BARBADOS PRIME MINISTER PROPOSES SPARROW’S SLAVERY CALYPSO FOR CXC STUDIES

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has made a strong push for the song “Slave” by the recently deceased calypso legend Mighty Sparrow to be included in the history curriculum of Caribbean schools.

Eulogising Sparrow at a huge funeral service and tribute in his adopted homeland, Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Mottley argued for the popular song to be elevated to academic status.

Sparrow passed away in New York on September 27th at the age of 91 and was laid to rest in Trinidad on October 16th.

There has been a massive outpouring of tributes across the region and throughout the world celebrating his legacy and mastery of the calypso genre.

Among his extensive repertoire of songs, ranging from the humorous to the serious, is the haunting song “Slave”, which encapsulates Caribbean history from the start of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through to emancipation.

Delivering remarks at the funeral service for Sparrow, the Barbados Prime Minister expressed the hope that regional leaders can be persuaded to ensure that “Slave” along with Sparrow’s wider catalogue, becomes a core part of the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) curriculum.

Prime Minister Mottley believes this is necessary “so that every single child, every single child of this Caribbean, understands both the pain and the mission that that song presented. I don’t think that there is a stronger theatrical performance of any song in the Caribbean from when we took control of our fate.”

​Speaking more broadly about celebrating Sparrow’s legacy and the contribution that he and other regional stalwarts have made to Caribbean culture, Prime Minister Miottley added: “We have a duty, in every sphere in which they have expressed greatness - not just Caribbean greatness but global greatness. We have a duty to those who must come, to show them that when people say we punch above our weight, persons like the Mighty Sparrow redefined what our weight was; therefore, you cannot simply accept that there are limitations to what we can achieve.”

According to the Barbados leader, the story of Sparrow and other regional notables should also serve as a source of inspiration: “Those who had most things against them came to show us how they could move beyond those limitations. Those of us who have more than they had have a duty now to take that and carry it to the highest planes.”

In 1987, Sparrow was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of the West Indies(UWI) in recognition of his “vast influence as a cultural and musical icon in the Caribbean”.