Jimmy Cliff death at 81 shocks fans worldwide, closing the chapter on a legendary reggae career and iconic music legacy
Jamaica-born reggae sensation, Jimmy Cliff, is dead, aged 81. His “House of Exile” (1974) and Tracy Chapman’s “All that you have is your soul” (1989) are my best of all times.
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Cliff’s “Have you heard the news?“ (1976), in which he dragged Nigeria’s name in the mud over a business deal with some music promoters gone awry, as a result of which he was arrested on his landing in Nigeria on December 10, 1974 and was detained for three days, never stopped to amuse!
Cliff was accused of breach of contract, but because of his larger-than-life image, his voice resonated far beyond what his antagonists or Nigeria as a country could muster.
That rift forever put a wedge between Cliff and Nigeria, a country he avoided like a plague all through his life, even when he visited and romanced other West African countries like neighbouring Ghana and Liberia.
The damning lyrics of “Have you heard the news” apart, the pain in Jimmy Cliff’s sonorous voice tells of the ordeal he went through: “Have you heard the news (4ce)/I was in Africa down in Nigeria/Oh they threw me in jail/I had one hell getting bail/Have you heard the news (4ce)/They scandalizing my name/They want to make me look shame/Because I got little fame/They want to make me look shame/Have you heard the news everybody/Have you heard the news (3ce)/It started by some liar/Spreading like wildfire/Propaganda all around/News believed in every town/In London, ‘Merica, then in Jamaica/All over Trinidad/Oh Lord I felt so bad eeh eeh/Have you heard the news (4ce)/It started by some liar/Spreading like wildfire/Propaganda, lies, libel, uuh uuh!”
Please Google or listen to it on YouTube! For a combination of its lyrics and rendition, I vote Cliff’s “House of Exile” as his best work. The message is moving, didactic and impactful. It goes thus:
“There’s a day of feasting and a day of famine/Day of sadness and a day of joy/You could see in the day of feasting/Life isn’t just a little play-like toy/So your day arrived when you least expected/’Cause you always thought you were well protected/Now you feel like a fish out of water/So now you’re wondering what’s the matter/Oh remember you said it wouldn’t happen to you/Now you’re thinking how to start a-new/A drowning man will catch at a straw/You were warned but you wouldn’t take heed/Everything in creation must obey a law/It’s true in words as it is in deed/You were so puffed up in your pomps and pride/You’re exposed you got none to hide/Yes, you used to look down on the folks beside you/Never they think you would have come down too/Remember they said you got to reap what you sow/Simple truth everybody knows/Oh what are you on a house of exile/Watching you now on your own last mile (4ce)//Everything in creation must obey a law/It’s true in words as it is in deed”
This song is philosophical, scriptural as well as political. Google or enjoy it on YouTube. Each time I listen to “House of Exile” and Chapman’s “All that you have is your soul”, I drop everything I am doing and soak them in with rapt attention.
I am not your run-of-the-mill born-again Christian who abhors every so-called “wordly” music. I dare to say that I am Marxistically Christian!
