not," cut in 1961. He recalled how excited he was when he sang it at a talent show in Montego Bay. He was sixteen then, just another poor country boy in the Kingston ghetto of Trench Town who dreamed of hearing his voice blare out of a jukebox. That same year, he did. And less than two years later, Marley would be a founding member of the trio known as the Wailers, harmonizing with boyhood friends Neville O'Riley Livingston, now known as Bunny Wailer, and Winston Hubert McIntosh, a.k.a. Peter Tosh.

"I was a skinny child with a squee-ky voice," he said, erupting in the creaking sandpaper cough that was his laugh. "So skinny, mon! Skinny like a stringy bean."

Marley was always open in his gratitude to Chris Blackwell, the white Jamaican producer and founder of Island who rescued him from the shark-infested Caribbean record industry and staked him through thick and, often, thin. Island leased and reissued "Judge Not" (albeit under the misnomer "Bob Morley") in England in 1964, as well as a succession of Wailers singles, but the initial Island LP, Catch a Fire didn't appear until 1973.

The first Wailers album to see widespread international distribution, it was not an immediate commercial smash. But critical reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with much praise for the record's hypnotic, sulfurous songs. Intriguingly, the loping, hiccupping stutter-beat that propelled them was the inside-out opposite of funky American R&B tempos. Blackwell and Marley were thrilled with the response, and a long-term alliance was forged.

The Wailers had gone through several maturation processes to arrive at their sophisticated, heavily rock-influenced sound in the Seventies and Eighties. There was the ska period (1964-1966) with producer Clement Dodd; their shaky rock-steady explorations (1966-1967) with Leslie Kong on the Beverley's label; the Lee Perry era (1967-1970); and the obscure but uniformly excellent material turned out in the late Seventies and Eighties on Marley's independent Tuff Gong label. (Tuff Gong, incidentally, derives from "Gong," an old street name of Marley's hat was also the nickname of early Rastafarian leader Leonard Howell.)

The Wailers' music was never less than danceable, and Bob assumed the roles of shaman, soothsayer and dance instructor at his concerts, encouraging the audience to fall in step with his lithe rebel's hop as he transformed the proceedings into a mass mesmerization that owed more to a Pentecostal revival or a Rastafarian Grounation meeting than a rock concert.

Marley and the others supplied the religious fervor, but following their juvenile rock-steady meanderings, it was Lee Perry who redirected the group musically and vocally. Marley wrote some of his finest songs ("Duppy Conqueror," "Small Axe" and "Brain Washing") with Perry, and while Perry's substandard recording facilities held them back technically, he pushed Bob to eschew his lazy singing style. Marley's approach suddenly became urgent, plaintive, unencumbered by the silly vocal gymnastics that sometimes marred the Wailers' ska and rock-steady singles.

Perry advised the group to minimize its hackneyed falsetto harmonies and work on unobtrusive backing vocals that would serve as a cushion for sharp, assertive leads. Peter Tosh had an errant baritone he'd long tried to contain, and both Marley's and Bunny Wailer's tenors were fluid but untempered and sloppy. It didn't matter, Perry told them, be genuine and go for the gut. And Perry wasn't obsessed with horns, as were so many other Jamaican producers; he preferred a hard rhythm guitar that was "cuffed" in sharp counterpoint to the bass, which he allowed to belly to the foreground. The tempo was thud-heavy, volatile and as insistent as a nagging child.

"This is how reggae should sound!" Perry carped.

Jealousy and internal power plays ultimately plagued the Wailers, and Peter and Bunny departed in 1973 after the follow-up LP, Burnin', to pursue solo careers. "Jamaica is a place where you easily build up competition in your mind," Marley said of the break-up. "People here feel like they must fight against me and I must fight against you. Sometimes a guy feels he should do that because he might never have no schoolin' and I went to school, so he feel he must sing some song to wipe me off the marker or I should do the same. Jealousy. Suspicion. Anger. Poverty. Competition. We should just get together and create music, but there's too much poverty fuckin' it up. People don't get time to expand their intelligence. Sometimes I think the most intelligent people are the poorest — they just want to eat.

"God created the earth for us, but people wonder, 'Who owns the tree, who owns the ladder, who owns the ganja pipe'" He shook his dreadlocks in disgust.

"When the thieves took up with reggae music, mon, they have it made! It easy in Jamaica for any guy who have a few dollars to rent a studio, go in, get a recording, ask the engineer to mix it. The hustlers move in as soon as he's gone into the street; the record goes into stores and Jojo knows nothing about what happened! Jamaicans go slow, everything is 'soon come,' but if there's one thing Jamaicans rush about, it's making a recordin'!"

When he finished, Bob sat quietly for a moment then burst out laughing. "Ahh, nothin' is important that much, eh?" he said with a bobbing nod and a shrug.

On December 5th, 1976, two compact cars stormed into Marley's Hope Road compound in Kingston, where the Wailers and the Zap-Pow horns were rehearsing for the upcoming Smile Jamaica concert that was being sponsored by the group and the Jamaican Cultural Ministry. Wielding automatic rifles, at least seven gunmen peppered his home with bullets. Marley's wife was shot as she tried to escape in a car with some of her children and a reporter from the Jamaican Daily News; a bullet lodged itself between her scalp and skull but did not penetrate the bone.

Meanwhile, Marley's manager at the time, Don Taylor, was lying in his own blood at the front of the house. Five bullets had torn into his lower torso, and another punctured Marley's breast near his armpit and then passed through his biceps. Taylor was critically wounded and faced permanent paralysis in his legs, but he recovered fully; Marley was treated at a hospital, released and went on to perform at the music festival. The gunmen were never found, and a motive was never established, although it was presumably political. Jamaica was then undergoing a wave of violence over the future of its Democratic Socialist government, and Marley was seen as being sympathetic to Prime Minister Michael Manley's controversial regime.

"When I decided to do this concert two and a half months ago, there were no politics," Marley told a crowd estimated at 80,000. "I just wanted to play for the love of the people."

At the close of his performance, Bob opened his shirt and rolled up his sleeves to show his wounds. The last thing the audience saw before the reigning king of reggae disappeared into the hills was this spindly man mimicking the two-pistoled, showdown stance of a frontier gunslinger, his head thrown back in triumphant laughter.

Marley's homeland is a one-time slave depot caught between white colonialism and African pride. As the warring native factions in its present independent government deliberate about what is best for their country, they never lose sight of the fact that, until 1962, a Jamaican's opinion was far less important than that of an Englishman. Marley symbolized a bold, hopeful bridge spanning the cultural chasms of Jamaica, and the third world was galvanized by his denunciation of colonialism and his vivid depictions of ghetto strife, while white listeners were drawn by his passion, his conciliatory codas and the childlike affection in his lulling ballads. Ironically, aspects of Jamaica's racial tensions were reflected in the Marley family tree.

