RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Weep­ing as her fa­ther’s cas­ket was tak­en out of the JE Guides Fu­ner­al Home and placed in the hearse for the street pro­ces­sion, Er­i­ca Cal­liste hugged her broth­er, Ja­son, re­flect­ing that it would be the last day she would ever see her fa­ther, Dr Leroy “Black Stal­in” Cal­liste, again.

But as the street pro­ces­sion got un­der­way, the fam­i­ly’s tears turned to joy, as hun­dreds lined the streets to show their love for Black Stal­in.

Black Stal­in’s cas­ket stayed closed through­out the pro­ces­sion. No­body, ex­cept his close fam­i­ly, saw him dressed like an African King, in a gown of black and gold, with his locks draped around his head.

“He is a King among Caribbean kings!” de­clared his son Ray Cal­liste, as the moko jumbies, dressed in na­tion­al colours, led the pro­ces­sion along Cof­fee Street, up Dr Leroy Cal­liste Street, through Har­ris Prom­e­nade, down In­de­pen­dence Av­enue and fi­nal­ly to the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), where the fu­ner­al ser­vice was held.

Black Stal­in’s songs, in­clud­ing “Trib­ute to Sun­dar Popo” and “Black Man Feel­ing To Par­ty,” blared from mu­sic trucks as the rains start­ed falling.

The mas­quer­aders, stick fight­ers, moko jumbies, bon­go and Tas­sa drum­mers pranced and chipped to his tunes.

Black Stal­in’s six chil­dren - Ray, Ja­son, Sha­ka, Ke­nia, Ab­by and Er­i­ca Cal­liste—as well as his wife Pat­sy, par­tic­i­pat­ed in the pro­ces­sion.

Er­i­ca said she was proud to be the daugh­ter of the cul­tur­al icon.

Hav­ing lost her moth­er Evette Welch, Er­i­ca said Stal­in loved all of his chil­dren dear­ly.

“When I hear him singing Black Man feel­ing to Par­ty, it makes me hap­py,” she said, adding that her fa­ther’s con­tri­bu­tion had not gone un­no­ticed in T&T and through­out the Caribbean.

Her broth­er Ray said it was nice to see his fa­ther get a prop­er send-off.

“He has done a lot for our peo­ple, not on­ly the Africans but the In­di­ans, and Chi­nese. Yes, it’s sad, he is not in pain and he has left us with a lot of mem­o­ries. He is a King, one like Bob Mar­ley or James Brown. He is Trinidad’s Michael Jack­son. He stayed on his path and did it very well,” he said.

Sev­er­al of Stal­in’s friends al­so paid trib­ute.

Among them was Queen Moth­er Cos­sil Williams

“I want the pub­lic to re­mem­ber the root of the man—the hero. What he has done for cul­ture and T&T and the world at large. His ca­lyp­soes were up­lift­ing. His ca­lyp­soes were in­fec­tious and the youths used to grav­i­tate. I want his lega­cy to live on as a dai­ly re­minder to us and the lessons he left with us,” she said.

Car­los Pe­ters said Stal­in was al­ways a teacher through his songs.

“Every song had a mes­sage and from the age of five, I could have un­der­stood his mes­sages,” Pe­ters said.

Roland Barn­well, al­so known as Watchie, said Stal­in was very hum­ble and down-to-earth.

“He used to be in the mas camp on Mon­day and Tues­day, com­ing to see what Lio (Li­onel Jages­sar) band pro­duc­ing,” he re­called.

The coun­try has been in mourn­ing since last week Wednes­day, when Stal­in passed away peace­ful­ly at his home around 9.45 am.

He had spent three weeks at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal be­fore re­turn­ing home, where he sub­se­quent­ly died.

Stal­in suf­fered a stroke eight years ago and had been ail­ing since. His chil­dren and his grand­chil­dren took turns in car­ing for him be­fore he passed.