Jimmy Cliff, Dan Agbese: The passing of two iconic personages of our time, by Ayuba Ahmad
In two different countries and climes, Jamaica in the Caribbean and Nigeria in Africa, the world lost last week, two iconic personages whose footprints in two different fields of human endeavours will endure through the ages. Jimmy Cliff, as a musician and Dan Agbese, as a journalist, were, at the point of their deaths, colossi of the towering heights of legends.
Jimmy Cliff was born in 1944, as James Chambers in the Parish of St James in Jamaica. One of nine children in the family, his was a situation of abject poverty.
Most known for his music, the story of Jimmy Cliff, however, goes beyond his musical feat and its social and cultural effects on humanity. Though conveyed through music, his story is best narrated as one of perseverance, struggle and faith.
It is also a universal message of inspiration, peace and love. This much he pointed out in a 1986 news interview: “The essence of my music is struggle. What gives it the icing is the hope of love.”
A child prodigy gifted with a scintillating voice, incisive intelligence and extraordinary vision, Jimmy Cliff started singing first in the church and in his rural neighbourhood at the age of six. When, as early as that age, he had sought to know from someone who he expected to teach him how to go about writing his own songs, the answer he got was “just write it.”
Not discouraged by that terse, uninspiring response, he took the gauntlet and just went ahead to write his earliest songs: “Hurricane Hattie”, “Miss Jamaica”, “Sob Sob” and, “I Need a Fiance.” Too poor to afford one at the shops, he made a “guitar” from a bamboo at fourteen.
Propelled by an inner force of vision, confidence and determination, he moved from his native home to the country’s capital city of Kingston in search of opportunities to enhance his budding music career. In Kingston, he dropped the name James and adopted the name Cliff as an “expression of the height he intended on reaching.”
In 1965, he moved further afield to faraway London looking to gain global fame by working with Island Records: “I came full of vigour: I’m going to make it, I’m going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones.”
He was very much aware of what it meant to aspire to the heights of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, then the biggest names in the world of music. His song, “Many Rivers To Cross”, highlighted his consciousness of the daunting task before him.
From the late sixties to the seventies, Jimmy Cliff had attained global fame. That was the result of his songs which among several others included: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”; “I Can See Clearly Now”; ” You Can Get it If You Really Want” and, “Vietnam”, which was released in 1969 and depicted the horrors of the USA war in Vietnam. It was described as, “the best protest song ever written.”
His “The Harder They Come”, which was a soundtrack in a 1972 film of the same name, finally took Jimmy Cliff and reggae music to the consciousness and embrace of Americans who were hitherto only used to their native genres of Pop, Rock and Roll.
Jimmy Cliff will be long remembered for his pioneering role in the propagation of reggae music beyond the borders of Jamaica or, the Caribbean to the wider world. He left a legacy of philosophical lyrics spiced with eternal lines of wisdom and inspiration. In his words: “When some one comes up to me and says, ‘I was a drop out in school and heard your song, “You Can Get it If You Really Want” and the song made me go back to school and I’m now a teacher and I use your song with my students’…. that, for me, is a big success.”
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In recognition of his contributions to the social and cultural development of his country, Jimmy Cliff was conferred with the Jamaican highest national honour of The Order of Merit. In 2010, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Our Dan Agbese shared a lot with Jimmy Cliff. Both died last week at the age of 81 years. Through the manifestation of their geniuses, hard work and single-minded commitment to their chosen fields of endeavour, the two of them left the world much better than they met it.
With the traditional title of Awan Ofun of Agila in Ado local government area of Benue State, Dan Agbese will be remembered as a quintessential journalist, a prolific prose stylist, author and a co-founder of the News Watch weekly.
A graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, the University of Lagos and Columbia University, New York, Dan Agbese stepped into the world of journalism at the New Nigerian Newspapers, followed by his sojourn at the Nigerian Standard, Jos. He had the distinction of editing the New Nigerian Newspapers, at its peak between 1982 and 1984.
He also had a stint as the General Manager of Radio Benue before moving on to co-found the News Watch weekly along with his friends, late Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Muhammed.
His known published books include: “Nigeria Their Nigeria”; “Fellow Nigerians”; “The Reporters Companion”; “The Art and Craft of Column Writing”; “Moving In Circles” and, “Ibrahim Babangida: The Military, Politics and Power.”
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The greatness and place of Dan Agbese in the annals of journalism in Nigeria have been variously attested to by eminent personalities and colleagues in tributes and eulogies, especially since his death.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described Dan Agbese as an “institution and a journalist whose pen shaped public opinion, strengthened democratic discourse and inspired a generation of media practitioners. He served Nigeria with integrity, courage and commitment.”
Abubakar Atiku, former Vice President, said Agbese was a thorough professional whose death will “create a crater in media management” in the country. Peter Obi of the Labour Party in his tribute, described Dan Agbese as a “consummate columnist, a remarkable journalist and a passionate advocate for a better Nigeria.”
In a citation by the Diamond Award for Media Excellence, DAME, when he was honoured by the organisation, Dan Agbese was described as, “easily one of Nigeria’s most respected and impartial writers.
“He writes with a fascinating economy of words that leaves a lasting impression on you.” To Muhammed Haruna, another great name in the nation’s journalism industry, Dan Agbese’s death “is a huge loss to the country’s journalism and punditry.”
Perhaps, Dan Agbese’s biography of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, the former military President of Nigeria, Ibrahim Babangida: “The Military, Politics and Power,” will stand out as his greatest work of prose that will linger very long beyond his sojourn on earth.
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The book, written in Agbese’s trademark style of lucid, running and enchanting language, contains unprecedented details and depth that future scholars on the political history of Nigeria will find a compelling reference material.
In a review of the book in the Kalahari Review, Mudiaga Ofu Oku aptly noted that the book, “the most ambitious and most challenging of all Agbese’s works so far, cements his reputation as a storyteller of credibility and distinction.”
In a review of Dan Agbese’s other book, “Nigeria Their Nigeria”, the renowned literary Giant, Niyi Osundare, remarks: “In this book, once again, we encounter Agbese, the wordsmith and prose stylist: short, punchy sentences…The result is the achievement of a form of expression that is limpid and fascinatingly felicitous. And what’s more, the book is informed by so much of its author’s passion and care for his country.”
As the world painfully bids goodbye to Jimmy Cliff and Dan Agbese, human civilisation is, however, greatly enriched by the lives of the two iconic personages. In their various ways, the two relentlessly worked and developed their God given talents, genius, altruistically to the benefit of humanity.
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