Robert Nesta Marley was born in the rural parish of St. Ann, Jamaica, on February 6th, 1945, to Norval Marley, a white, fiftyish British army captain stationed on the island, and his seventeen-year-old Jamaican wife, Cedella. Marley was efficacious in his ability to straddle his bloodlines. "He was just like any other little boy, always playful, lovin' and cooperative with his friends," says Cedella Marley Booker (she remarried in 1963). "But sometimes he was a little selfish. And he always looked to me like he was hiding his true feelin's."

Bob was eight years old when his parents separated. His mother decided to give up her tiny grocery store in Alva, a village near the district of Nine Miles, Rhoden Hall, and move to Trench Town. His father died two years later. "I believe it was malaria," says Mrs. Booker.

In their early days in Kingston, Bob's mother made ends meet by working as a cook or servant. Although the two lived modestly, Mrs. Booker, disliking the area's inferior public-school system, struggled to earn enough to send Bob to private institutions.

But she wasn't breaking her back doing other people's wash so her son could boot a soccer ball off the tumblegown walls of Babylon, and as soon as Bob completed grammar school, she insisted he settle on a trade.

"I really didn't choose anything special as a job for him," she says. "I knew men who were doing welding for a livin', and I suggested that he go down to the shop and make himself an apprentice. He hated it. One day he was welding some steel and a piece of metal flew off and got stuck right in the white of his eye, and he had to go to the hospital twice to have it taken out. It caused him terrible pain; it even hurt for him to cry."

At the time, the Marley's were sharing a roof with best friend Bunny Wailer and his father, Thaddius Livingston. Once his eye healed, Bob convinced his mother that he could make a more comfortable living pursuing a musical career with Bunny. "Bob wrote little songs, and then he and Bunny would sing them," his mother says. "Sometimes I'd teach him a tune like 'I'm Going to Lay My Sins Down at the Riverside.'"

Bunny says that he constructed a guitar out of "a bamboo staff, the fine wires from an electric cable and a large sardine can." He and Bob made do with the crude instrument until Peter Tosh, who lived on nearby West Road, joined in with his battered acoustic guitar. They formed a group and called themselves the Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys and then the Wailing Wailers, playing in local "yards" for tips and eventually in small clubs and talent shows in Kingston theaters.

In 1963, Mrs. Booker immigrated to Delaware and moved in with relatives. Because of the expense, Bob stayed behind in the care of Mr. Livingston and other friends. Moreover, he was committed to his musical career in Jamaica, since the Wailers had grown, with the guidance of Joe Higgs (half of the popular singing duo Higgs and Wilson), into a group worthy of a recording contract. Mrs. Booker sent for her son in 1964, just as the Wailers were establishing a relationship with Studio One, one of the top three recording outfits on the island, so he asked to remain in Jamaica.

Finally in 1966, he paid his mother a visit, but he had little use for the United States, and Delaware in particular. By his own admission, "Everything was too fast, too noisy, too rush-rush." Nonetheless, he prolonged his stay to earn money to start his own record label back home, and thus put some distance between himself and the predatory producers he and the Wailers were forced to deal with.

Among the jobs he held, under the alias Donald Marley, were a stint as a DuPont lab assistant and a short stretch on the night shift at a warehouse and on the assembly line of a nearby Chrysler plant. The introverted singer made few friends, preferring to merely tolerate the present and fantasize about the future. In his mother's words, he was "lost without his musician friends."

On weekends, he lolled around the house, picking out simple melodies on a cheap acoustic guitar and writing lyrics in a little book, a combination diary and songwriting ledger that he guarded judiciously. One of the songs that emerged from that private journal was "It's Alright," a caustic, exhortatory dance tune he cut in the late Sixties for Lee Perry's Jamaican record company, Upsetter.

When Marley first recorded the song, it featured a bouncy, whoa-whoa chorus and antagonistic touts of "Do you like it hot or cold?" His temper had cooled by the time he recorded the song as "Night Shift" in the mid-Seventies, but the words changed only slightly, the power of one young man's determination shining through as he described his lonely, ass-backward work schedule:

The sun shall not smite I by day
Nor the moon by night
And everything that I do shall be upfull and right . . .
Working on the night shift
With the forklift . . .

Marley's stay in Delaware reportedly came to an end when the draft board discovered the lean West Indian after he applied for social security. But when asked about his departure, Bob would shrug and maintain that the ultimate impetus for his flight came from a far less mundane quarter.

While asleep at home one afternoon, he had a dream wherein a man attired in khaki and a weathered hat appeared, described himself as an emissary for the deceased Norval Marley and presented Bob with a ring set with a curious black jewel. He awoke from his mystical reverie and described the vision to his mother. She then produced the very ring in the dream, and Marley slipped in on his finger.

But it made him extremely uncomfortable to wear it, and he reasoned that he was being tested by God to ascertain whether he was more interested in personal gain than in spiritual fulfillment. He removed the ring and handed it back to his mother. After he returned to Trench Town, the message of the dream was interpreted further by Mortimer Planner, a Rasta elder and sometime record producer active in the ganja trade.

Bob Marley subsequently embraced the beliefs of the Rastafarians, who take their name from Lij Ras Tafari Makonnen, the given name of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie; they also draw a good deal of their ideology from Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa admonishments during the Twenties and Thirties, as well as from the Coptic and King James Bibles.

Slowly but surely, Marley let his Sam Cooke haircut go to seed, allowing the lengthening tresses to wind themselves into dreadlocks. He shunned alcohol, tobacco, meat, certain predatory species of marine life and food prepared with salt. Anything, in short, that was not I-tal, a Rasta term meaning "pure" or "natural."

During a 1977 U.S. concert tour to support his Rastaman Vibration album, Marley was sitting in a hotel room, reading a newspaper article that ridiculed his patois. He slammed the paper on the table. "Fucking hell!" he raged. "Tell me, why do they make fun of me? Why do they make fun of Rasta?!" He began to spew out his frustration with those who mocked his dreadlocks, his dialect, his religion, his heritage. He said that he once gave an autograph to a journalist who then told him he was surprised Marley could write, and that he pointed out errors in a story to another reporter who could not conceal his amazement that this rope-haired Rastafarian knew how to read.

Marley was equally distraught over what he saw as the racism and ignorance of critics who damned his music along thematic lines while making no attempt to investigate its underpinnings, to learn that it was steeped in folklore, in the country maxims he had been raised on, in Rastafarian tenets. But what cut deepest was when some black DJs and station programmers in the United States called his records and those of his colleagues "jungle music" and "slave music."

Still, Bob Marley was one of the most revered figures in the third world. Wherever he traveled in the Caribbean or Africa (and Europe, for that matter), he sparked enormous outpourings of affection and admiration. A hero of mythic proportions in his own country, where he was honored with a state funeral, Marley had been given a special citation by the United Nations in 1979 on behalf of third-world nations. And it was no accident that when Rhodesia became the independent state of Zimbabwe the next year, the first words spoken following the order to lower the British flag and raise the new standard were, "Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Marley and the Wailers!" The government had invited Marley and his band to perform at the ceremony marking the birth of a nation. An inspiration for black freedom fighters the world over, he was mobbed in Nigeria, Gabon and every other African country he played in or visited. When his death was announced, the degree of devastation felt beyond our borders was incalculable.

