To all those who jammed to 'Jamaican Farewell', your time has come to give another generation, a chance to jam to more 'Jamaican farewells'. To those who found their purpose and served it, in part because of Harry's life's work, your turn to inspire the next generation if you are not doing that already, has come.
To those who joined the wave of democracy that swept the globe in the '80s and '90s in small measure due to the difficult work that Harry did with other civil rights leaders in the deep South, here is your chance. Light the torch for the future generations who are going to stand up to the anti-democratic forces.
Sorry, I started this tribute from the middle. Let me go back to the beginning.
Harry Belafonte has gone home to be with the Lord. At the ripe age of 96, he was around long enough to witness the strides of change and human progress. Born in the segregated South of the US, at a time when blacks were still deemed second-class citizens, he grew up to break so many barriers that would have held him back to become one of the earliest black music stars in the globe with unprecedented sales record when he released his album 'Calypso'. It was such a huge success, it made history as the first album to sell over a million copies in the US. A record that would remain unmatched until Michael Jackson burst into the scene with his celebrated album, 'Thriller'.
Let's examine the significance of Harry's life vis-a-vis the social-political environment of his country from the '60s all through to the '90s.
By the time President Lyndon B Johnson was signing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act both in 1965, it was almost a century since the signing of the Proclamation Act which effectively ended slavery. For those 100 years, the legacy of slavery lived on in the fashion of 'Equal but separate'. This locked out so many blacks from enjoying the sea of opportunity in America. Every amenity that was for blacks under the equal but separate mindset was a far cry from the very same amenities that were reserved for the whites.
However, a few outstanding blacks were still able to surmount such challenges and ended up at the head of the queue. Talk of Martin Luther King Jr who was barely in his 20s and was already leading the Montgomery bus strike. Talk of Mohamed Ali, the boxing champion. Talk of Malcolm X. With the killing of Dr King and Malcolm, it made a whole sea of difference to have a successful black male after years of what was called war on crime and war on drugs saw so many children grow without fathers because of the disproportionate number of male blacks who ended up behind bars.
As a result, lots of black children grew up without role models, without much opportunity, and no one to help them set their sights on higher horizons.
Fathers, we have been told, are the solid rock upon which success is built. So, part of the drug problem in the south that eventually took so many young men to prison under President Clinton's 'Three Strikes' only served to make a bad case worse.
It is conventional wisdom among policymakers that the best social programme is a job and the strongest social institution is family. Both had lacked in the south in part because of the legacy of Jim Crow.
So, as we sing the Jamaican Farewell to Harry one last time, we must find expression of his life's work in the timeless words of the scripture, "The race is not to the swift nor the battle for the strong, nor food for the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned."
As we mourn Harry, we must remind our policymakers that structural and systemic hurdles that deny any one child or youth an opportunity to reach his/her full potential is a threat to our common wellbeing and must be confronted urgently.
Like Harry, may we match our talents with discipline, fierce discipline.
Mr Kidi is a governance and policy analyst. kidimwaga@gmail.com
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