Chief Servant’s funeral today

The drummers played their tribute to Daaga inside NJAC headquarters on Duke Street in Port-of-Spain.

The inclement weather didn’t hamper their spirits, however, and they proceeded to drum about a celebration in Daaga’s honour.

The drumming took place in the same room where Daaga’s condolence book was. As the drumming continued in front of a portrait of Daaga, persons proceeded to dance and fully express themselves in Daaga’s honourary celebration. Newsday was told that the drumming procession will take place again, nine days after Daaga’s death. At 9 am today at Queen’s Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain, the nation will bid goodbye to the political/social activist who was formerly known as Geddes Granger, whose funeral will be followed by internment at Lapeyrouse Cemetery.

One of those persons at NJAC HQ was veteran calypsonian Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool who fondly recalled the hard work done by Daaga’s cultural group, Pegasus, to promote calypso.

He recalled that at his competitions, Daaga upheld a certain dignity in the local artform and rejected any smuttiness of lyrics.

Liverpool said Daaga help mould local calypsonians.

Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) head Khafra Kambon also hailed Daaga’s leadership of the 1960s/1970s popular movement that sought to complete the 1962 Independence process by inculcating cultural pride in Africans and Indians, so giving them the self-confidence to control the commanding heights of the economy, rather than colonial interests.

Kambon said that the very success of this nation’s petrochemical sector in Point Lisas — built, run and administered by local persons — was largely the result of a self-belief engendered in the population by Daaga and his movement.

On a personal note, Kambon said that while he had left NJAC over differences of viewpoints such as strategy, he had always maintained his friendship with and respect for Daaga. (Additional reporting by Jabarri Superville/NYLO Intern)