Tambu: Entertainers on dead-end street

Christopher “Tambu” Herbert, once a former Carnival entertainer, has turned gospel singer for just about 10 years now. When asked recently, why he really left the band Roots upon his return from finishing a two-year scholarship with the Berkeley University in the USA he said: “If you dig up a grave, you get bones no flesh. That is all behind me now.”

However, he said the time had come for him to leave and though the major reason then was to study, he left with the intention to go back to Roots but Christ had a different plan for his life. “Sometimes a roadblock in life causes Man to go to Christ. I met that roadblock while abroad and my entrance was Christ,” he said. Tambu added: “When you are doing something and you know it’s wrong, you got to do something about it. The life of an entertainer is on the fast lane and you will always end up in a dead-end street. The man that is outside of Christ is on a dead-end street like I was but with the knowledge that I have come to know, I’ve learnt that Christ is the way, the light and the life.”

Asked if current entertainers were on a dead-end street he said: “Obviously if you are going the wrong way, and you know it’s the wrong way, you would not be walking in the light and the light is Christ.” He explained that the light is the coming in the knowledge of trust that is the pathway that God has destined for us. “He is not however going to be over them with a hammer to mash up their heads because they’re sinning, because Christ took care of the sin problem but the sinner has to go to Christ for Christ to take care of him now.  I was a top-dog sinner but in spite of that God love me and Christ didn’t come to judge me, He came to save me and what Christ did for me he will do the same for them but he wants them to come home,” said Tambu. So what are his thoughts on entertainer Roger George who many thought was singing gospelypso in 2003 and who himself said that he would never sing any suggestive songs, Tambu said: “The experience that Roger is having now is what I was going through when God pulled me, and God is pulling him now. His talent is not his own, he is just the custodian so don’t care how talented an entertainer is, once God is not glorified, that talent is of no benefit to him.”

Tambu, an original member of the Manhattan Charlie’s Roots in the late seventies, played trombone and was also their lead singer. He went on to become a three-time Road March champion from 1988 to 1990 with the songs “This Party Is It”, “Free Up” and “No, No, We Ain’t Going Home” and was also one of the early Young Kings. Asked about his close relationship with deceased Roots member Junior Wharwood whom he spent a considerable amount of time with he said: “Junior and I had a wonderful relationship but a man has to decide for himself what he wants from life because I can’t save anybody. “The only one to do so is Jesus. I want people to know that Christ died for the world and therefore he died for the sinner too. So God is not about judgment, God is about love and Christ died so that they can come back to God.” Tambu said that people must come to know and realise the truth and despite men who have all kinds of big plans and ideas, he said if those ideas aren’t given to them by Jesus their plans will come to zero. 

Given his beliefs now he was asked if there should be no Carnival to which he replied: “Colonial Life and the Newsday are two organisations with different work ethics and policies, which govern the running of their institutions and dictates the behaviour of workers. So too there are two different  kingdoms of this world.” Tambu left the Police Service in 2001 after some 29 years and for the past two years, he has been teaching music at Curepe Junior Secondary School. He is very settled in his marriage to Gail and always answers “Blessings!” when his telephone rings. The proud father of seven continues to take a special delight in singing his gospel songs at churches and various gospel concerts and insisted on ending the interview by stating: “There will come a time when the only thing that will be able to stand is the Christ in the man. No flesh will be able to stand up against the perils of the earth and that just speaks of the natural man. In spite of what men may say or what they do, God will always be God and Jesus Christ will always be what He says He is, the Son of God! And is up to me and you to believe or not to believe. Whichever way, God will be God and Jesus will be Lord. They can’t change.”