Bob Marley believed that he and his loved ones would one day be free of the degradation and moral turpitude of Babylon, a land without borders in which men sin and suffer for it. He was certain that someday he would enter Zion, the promised land where Jah, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Power of the Holy Trinity, 225th ruler of the 3000-year-old Ethiopian Empire, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Heir to the Throne of Solomon, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, would take his hand. Across time and space they would keep that sacred appointment. You had to envy a man with so profound a faith, and you could not fail to be affected by the fervor of his answer in song to those who claimed that Selassie had died in 1975.

I stood on the other side of the glass in Harry J's Kingston studio on the autumn evening in 1975 when Marley laid down the vocal tracks for "Jah Live." As he sang, the crisp mesh of music and testimony grew louder, spiraling upward, higher and higher in a dizzying prosody of tension and release, until its spell was awesome in its psychic grip.

The truth is an offense, but not a sin!
Is he laugh last, is he who win!
Is a foolish dog barks at a flying bird!
One sheep must learn to respect the shepard!
Jah Live! Selassie lives, chil-dran!
Jah Live! Jah-Jah live!

My final encounter with Bob Marley was last fall, the day after his second concert stand at Madison Square Garden. I was unaware of it at the time, but he was about to undergo diagnostic treatment for cancer at New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital. Stretched out on the bed at the Essex House, he looked drained, frail and annoyed by the flock of hangers-on that filled the numerous rooms of his suite, guffawing loudly and helping themselves to room service.

The aura of joy that had always surrounded him had begun to dissipate. His payment for the previous night's show arrived, and he looked pensively at the crisp stack of bills as if studying an old gimcrack to see if it still held meaning or should be discarded. He absently passed the money to a band member.

Several months later, I was told how sick Bob was. I began to think back on the pleasurable years I spent immersed in Bob Marley and the Wailers.

I remembered hunting through the basement of Daddy Kook Records in London in the winter of 1976. A contact at Island Records had told me it was a particularly good place to locate vintage ska, rock steady and reggae. Sure enough, there were tiers of singles and LPs stacked halfway to the ceiling and spilling out of broken bins. I waded into the confusion and located two of the many treasures I was after: a copy of "Simmer Down," the Wailers' first single, which was cut in 1964 for Jamaican producer Clement Dodd's Studio One; the seminal trio was augmented by singers Juno Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and a woman named Cherry. Singer Joe Higgs had helped him iron out the kinks in their harmonies, and instrumental backup was provided various Skatalites. The rude-boy classic, admonishing unruly ghetto youths to control their tempers, was an instant hit.

The second record was the original version of "Duppy Conqueror," which the Wailers recorded in 1967 while under contract to the Upsetter label. As Peter Tosh once explained to me, "The Wailers were more interested in 'reality music' than 'I love you darlin',' and all that," and the raw, rancorous call to arms that was "Duppy Conqueror" closed with the challenge, "Don't try to show off/For I will cut you off/I will take your rass off." I've never found a band as compelling as the Wailers and a singer who could fire my imagination like Marley.

What I will remember most about Bob Marley is how his music was so much a part of his life. Near the end of our first meeting, in Kingston in 1975, he began to speak about children, how close he felt to them, how their presence always strengthened him and how blessed he was by his own brood.

I told him how I had shuddered when I'd read a story in the Jamaican Daily News about the plight of local youngsters who forage through huge trash heaps on Causeway Road outside Kingston for food and clothing.

He nodded slowly and then told me he had recently written a song called "Children of the Ghetto." "When my children are old enough to sing it," he said, "I'm gonna record it with them."

("Children of the Ghetto," since retitled "Children Playing in the Streets," was released on Tuff Gong in 1979 by the Melody Makers, a group consisting of Bob and Rita's four children.)

Slumped against the great, gnarled tree beside his house on that sun-splashed day, their father began to talk-sing the lyrics: Children playing in the streets
In broken bottles and rubbish heap
Ain't got nothin' to eat
Only sweets dat rot dere teeth
Sitting in the darkness
Searching for the light . . .
Moma scream, "Watch that car!"
But hit-and-run man has gone too far

When he was finished, Bob turned away to watch Rita and son Robbie cavorting on the lawn, and he slipped into a trance. He picked up a stick, rolled it in his palms; his arms tensed and he broke the stick in half with a loud crack!

Then he relaxed, and his lips wrinkled in a weary grin.

"Ahh, Jamaica," he sighed. "Where can your people go? I wonder if it's anyplace on this earth."

I saw his eyes; he knew the answer to that question.

Roots & Culture: Remembering Bob

2009-01-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

Anniversary of Ethiopia concert honoring Bob.

Bob Marley has been a cultural icon since his death at the age of 36

Tens of thousands of people converged on the capital of Ethiopia for a concert to mark Bob Marley's birthday.

The concert was held in Meskal Square, Addis Ababa, in honour of the reggae legend who died in 1981.

Marley's five sons, widow and former backup singers were on the lineup along with top African acts Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour.

It is the first time his birthday has been celebrated outside Jamaica.

Ethiopia, the spiritual home of Rastafarianism, was chosen by Marley's family to host the official event, and is organised by the Bob Marley Foundation, the UN children's agency, the African Union and others.

Free event

Many of those who gathered for the concert wore t-shirts emblazoned with portraits of Marley or hand-bands and jewellery decorated with the Ethiopian national flag and Rastafarian colours of green, yellow and red.

Jamaican Love Stone Sound System perform in Addis Ababa

Organisers were expecting as many as 300,000 people to attend the free event, which was dubbed Africa Unite.

Festivities began on Tuesday in what will be a month-long celebration.

Other highlights of the commemoration - which has been dubbed Africa Unite - include art and photography exhibitions to raise funds for Somali victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, a youth centre and a museum.

Marley, who was behind songs such as Exodus and One Love, won global stardom with his music and helped popularise the Rastafarian religion, which venerates the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

Marley regarded Ethiopia as his spiritual home because of his religious beliefs.

His widow, Rita, said: "It has always been the wish of Bob Marley to return to Ethiopia and become a Rastafarian... and with the African Union, Addis Ababa is the capital of Africa and therefore a very symbolic place."

She added that she wishes to rebury her husband, now interred in Jamaica, in the Ethiopian village community of Shashamene.

"It was a dream of Bob Marley and it is a dream of the family to bury him in Ethiopia," she said.

"As we believe in what is to be, must be, it will happen in due course."

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots & Culture

2009-01-27T08:37:00.000-08:00


	Eddy Grant has been based in Barbados in recent year

Grant eyes South Africa

Eddy Grant is preparing for his first tour of South Africa.

The Guyana-born singer has been promoting his latest album 'Road to Reparation'.

Grant said he was looking forward to finally performing in South Africa after following political and social developments over the years.

One of his hits "Gimme Hope J'oanna" (Johannesburg) has become an anti-apartheid anthem.

