By Lincoln DePradine

If he had the decision to make, the late Trinidadian intellectual, historian, journalist and author, Cyril Lionel Roberts (C.L.R.) James would have had Mighty Sparrow write the words to Trinidad’s national anthem.

James discussed Sparrow in a chapter in a 1960s book, “Party Politics in the West Indies.”

“They should have asked Sparrow to write the national anthem that Trinidad was going to have. He would have written a proper national anthem, in words and music,” James argued.

“I found Sparrow the most alert and the most intelligent person I met in the Caribbean. He had a great mastery of West Indian speech, and as for his music—I thought it was remarkable. I used to talk with him, and I even used to go and hear him record.”

Since last Saturday, after family members announced the death of Sparrow, fans worldwide – including Caribbean government leaders – have been glowing in tribute to the renowned calypsonian, who had been residing in the United States for the last several years.

Sparrow, 91, was born Slinger Francisco in Grenada. He was a two-year-old toddler when he migrated with his parents to Trinidad and Tobago in 1937.

I was fortunate to meet C.L.R. James when he visited Grenada during the period of the People’s Revolutionary Government led by Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

James is acclaimed for several things, including his body of written work. “Minty Alley,” written by James and released in 1936, was the first novel by a Black West Indian to be published in Britain.

“The Black Jacobins,” which focuses on the Haitian Revolution, is a seminal piece of work. And his 1963 “Beyond a Boundary” is called the best book about sports ever written. It should be mandatory reading for every cricketer in the Caribbean.

An amateur cricketer and a track and field athlete, James attended Queen’s Royal College, where he also taught English and History. Among his students was Eric Williams, who later became the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

James died in 1989. He was 88.

“Sparrow’s use of the language over and over again makes memorable lines of ordinary Trinidad speech. He represents, makes known, what the people really think, what they really are and how they speak. Through him the ordinary West Indian speech is given its place and some good portion of it is very effective and powerful speech,” wrote C.L.R. James.

“The year 1950 marks a definitive change in West Indian thought and its expression. It is to this outburst of West Indianism after 1950 that Sparrow belongs. With him and the steelband, the West Indian masses have joined the new West Indian procession. He is, in reality, a very curious historical figure and one whose work and influence deserve serious study.”

James comments on some of Sparrow’s calypsoes, including “Jean and Dinah,” saying the tune “immortalizes the attitude of the ordinary people to the Americans” at the U.S. military base in Trinidad.

It’s the glamour boys again

We are going to rule Port-of-Spain

No more Yankees to spoil the fete. . . .

“If those lyrics are not a political statement,” said James, “I don’t know what politics is. He relates how the Yankee dollars have brought some ancient performers once more into the ring….Sparrow is uninhibited about what he sees. He doesn’t get in a rage. But he views the world with a large detachment. His irony and wit are the evidence.”

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