Mighty Sparrow: The Calypso King Who Left Us at 90

Mighty Sparrow, Slinger Francisco, the “Calypso King of the World”, passed away on 27 September. He was ninety.

Calypso music started in the seventeenth century by African slaves in Trinidad. Most of these slaves came from the Ibibio, Efik, and Igbo groups in what is now Nigeria and Congo. The name calypso is believed to come from the Efik word “kaiso” (ka isu), which means “go on!”, and the Ibibio words “kaa iso”, meaning “continue, go on”. These were common phrases used by the slaves to encourage each other. Over time, the word “cariso” came up among Trinidadians, referring to “old-time” calypsos.

Calypso was not just music. It was a way for slaves to communicate, keeping the colonial masters out of the loop. It shared news among the enslaved, mocked slave owners, offered social commentary, and included lyrical competitions.

At first, calypso was sung in French Creole. This was because the French planters brought the slaves to the sugar plantations in Trinidad. The island was a Spanish colony that changed hands between the Courlanders from present-day Latvia, the Dutch, French, and British. The British fully took control after ‘The Treaty of Paris’ on 30 May, 1814. This is how calypso began to be sung more in English.

Calypso grew with different instruments like guitar, congas, trombone, double bass, saxophone, piano, and maraca. It started as street music and became a key part of the Trinidad Carnival. This carnival promoted competition, especially after slavery ended in 1834.

Famous calypso musicians picked names that sounded grand, like Roaring Lion, or historical names like Attila the Hun. Some took royal titles, like Duke and Lord. This led to names like Lord Invader, Lord Melody, Lord Pretender, Lord Creator, Lord Brynner, and Lord Kitchener, who was called the “Grandmaster of Calypso”.

Mighty Sparrow shared how he got his name: “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.” He later changed his name from Little Sparrow to Mighty Sparrow.

His first public performance was the song “The Parrot and the Monkey” in 1954. The next year, he recorded “Missing Baby (Ruby)”, “High Cost of Living”, and “Race Track”. Although he was born in Grenada, his mother moved him to Trinidad and Tobago when he was one year old. His music covered many themes of calypso.

In 1956, he celebrated the exit of United States troops from T&T with his hit ‘Jean and Dinah’ or “Yankees Gone”. In this song, he accused them of encouraging prostitution. When T&T gained independence on August 31, 1962, he released the song ‘Our Model Nation’. He sang: “The whole population of our little nation Is not a lot But oh! what a mixture of races and culture That’s what we’ve got Still no major indifference Of race, color, religion or finance It’s amazing to you I’m sure.”

But there was a political crisis in the new nation. Mighty Sparrow defended the Government of Dr Eric Williams in his album ‘Sparrow the Conqueror’. He sang about the senseless actions of the opposition: “Come on, what is wrong with this island Poor Dr. Williams Come on, I said what’s wrong with this island Poor Dr Williams Everybody doing what they like Striking when they want to strike It appears that nobody cares About the island economy I tell you.”

He also sang about what he saw as anarchy: “No gas today, no phone tomorrow What next I don’t know No drain digging, no rubbish cleaning Only corbeaux working The island as you see suffering politically Because the present Government have some stupid opponent Oh Lord man they ignorant Because the present Government have some stupid opponent Not one is intelligent Some of them, them opposing So much crime they commit Some again have no education Is them does make the confusion Anything at all the Premier say They always standing in the way And like they suffering from a mental block Talking one set of sewerage talk I tell you.”

Mighty Sparrow was very passionate in his support for the Williams government. He even suggested the death penalty for the opposition: “The Premier cannot make a suggestion Without a big objection And some of them way want to object Really should have a rope ‘round they neck.” But he later had issues with the Williams administration. Some of his criticisms are captured in the song “No, Doctor, No”.

Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah aimed to unite Africa and the African diaspora in the late 1950s. But it seemed the Caribbean was moving faster. In 1958, it formed the West Indies Federation, made up of ten British colonies, to seek independence and build a united region with its capital in T&T. However, conflicts over leadership and capital choice caused problems. Jamaica’s referendum in 1962 led to its exit and the collapse of the federation.

Sparrow was heartbroken. In a song that year called ‘Federation’, he sang: “Whether you’re a damn Trinidadian (We are as one!) If they say you’re a smart Barbadian (We are as one!) Get away from me you crazy Grenadian (We are as one!) I don’t care if you’re a bad Jamaican (We are as one!) Let us join together and love one another (We are as one!) If you’re born in New York and your parents are West Indian (We are as one!)”

He spent long periods in Britain and the US. In 1977, he toured West Africa, where he received a Yoruba chieftaincy title, Omowale (the child has returned home) of Ikoyi. Sparrow eventually settled in the US. In 2008, he released “Barack the Magnificent” to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Overall, he recorded over 280 songs in more than seventy albums, covering topics from love and politics to gospel. For more than seven decades, Mighty Sparrow entertained people worldwide. Now, he has taken his final flight.