Last year he performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London's Hyde Park.

It was on that stage that he debuted with backing musicians from the band that supported the late South African reggae singer Lucky Dube.

They have remained with him since and will back him at next month's concert in Cape Town.

Rose blossoms with age

Calypso legend Calypso Rose has released a new album which she says is aimed at taking her music to a more diversified international audience.

"The arrangements on this album are open to a wider scope of listeners," Rose, now 68, said in an interview.

She uses the release, "Calypso Rose" to revise several traditional calypso and faster-paced soca classics culled from her extensive catalog, with strains of R&B and Caribbean-flavoured jazz.

The album was released in October in France on the Maturity Music label.

It will be released in other European countries in March, and the U.S. release is scheduled for May.

"This is a whole new chapter opening up for me in my senior years," The New York-based Rose told Billboard/Reuters.

Rose, who was a pioneer for women calypsonians, returns to her native Trinidad in February to perform at several carnival shows.

Rihanna concert gets go-ahead

The Ministry of Culture in Malaysia has given permission for a concert by Rihanna take place after the singer agreed to tone down her outfits.


	Malaysian rules forbid skimpy outfits

Hardline Muslims had urged the authorities to ban the 13 February concert because the Barbadian singer's stage costumes and dance routines are "too sexy".

Moreover, the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS) said that concertgoers would also contribute to an outflow of local currency to the United States, where the Barbados-born singer is based.

Concert organisers said earlier that Rihanna will shun skimpy outfits when she performs in Malaysia next month to conform to the Muslim-majority country's strict rules on performers' dress.

A ministry official said they saw no reason to prevent the concert once the singer followed the rules.

Government guidelines demand that female performers be covered from the top of their chest, including their shoulders, to their knees.

It was also reported that Rihanna cannot jump or throw kisses to the public.

The Malaysian concert is part of her "Good Girl Gone Bad" tour.

Shontelle gets the T-shirt

Emerging Bajan songstress Shontelle is poised to make her mark on the British music scene.

Her US and Internet hit 'T-shirt' is due for release in London next month, just ahead of the album from which it is taken, 'Shontelligence'.

T-shirt is a R& B ballad aimed at teenage girls and ladies missing their men.

In an interview with the London Sunday Times, Shontelle said: "I've had hundreds of letters from women saying how much they relate to the lyrics.

I've heard from women whose partners are in Iraq or Afghanistan, who say they listen to the song in their husband's T-shirts and it makes them feel better."

________________________________

Motown hits the Caribbean


	The Motown sound has influenced Caribbean music

Motown has gone down in history as America's most successful independently owned and black run record label.

The entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, Berry Gordy, continues to inspire soca star Machel Montano.

"I relate to the Motown scenario. I think someone like Berry Gordy realised that he had to put these many talented people in a certain area and have them live sort of a lifestyle of producing music of a high quality,” he told BBC Caribbean Magazine.

The Trinidad and Tobago national who runs his own music company, HD Records adds: "I think I see ourselves, meaning my HD family, as running parallel to that in a different time; we are coming from the Caribbean and we represent soca music."

The Jamaica experience

Another Caribbean star whose style is firmly rooted in the Motown tradition is Rita Marley who founded the I-Threes vocal group.

Before finding fame as a backing singer for Bob Marley & The Wailers, she was in a trio called The Soulettes.


	Rita Marley: a soft spot for the Supremes

Rita confessed to a particularly soft spot for The Supremes:

Surprisingly for some, one of the key players in Caribbean music in the so-called ‘early days’ was former Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

He founded the West Indies Limited Recording label(Wirl) back in 1951 - a full eight years before Berry Gordy set up Motown in Detroit in 1959.

Despite Jamaica's confidence in its own evolving musical identity, Mr Seaga says that some concessions were made to the production of Jamaican music in the wake of Motown's global success:

“There is a feeling that the ska was slowed down in rhythm to coincide with the type of rhythm that was coming out of Motown.

“Some feel it was a tribute to Motown because it was a black label where an African American entrepreneur had created a black label with black musicians.”

According to the former record label executive, "Ska ran for four or five years and then it was overtaken by the rock steady."


	Edward Seaga: former prime minister and ex music industry executive

Mr Seaga, who was to go lead Jamaica politically, pointed out that “this phenomenon was something that was highly regarded in Jamaica as a breakthrough and that the music was slowed down for that."

Missing the Motown magic

While Berry Gordy's creative far-sightedness has been acclaimed, Monserrat's Arrow wonders why the Caribbean doesn't have its own 'region-wide Motown’.

"I looked at it and said it's a pity we didn't have an equivalent of that in the Caribbean,” the Hot Hot Hot star lamented to BBC Caribbean Magazine.

According to Arrow, had the Caribbean had a Berry Gordy equivalent, island music collectively, whether reggae, soca, calypso would have had a larger universal influence.

“I always felt that outside of reggae music, the other aspects of Caribbean music have not been fully exploited to international levels.”

Arrow is among a handful of Caribbean soca artistes who have had big international hits.

___________________________

Jamaican Parrots Under Threat

Environmentalists in Jamaica are trying to stop people taking two rare protected breeds of parrot from the wild and selling them as pets.

The Black- and Yellow-Billed Parrots are only found in Jamaica and live in what was a remote part of the island.

However, deforestation and development in the area are contributing to a growing trade in their sale as pets for local and foreign collectors.

--BBB Caribbean.com

Windies cricket falls on hard times

2009-01-26T13:56:00.000-08:00

To many people, the 2007 World Cup was a huge disappointment.

Xavier Marshall is one of many West Indians to have struggled recently

Apart from a farcical finish to the final and regulations which robbed many matches of a true Caribbean atmosphere, the real cost of the whole fiasco can be seen now.

The tournament was supposed to reverse a sharp decline in West Indian cricket, which had devastated the grass roots of the sport within the region.

And even though the competition itself did not pan out favourably, surely the future would be bright with some marvellous new stadiums in place, coaching structures to help young players and a programme to revive domestic first-class cricket?

Not so. The sad truth is that the passion for the game seems to be continuing its downward spiral.

It did not help that when the West Indies Cricket Board [WICB] received US$50m from the ICC, all the cash was instantly lost on paying off an existing debt, and then writing cheques to the various World Cup local organising committees.

Now, sponsors are pulling out of West Indian cricket at every level, and the team itself is struggling to bed in newcomers who are not well equipped for the demands of international cricket.

Tony Becca, one of the most respected Caribbean cricket writers, first covered a West Indies series in 1974.

He witnessed the likes of Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall leave an indelible mark on the game - and some of their opponents.

Becca, now semi-retired, offers a withering assessment of the current state of Caribbean cricket.

Becca told BBC Sport: "Everything is really pathetic. West Indies cricket seems to have lost a lot of ground in terms of supporters and in terms of financial support.

"The World Cup was a big disappointment. Ticket prices were too high for the Caribbean people and [the organisers] seemed to spend too much money building these gigantic stadiums, which were half full."

