Mia Mottley urged Caribbean schools to teach Mighty Sparrow’s music. She spoke at his Port of Spain funeral.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called for the music of the late Mighty Sparrow to be used in formal education across the Caribbean. She urged that his 1963 classic “Slave” become a core part of the Caribbean Examinations Council curriculum.
Mottley spoke at the funeral of the Grenada-born calypsonian, whose name was Slinger Francisco, at the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain on Friday. She asked Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to join her in persuading other Caribbean leaders to adopt the song, saying it would ensure every child in the region understands the pain of the song and the mission it presented. Mottley said Sparrow and his contemporaries redefined what the region could achieve despite the limits placed on them, and that younger generations should be taught the obstacles they overcame. She described Sparrow as a Caribbean intellectual whose music and performances would tell the story of the early Caribbean from the region’s own perspective. She compared his role to the one Sir Garry Sobers played on the cricket field.
Persad-Bissessar said the refurbished grandstand at Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Savannah will carry Sparrow’s name, as a fitting remembrance of his work. She praised him as an artist who never had to become less Caribbean to become international. Sparrow died on Sept. 27, Mottley said, as she thanked Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago for him.
The service included performances by Destra Garcia, Super Blue, David Rudder, Gypsy and Mighty Gabby. Machel Montano performed with the sons of Lord Kitchener and Mighty Shadow, and the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Band also played. Culture Minister Michelle Benjamin paid tribute, and Sparrow’s daughter Michelle Francisco read the eulogy. His granddaughter Ashley Hutchinson read an original poem, and Monsignor Martin Sirju gave the opening prayer.
Information for this report was provided by Nation News and MAXImini.