Tracy Chapman’s “All that you have is your soul” runs thus: “Oh my mama told me/’Cause she say she learned the hard way/Say she want to spare the children/She say don’t give or sell your soul away/’Cause all that you have is your soul/Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple/Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit/Hunger only for a taste of justice/Hunger only for a world of truth/’Cause all that you have is your soul/I was a pretty young girl once/I had dreams I had high hopes/I married a man he stole my heart away/He gave his love but what a high price I paid/And all that you have is your soul/Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple/Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit/Hunger only for a taste of justice/Hunger only for a world of truth/’Cause all that you have is your soul/Why was I such a young fool/Thought I’d make history/Making babies was the best I could do/Thought I’d made something that could be mine forever/Found out the hard way one can’t possess another/And all that you have is your soul/Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple/Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit/Hunger only for a taste of justice/Hunger only for a world of truth/’Cause all that you have is your soul/I thought, thought that I could find a way/To beat the system/To make a deal and have no debts to pay/I’d take it all take it all I’d run away/Me for myself first class and first rate/But all that you have is your soul/Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple/Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit/Hunger only for a taste of justice/Hunger only for a world of truth/’Cause all that you have is your soul/Here I am I’m waiting for a better day/A second chance/A little luck to come my way/A hope to dream, a hope that I can sleep again/And wake in the world with a clear conscience and clean hands/’Cause all that you have is your soul/Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple/Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit/Hunger only for a taste of justice/Hunger only for a world of truth/’Cause all that you have is your soul/Oh my mama told me/’Cause she say she learned the hard way/Say she want to spare the children/She say don’t give or sell your soul away/’Cause all that you have is your soul/All that you have/All that you have/All that you have/Is your soul”
I have been privileged to listen to a countless number of sermons. I dare to say that none has impacted my life as much as the “sermons” according to Jimmy Cliff (in “House of Exile”) and Tracy Chapman’s “All that you have is your soul.”
Cliff taught me the greatest of all lessons: introspection. Letting go, and no longer fretting, especially when the kids started leaving home one after the other, gave me the peace of mind I never had before! Note that I said “the” and not “my” kids! No one “owns” the other person! For that, thanks, Chapman!
Oh my! Jimmy Cliff is gone! In the past few weeks I have had to agonise over many deaths: Biodun Aremu aka Aremson, a comrade, on 12 October; Professor Aituaje Irene Pogoson (nee Oboite), a classmate, on 25 October; Ganiyu Banji Adekule, a friend and brother, on 7th November; an icon and musical hero, Jimmy Cliff, on 24 November.
Within the second half of this year, I have performed the burial ceremonies of two elders in my church, one aged 77 and the other 88. As I made to put this to bed came the sad news of the transition of another friend and classmate, Prof. Siyan Gafar Oyeweso, Chairman of the Governing Council of our alma mater, Great Ife! Put an end to sad news, O Lord! Comfort the heart-broken and strengthen the stricken, O Lord!
At no other times than these have sad news enveloped this country! Can you imagine some people, among them high government officials, blaming and or suggesting that the US President Donald Trump’s indictment of the Nigerian authorities over alleged genocidal attacks on Christians in the country is responsible for the rash of kidnappings, brutal attacks and blood-letting by terrorists all over the country? So Trump shouldn’t have spoken out! No one should have kicked! The genocide should simply have been allowed to continue! Bandits and terrorists should continue to be treated with kid gloves! Hapless Nigerians should continue to sit as lame ducks! The appropriate authorities are not ashamed they have failed in their duty of protecting life and property? Or does the genocide command official imprimatur? It is a shame that a Minister of the Federal Republic could describe Trump’s concern as “rhetoric”!
Also sad is the statement credited to a Service chief that if Nigerian youths do not volunteer to serve in the military, they will compulsorily be drafted! The authorities have since denied or retracted, but we all know there is no smoke without a fire.
The first question to ask is: How many of their own children are in the military facing bandits and terrorists? Why are our leaders themselves not in the theatre of war, leading from the front and not from the rear? Which Nigerian youth will join a military already compromised with the infusion of so-called “repentant” terrorists who are now sitting inside and pissing inside? Who wants to join a military where a General is given the Uriah treatment, orchestrated by an adulterous and murderous King David (2 Samuel chapter 11)?
As if these were not worrisome enough, the Presidency itself acknowledged negotiations with bandits and terrorists to return kidnapped worshippers, leaving the criminals to walk free! They even expected us to clap because, according to them, the terrorists voluntarily returned the victims without collecting any ransom payment! Who believes such cock-and-bull stories? They are better told to the Marines! The same bandits returned hours later to kidnap another set of hapless citizens in the same state, a stone-throw from the first scene of crime!
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Are we not inadvertently making governance a huge joke here? And painful as it is, is Trump’s description of Nigeria as a “disgraced country” any further from the truth?