Whether they are cutting their purse-strings due to the global downturn, or believe there is little future in throwing money at cricket in the Caribbean, the lack of interest from sponsors is a massive issue.

There was no financial backer for the regional one-day tournament - and the first-class competition is similarly sponsor-free.

"It's more expensive to run this time. Each team is playing 12 matches in the tournament, rather than six, so it's going to be more expensive," says Becca.

"It's happening at regional level too - in Jamaica we didn't have a sponsor for our local competition last year and up to now we don't know if we'll have any for this year."

With the WICB now having to meet the costs of these tournaments from its own funds, it is little wonder that cricket is essentially an amateur sport at regional level.

Becca explains: "The problem now is that the only cricketers in the West Indies who get a salary are the ones in the West Indies side, so a guy drops out of cricket by the time he's 25 because he can't get a salary.

"But some guys in the West Indies team have only scored one century or something before being picked. You look at some of the batsmen in their early 20s, Xavier Marshall, Shawn Findlay, Kieron Pollard - they have had very limited experience beforehand."

Marshall is certainly a fascinating case. After 24 one-day internationals, he is averaging less than 20, but the feeling is that youngsters have to be selected and then persevered with before they drop out of the sport altogether.

A rare high point - winning last November's Stanford Super Series

However, Dr Donald Peters, chief executive of the WICB, is determined to bring salaries back into the first-class game.

He told BBC Sport: "The cricketers should not have to live with that situation but sometimes they are their own worst enemy. The West Indies Players Association [WIPA] has worked against them in terms of expanding the realm of professional cricket.

"I believe they should be paid because we cannot operate with a group of 15 professional cricketers. We want a professional league in 2010 and if we can get our proposal through then we are convinced our level of cricket will move up."

But hang on a minute. Is there not a rich sugar-daddy out there solving all the financial woes of West Indian cricket? Is Sir Allen Stanford not making millionaires out of all the finest players in the Caribbean?

Well, yes and no. While the Stanford Super Series last November did take place, and the home team's players netted US$1m each for thrashing Kevin Pietersen's feeble England team, certain events before and after that week in Antigua have soured the Stanford candy.

About a month beforehand, an almighty row between the WICB and Digicel, who sponsor the West Indies cricket team, flared up over whether Digicel had branding rights to the Stanford match.

The "Stanford Superstars" were, the WICB insisted, a separate entity to the team representing the West Indies in Tests and one-day internationals.

But the High Court in London ruled in favour of Digicel, the WICB had to pay huge legal costs, and Stanford was forced to hurriedly place Digicel hoardings around his ground in Antigua.

According to some reports, the US$3.5m the WICB was entitled from the Stanford jackpot has been withheld by the Texan billionaire as a result of the inconvenience.

Perhaps more importantly, future Stanford events - both the tournament against England and the regional Twenty20 - are in serious doubt.

But Becca believes the Stanford angle is, in any event, slightly irrelevant.

"I don't think Sir Allen is the answer because I don't honestly believe that he is interested in West Indies cricket more than his own interests," he said.

"Sir Allen could have sat down with the board and could have talked about a working relationship that could have actually helped West Indies but he didn't."

For Becca, the future remains bleak.

"Cricket is really losing its appeal. I never believed it when people said soccer was pushing cricket into the background, but when you look at how many people support a big football match in Jamaica it's fantastic compared to the turnout for cricket.

The way they were - West Indies fans celebrate in England in 1984

"The WICB and the other people who love cricket and are passionate about cricket in the region have to look at themselves and make a pledge to promote and spread the gospel of cricket around the region.

"I have friends who have surrounded themselves in cricket all their life, and if you ask them 'did you watch the cricket last night' they say 'what cricket?'"

So does Becca believe there will ever be another West Indies team to terrorise opponents with their fast bowlers, and produce batsmen like Richards and Brian Lara?

"Sometimes when I see some of these young guys like Jerome Taylor and Denesh Ramdin I have hope that we will get back, but we need to start again and develop our cricketers.

"Maybe then the time will come when we have a team we can be proud of, but right now I'm not proud," he adds.

Peters, however, paints a slightly brighter picture.

He says the relationship with Digicel remains a strong one despite last October's fallout and he is about to hire a commercial manager to seek other big-name sponsors.

Peters also wants to add under-19 cricketers into the pool of contracted players and wants to bring cricket back into schools.

"We know that we have not been doing too well, but with the right administration and plan we will address some of the difficulties," he adds.

The WICB has certainly faced a barrage of criticism in recent months, not just from the likes of Tony Becca, but Peters sounds like he is prepared to acknowledge the problems and do something about them, rather than hide behind denials and smokescreens.

He should be given a chance to do so, and a Test series win against a divided England team would be the perfect springboard for a renaissance in West Indies cricket.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Caribbean News in Brief

2009-01-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Stimulus package for Belize

The Belize government has announced that it plans to spend about US$100 million on an economic stimulus package.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow said the funds will go toward road building and other infrastructural projects.

The Belize economy has been hit by lower tourism and oil revenues.

Mr Barrow said the money was being raised from international and regional institutions.

They include the IMF, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Caricom Petroleum Fund.

+ + +

Minister praises government's record
The finance minister of Antigua and Barbuda is talking up the country's economic performance ahead of general elections expected within weeks.

Errol Cort told a campaign rally that the governing United Progressive Party (UPP) had more than doubled the pace of economic growth in its first term of office.

Under the multi-term Antigua Labour Party (ALP), he said economic growth averaged 3 percent.

The UPP, which gained power 2004, had presided over a 7 percent expansion in that time, Dr Cort added.

He was speaking in his constituency where his opponent, the former Prime Minister Lester Bird, is holding his own Antigua Labour Party meeting on Thursday night.

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England arrive in Caribbean
It is rare that a Prime Minister turns up to welcome a visiting cricket team.

But that's what happened in St Kitts when England landed to begin their tour of the West Indies.

Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, who is also tourism minister, greeted the tourists at the airport.

His minister of state, Ricky Skerrit, said the government was keen to increase the number of visitors from the UK.

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Spanish queen visits Haiti
Queen Sofia of Spain has met Haiti's President, Rene Preval, in Port au Prince at the start of a two-day official trip.

During her visit, the Queen will tour several Spanish development projects.

From the Haitian capital, the Spanish monarch is due to travel on to Gonaives, where thousands of people were left homeless by four powerful hurricanes that struck the city last year.

The queen had earlier toured similar Spanish projects in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots & Culture: Duke passes

2009-01-17T09:07:00.000-08:00

Legendary Trinidadian calypsonian, The Mighty Duke, passed away on Wednesday after a long battle with a rare blood cancer.

He was 75 years old.

“Born a Pope, crowned a King, named a Duke...” is the opening line of a 2007 tribute song celebrating Kelvin Pope, aka The Mighty Duke.

Duke started performing in 1960, and between 1968 and 1971 he was almost unstoppable.

He won the calypso monarch title four consecutive years with hits such as “What is Calypso”, “Black Is Beautiful” and “Brotherhood of Man”.

In 1987, his hit “Thunder” not only won the Road March title in Trinidad but was a massive hit throughout the Caribbean.

Although his output might not have been as prolific in recent years, Duke nevertheless kept up a busy schedule despite suffering from Myleofibrosis.

In one of his last interviews in December last year, Duke revealed that he penned hundreds of songs in his lifetime.

He said this put him among the top five calypso writers of all time.

For Duke, the role of calypsonian was part entertainer and part chronicler/commentator on socio-political events.

He lamented what he saw as the decline of the art form in recent years.

--BBC Caribbean.com

The Mighty Duke
"Don't Destroy Calypso Music"

Roots & Culture: Obama Inspires Caribbean Americans

2009-01-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

Caribbean-born immigrants are swelling with pride as Barack Obama prepares to take office on Jan 20 as president of the United States.

As the first non-white to lead the US, Mr Obama is fulfilling the dreams and promise of the civil rights era.

But his is a story that provides inspiration among for black immigrants and their children.

We bring three opinions from Miami's Caribbean immigrant community:

RAY GONGORA
The Belize-born naturalized citizen emigrated to the US in 1986 and is regarded by census authorities as Hispanic based on the geography of his birth.

"I am black, so to speak - a brown-skinned Caribbean person," he told the Associated Press.

"You cannot identify yourself as a black American because our cultures are so totally different."

Speaking of Mr Obama's election, he said: "It's an individual accomplishment for each of us."

The 53-year-old postal worker has scheduled a vacation day Jan 20 to watch the inauguration on television at home.

His hope for his US-born children is that no one will question their citizenship in an Obama administration, even with a Honduran mother and a Belize-born father.

"I said to my (17-year-old) son, 'You are natural born, you were born here. You can be president even if your parents were both born in different countries'," he said.

JEAN-MARIE DENIS
"Obama is my brother!", beams the 67-year-old Haitian-American.

"Martin Luther King's movement was a continuation of Toussaint L'Ouverture's dream. Obama is, 40 years later, the realization of Martin Luther King's dreams," said Denis. "Toussaint L'Ouverture didn't work in vain."

Haiti is home of the world's first successful slave rebellion, led by former slave L'Ouverture.

Denis, a naturalized citizen whose runs a bookstore in Miami's Little Haiti, also sees himself in Mr Obama's father, who left a poor African village to study in the United States.

"Now his son is president," Denis said. "He's just like me. I came to this country with $50 in my pocket and now look at me, with two doctors in my family."

MARLON HILL
Marlon Hill, a Jamaican-born Miami attorney, made Mr Obama's election official as a member of Florida's Electoral College.

"It felt like carrying tons of history on my shoulder," the 37-year-old said.

But he said the inauguration should be about more than reflecting.

"It's beyond just being about Obama and him being a president who is black. It is about our circumstances and, whether we are black or black immigrants, can we do more with our circumstances?

"Can we provide for our families around us? . We have fewer excuses now because of an election of an Obama-like person."

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots Sports Report

2009-01-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

The Black Flash - the story of Gillie Heron


	Heron was the first black person to play professional football in the US and Scotland

Jamaican Gilbert ‘Gillie’ Heron, who died in November aged 86 in Detroit, was the first black person to play professional football in the United States and in Scotland, too.

Signed by Celtic F.C. in 1951, Heron, a striker, scored a goal on his debut.

“Right now he is Scottish football’s Golden boy” said a newspaper of Heron, who was discovered by Celtic while on a tour of the US in 1951.

“Fifty thousand supporters hail him as the greatest thing seen at Celtic Park since goalposts.”

Heron, who was extraordinarily quick, was called the ‘Black Flash’ by Celtic fans.

For Heron, who had spent most of his sporting career at small clubs in the US, the chance to play for Celtic was a dream come true.

“Gee, I was tickled,” the Jamaican told a Scottish newspaper in 1951 after arriving at Celtic from Detroit where, after a stint in the Canadian armed forces during the war, he took a job in an auto plant while playing football.

“Glasgow Celtic was,” Heron said, “the greatest name in football to me.”

America

In the US, Heron had played for a host of teams.

In 1946, his team, the Wolverines, won the North American Professional Soccer League’s championship.

The Jamaican - the only black player in US professional football at the time - was the league’s top goal scorer with 29 goals. Two years later he was on the US’ All Star team.


	Top billing for the football great

In a 1947 profile, Ebony magazine described Heron as the ‘Babe Ruth of soccer.’

“The ancient Old-World game of soccer boasts a New-World star,” Ebony said.

All-rounder

Gillie Heron was a sporting renaissance man.

In 1940, he was the Golden Gloves welterweight champion of Michigan. He played pro cricket in Scotland and was a top long jumper, high jumper and sprinter, as well.

As a schoolboy in Jamaica, Heron defeated Herb McKinley, who would go on later to become a world record holder and an Olympic gold medalist.

In 1937, aged 15, he led his Jamaican school, St George’s, to victory in the Manning Cup and later won a place on the Jamaica Football Association XI, which in 1952, played a series against the Caribbean Combined XI, which featured Trinidad star Delbert Charleau.

Still, though he’d been a success in the Caribbean and the US, Gillie Heron’s time in Scotland was brief.

He stayed only a year at Celtic, playing only four first team games and scoring only twice.

It’s claimed the club felt Heron was not robust enough for the Scottish game with its tough tackles and rough play.

He was criticized in newspapers, according to sports historian Phil Vasili, as "lacking resource when challenged."

Heron was demoted to the reserves. And though he scored 15 times in 15 matches he left Celtic a year after he first arrived there, for the lowly Scottish side, Third Lanark.

In 1953, he moved to Kidderminster Harriers, a semi professional club in England.

There Heron got off to a good start, scoring “a goal worthy of inclusion in any FA text book” a newspaper reported.

Detroit

In 1954, Gillie Heron returned home to Detroit. With a family to support, he took a job on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Car Company. Any dreams he had of football as a career were over.

There are several reasons why Gillie Heron’s time at Celtic was so brief.

He was far too stylish a player for the rough and tough football played in Britain in the 1950s and aged 29 when he arrived at Celtic, Heron was probably past his best.

Frank Dell’apa, an American sportswriter, believes Heron was unlucky to have been born when he was.

Today Heron, whom he calls ‘the forgotten pioneer of US soccer’, would, Dell’apa says, have had a long career at Celtic and then earned a good living playing in the North American Soccer League.


	The forgotten pioneer of US soccer?

Dell’apa also suggests that Gillie Heron was hamstrung by racism.

Though Heron was the top goal scorer in the North American Professional Soccer League in 1946 he was paid only 25 dollars a game compared with the 100 dollars a game paid to white player Pete Matevich, who scored far fewer goals than Heron.

Gayle Heron, who along with the singer Gil Scott-Heron, is one of Gillie Heron’s four children, said her father was not bitter he received so little recognition.

“He knows he was a pioneer,” she says.

Leslie Goffe’s book on Gillie Heron and Gil Scott Heron, will be published in 2010.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots & Culture: The Mighty Sparrow

2009-01-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Mighty Sparrow or Birdie (born Slinger Francisco, July 9, 1935, in Grandroy Bay, Grenada,

West Indies) is a calypso singer, songwriter and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World," he is one of the most well-known and successful calypsonians. He has won Trinidad's Carnival Road March competition nine times and has been named Calypso Monarch eight times.

Sparrow was born in Grenada on July 9, 1935, but moved to Trinidad when he was one year old. He was first exposed to music through the choir in Catholic school, and became interested in calypso at 14 when he joined a steel band composed of neighborhood boys. He received his performing name during his early career:

“Your calypso name is given to you by your peers, based on your style. In the old days they tried to emulate British royalty. There was Lord Kitchener, Lord Nelson, Duke. When I started singing, the bands were still using acoustic instruments and the singers would stand flat footed, making a point or accusing someone in the crowd with the pointing of a finger, but mostly they stood motionless. When I sing, I get excited and move around, much like James Brown, and this was new to them. The older singers said ‘Why don't you just sing instead of moving around like a little Sparrow.’ It was said as a joke, but the name stuck.” -Mighty Sparrow.

+ + +

Calypso Monarch

In 1956, Sparrow won Trinidad's Carnival Road March and Calypso Monarch competitions with his most famous song, "Jean and Dinah". His prize for the latter was $40. In protest of the small sum, he wrote the song "Carnival Boycott" and attempted to organize other singers to boycott the competition. About half of the singers followed. Sparrow claims credit for succeeding improvements in the conditions of calypso and steelband musicians in Trinidad, as well as the formation of the Carnival Development Committee, a musicians' assistance organization. Sparrow refused to participate in the competition for the next three years, but he continued to perform unofficially, even winning another Road March title in 1958 with "P.A.Y.E."

+ + +

Taking calypso abroad

Calypso music enjoyed a brief period of popularity in other parts in the world during the 1950s. Trinidadian expatriate Lord Kitchener had helped popularize calypso in England, and Sparrow also found some success there. In the United States, interest in calypso was sparked largely by Harry Belafonte's 1956 album Calypso, the first LP to sell over one million copies. In January 1958, Sparrow, along with longtime rival Lord Melody, traveled to New York City seeking access to the American music audience. Sparrow had already been recording with Balisier and Cook Records, and with Belafonte's help he also began to record for RCA Victor. He did not achieve the success he had hoped for; he said in a 2001 interview, "When nothing happened for me, I went back to England and continued on with my career."

In 1960 Sparrow returned to the Calypso Monarch competition, winning his second Kingship and third Road March title with "Ten to One Is Murder" (an autobiographical song about an incident in which Sparrow allegedly shot a man) and "Mae Mae." He also began recording for his own label, National Recording. He continued to enjoy great popularity in Trinidad throughout the 1960s.

+ + +

Soca

As soca began to supplant calypso in popularity in Trinidad during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sparrow embraced the hybrid of Calypso and Local (Chutney) music. In 1984 he won his eighth Road March title with the soca-influenced "Doh Back Back." Also around this time he began to spend at least half the year in New York City, finding an apartment in the heavily West Indian neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens. Sparrow continues to write, perform, and tour into the 21st century; in a 2001 interview he mentioned that he had been singing and performing a "Gospel-lypso" hybrid. In 2008, he released a song supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign, "Barack the Magnificent". He also did a remake of his "Congo Man" song with fellow Trinidadian Machel Montano on the Flame on album.

+ + +

Lyrics

Sparrow's lyrics are famous for being witty, ironic, and ribald. He sings flirtatiously of the attractions of Hispanic women in "Magarita," and of East Indian women in "Marajhin." He tells some outrageously frank tales of sexuality in "Mae Mae," "The Lizard" and "Big Bamboo." And there is humorous commentary on West Indian culture to be found in "Obeah Wedding" and "Witch Doctor." Robert Christgau called his controversial song "Congo Man" "a wildly perverse piss-take on African roots, interracial revenge, interracial sex, male-female relations, and cannibalism"; the 1965 song was also criticized for its attitudes toward women and Africans, and was banned from radio airplay until 1989.

Sparrow also frequently comments on social and political issues in his songs. During his early career he was a supporter of Eric Williams and his People's National Movement (PNM), which formed in 1955 and led Trinidad and Tobago to independence in 1962; songs such as "Leave The Damn Doctor Alone" and "William the Conqueror" mentioned Williams directly, while others such as "Federation" (blaming Jamaica for the breakup of the short-lived West Indies Federation), "Our Model Nation" (celebrating Trinidadian independence), and "PAYE" (supporting the PNM's pay-as-you-earn tax system) echoed PNM positions. Sparrow did express discontent in 1957's "No, Doctor, No," but it was comparatively mild, and aimed at holding PNM politicians to their promises rather than replacing them.

His mid-1960s hit "Sir Garfield Sobers", celebrating the great Barbadian all-rounder cricketer, who starred for West Indies teams, anticipated by a decade the knighthood which Garfield Sobers would actually receive in 1975. Sobers is generally regarded as the greatest all-rounder in cricket history. This song's first verse:

"Who's the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars? Anyone can tell you, it's the great Sir Garfield Sobers! This handsome Barbadian lad really knows his work. Batting or bowling, he's the cricket King, no joke! Three cheers for Captain Sobers!"

In more recent times Sparrow continues to incorporate social issues into his music. "Crown Heights Justice" is a plea for peace and understanding in the wake of the 1991 Crown Heights Riot in Sparrow's adopted home of New York City. The themes of peace, tolerance, and concern for the poor show up repeatedly in songs such as "Human Rights" (1981), "Capitalism Gone Mad" (1983), and "This Is Madness.

--Wikipedia

Kalypso Cricket Report

2009-01-07T22:58:00.001-08:00

England in West Indies 2009

January
21: England team arrives
25-27: v St Kitts XI, St Kitts
29-31: v West Indies A, St Kitts
____

February
4-8: 1st Test, Jamaica_Play starts 1500 GMT
13-17: 2nd Test, Antigua_Play starts 1400 GMT
21-22: v BCA President's XI, Barbados
26-2: March 3rd Test, Barbados_Play starts 1400 GMT

____

March
6-10: 4th Test, Trinidad_Play starts 1400 GMT
14: v WIPA President's Select XI, Trinidad
15: Twenty20 international, Trinidad_Play starts 1600 GMT
20: 1st ODI, Guyana_Play starts 1330 GMT
22: 2nd ODI, Guyana_Play starts 1330 GMT
27: 3rd ODI, Barbados_Play starts 1330 GMT
29: 4th ODI, Barbados_Play starts 1430 BST
____

April
3: 5th ODI, St Lucia (d/n)
Play starts 1930 BST

Roots Report: Soca's "lack of success"

2009-01-06T08:38:00.001-08:00


	Kevin Lyttle has had an international hit with 'Turn Me on

Why has calypso/soca not done well internationally?

One Barbadian artiste believes he has the answer.

John King, a former island calypso king, says it might be the result of a conspiracy among major music labels to keep soca at bay.

Soca, calypso's party sister, has managed a few hits internationally but a real breakthrough has proved elusive.

"Hot Hot Hot" by Arrow is, quite remarkably, still a staple of the international circuit after it was first recorded in 1982.

He can lay claim to putting soca on the international map.

It was 21 years ago that Buster Poindexter's cover version of Arrow's hit carried it into the American charts.


	Machel Mantano is one of soca's more popular and better known performers

In 2000, there was more success with Baha Men's soca-tinged "Who Let the Dogs Out", another cover of Anslem Douglas' Trinidad carnival hit.

Four years later Rupee and Kevin Lyttle also made it to the Billboard Hot 100 with "Tempted to Touch" and "Turn Me On," respectively.

But these are rare forays into the mainstream -- and soca remains without a truly genuine international star.

John King feels the road has been made difficult, deliberately so, by music labels.

He told the Barbados Nation newspaper: "I have tried over the years to get this music to the mainstream American radio stations and all you butt up on is: that the quality of the recording is not good; there is no format that we have that can play it; all sorts of stumbling blocks."

However another soca star, Antigua's Onyan, offers a different view.

He told BBC Caribbean that it's a matter of how to music is marketed: which brand of soca is targeted at specific audiences.

Listen to Onyan in this Marie-Claire Williams report

Montserrat-born soca veteran, Arrow, told BBC Caribbean last year that when his 'Hot, Hot, Hit' hit the scene, international labels were willing at that time to embrace soca.

But he said short-sighted producers and promoters in the region resisted over fears they would be shunted aside.

An opportunity was therefore lost, in the Montserratian's view.

Machel Montano, like his fellow Trinidadian David Rudder, is one of the leading lights of the genre.

Machel admits to a dream to see soca become a global musical force.


	Sparrow is the uncrowned king of calypso but his subjects are regarded abroad as a subculture

Billboard reported in August that he had yet to make an impact despite collaborations with Wyclef Jean, Busta Rhymes and Shaggy.

The magazine said he'd signed international deals with Delicious Vinyl and Atlantic and recorded two albums which remain unreleased.

Rupee and Kevin Lyttle are also signed with Atlantic but their careers seem to have stalled somewhat.

Rupee has more than once been forced to deny he has been dropped from the label, amid suggestions that interest may have cooled.

--BBC Caribbean.com

Roots Report

2009-01-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Closer Caricom Central American ties proposed

The new chairman of Caricom - Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize - says his country will use its position as head of the regional grouping and a member of the Central American Integration System, to enhance the alliance between the two organisations.

Mr Barrow took over the chairmanship of Caricom on New Year's day.

Caricom heads want to see the single market and economy take root

He's urging Caricom member states to urgently consolidate the operations of the Caribbean single market.

Prime Minister Barrow says this should be followed by the establishment of the single economy, a move he wants pursued with deliberate haste.

He replaces Antiguan prime minister Baldwin Spencer as head of the regional grouping.

--BBC caribbean.com

From BBC Caribbean.Com

2009-01-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

BBC Caribbean News in Brief


	Cuba has offered 480 scholarships to Caricom

Stronger ties

Caricom leaders have ended their talks with the Cuban leader Raul Castro, with a commitment for further cooperation.

On Monday, Cuba promised to open new eye surgery clinics in Jamaica, St Lucia and Guyana, as well as 10 "health diagnostic" facilities in Haiti and one in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

It also said it would offer 480 regional scholarships next year.

Caricom has enjoyed 36 years of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

And Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding said despite the US trade embargo, Havana has provided valuable assistance to the region.

Residents 'not neglected'

Police in Jamaica say they did not neglect residents of one community in Spanish Town, who were forced by gunmen to leave their homes last weekend.

More than 400 residents fled the community after gunmen, apparently fighting for turf, threatened to kill those who disobeyed their evacuation order.

Deputy police commissioner in charge of crime, Mark Shields, told BBC Caribbean the lawmen are dealing with a delicate situation.

US resumes deportations to Haiti

US immigration officials have resumed deportations to haiti.

The Immigration department temporarily stopped returning residents to Haiti in September, after hundreds were killed in four storms in Port-au-Prince.

But congressman Kendrick Meek says this decision only complicates the Haitian government's ongoing recovery effort.

Some South Florida congressional members who represent the largest Haitian community in the US, have said they were disappointed that Haitians were not granted temporary protected status.

"Roots Runnins...In de mix..."

2009-01-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all. I am deBongoman, coming to you live and direct from St. Paul, Minnesota...

"Cool-Runnins."

I've created this blog to network and communicate with people involved in the progressive, forward movement of the Caribbean community -- culturally, economically and socially.

As a broadcast journalist, I've been involved in the media (television and radio) for more than 30 years.

What is "irie media?"

Irie Media is positive journalism.

I look forward to the dialogue and communication I hope to inspire with Roots Journal.

--Rbj

About home...

2008-12-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

All the signs pointed towards Antigua. The island had warm, steady winds, a complex coastline of safe harbors, and a protective, nearly unbroken wall of coral reef. It would make a perfect place to hide a fleet. And so in 1784 the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed to Antigua and established Great Britain's most important Caribbean base. Little did he know that over 200 years later the same unique characteristics that attracted the Royal Navy would transform Antigua and Barbuda in one of the Caribbean's premier tourist destinations.

The signs are still there, they just point to different things. The Trade Winds that once blew British men-of-war safely into English Harbour now fuel one of the world's foremost maritime events, Sailing Week. The expansive, winding coastline that made Antigua difficult for outsiders to navigate is where today's trekkers encounter a tremendous wealth of secluded, powdery soft beaches. The coral reefs, once the bane of marauding enemy ships, now attract snorkelers and scuba divers from all over the world. And the fascinating little island of Barbuda -- once a scavenger's paradise because so many ships wrecked on its reefs -- is now home to one of the region's most significant bird sanctuaries.

Location:

Antigua (pronounced An-tee'ga) and Barbuda are located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean, roughly 17 degrees north of the equator. To the south are the islands of Montserrat and Guadaloupe, and to the north and west are Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Barts, and St. Martin.

Size:

Antigua, the largest of the English-speaking Leeward Islands, is about 14 miles long and 11 miles wide, encompassing 108 square miles. Its highest point is Boggy Peak (1319 ft.), located in the southwestern corner of the island. Barbuda, a flat coral island with an area of only 68 square miles, lies approximately 30 miles due north. The nation also includes the tiny (0.6 square mile) uninhabited island of Redonda, now a nature preserve. The current population for the nation is approximately 68,000 and its capital is St. John's on Antigua.

Climate:

Temperatures generally range from the mid-seventies in the winter to the mid-eighties in the summer. Annual rainfall averages only 45 inches, making it the sunniest of the Eastern Caribbean Islands, and the northeast trade winds are nearly constant, flagging only in September. Low humidity year-round.

--From Antigua Barbuda Dept. of Tourism