TRIBUTE to DR. JAMES CHAMBERS aka JIMMY CLIFF

   

                 Tribute to Dr. James Chambers aka JIMMY CLIFF

                                                        By Nzinga Nzinga

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

Many rivers to cross

But I can't seem to find my way over

Wandering I am lost as I travel along

The white cliffs of Dover

Many rivers to cross and it's only my will

That keeps me alive

I've been licked, washed up for years and

I merely survive because of my pride.

Many Rivers to Cross. Jimmy Cliff

   

Jimmy Cliff

                                                       

“It can be said, and rightly so,

that there is hardly any illness where

Swedish Bitters is not of benefit, or at

least is effective as a basis for every treatment.”

Maria Treben, Health Through God’s Pharmacy.

This dogmatic, didactic, assertive and confident statement on Swedish Bitters, from Maria Treben, is supported, endorsed, maintained and bolstered by successful healers and researchers, reporters and laypersons (my category) and is not to be regarded lightly but to be taken as gospel truth. Whether you are completely healthy, mildly sick, chronically diseased or terminally ill, this piece of authoritative therapeutic opinion should not be ignored but rather be in the forefront of ones mind.

I am not merely impressed but overwhelmed by this sincere, informed, stimulating, authoritative herbalist practitioner-cum-researcher-cum-writer, Maria Treben. How can I tell the reader why this brilliant herbalist is such a favourite of mine?  

Let me try by using an analogous experience I had on a visit to Jamaica, the country of my birth, in 2005, when I was blown away by the performance of a certain Jamaican artist from Somerton, St. James.

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

I attended a fundraising concert  'Evening Of Black Magic' (February 4, 2005) by the Many Rivers to Cross, musician, Jimmy Cliff, a.k.a the Hon Dr James Chambers, OM, at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus on February 4. I have never in my life experienced such a sustained moment of unadulterated public joy and ecstasy as I did that night at the overwhelmingly brilliant, exciting and never-a-dull moment performance of The Harder They Come, You Can Get it if You Really Want, and The Rebel in Me man. Simply put, it was magnificently awesome.

Jimmy Cliff

What was even more stimulating is that the audience to a man and woman, as far as I discerned, during and long after the occasion, was also swept away by the artistry, virtuosity and generosity of Jimmy. Why ‘generosity’? Because I felt that he had given his all, he held nothing back. This recipient, yours truly, of this excellent moment of artistry felt that he had kept nothing back.

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

I laughed, I cried, I danced, I sang and I thanked God for bestowing on me that glorious opportunity of witnessing genius singing, dancing, intermittently playing all the musical instruments and splitting, at that age, 66!

Jimmy Cliff

We were noisily joining Jimmy in his well-known songs. However, when he launched into Many Rivers to Cross, total silence reigned. We ‘listened motionless and still’. It was like he was singing a prayer and we responded deferentially. I could see people with hands steepled in prayerful surrender. I could hear my friend, who was also visiting from Ghana and sitting next to me, breathe. Tears are falling as I write this piece and this emotional reaction can be construed as a tribute to Jimmy Cliff on his inimitable, thrilling and unforgettable performance at his Black Magic concert.

“So much things to say...”  (Bob Marley) about Jimmy’s performance but I will simply borrow from Mary Poppins and declare it awesomely ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’!

When he finally ended his out-of-this-world performance, some of the audience yelled for an encore. Still wafting on a high, I yelled back: “No, no. Enough. You have given us everything.” He gave no encore. He couldn’t. He had wrapped it up in its fullness and closed it off with a Rasta Anthem. For me, it was a religious experience. What I always say about my beloved Bob Marley’s music, I will also say about Jimmy’s: “The music in my heart I bore. Long after it was heard no more.” William Wordsworth. 
Thank you, Jimmy.

 So what is the link that I am drawing between the concert of Jimmy Cliff and the books of Maria Treben’s Health Through God’s Pharmacy and Cures? Simple. Undoubtedly, both maestros, in their own particular field, have produced brilliant work but the generosity of them both in giving their maximum without holding back, is what, at this moment of writing, brings tears to my eyes.

Jimmy Cliff

 

Yes, my captive audience, I have been shedding two separate showers of tears for the generosity of each of these two folks, from different parts of the globe, who represent different fields of virtuosity, but have generously used their talent to benefit mankind and bring satisfaction and joy to so many thousands globally, and with such excellence! I am still crying. Thank, you Dr. Chambers and Mrs. Treben. You can deduce from all this sentimentality on my part that I am a sucker for generosity and excellence and that I am not ashamed to cry. 

A brief clip from Jimmy's history won't hurt:

Jimmy Cliff receiving OM

Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska and reggae multi-instrumentalist musician, singer and actor. He is also honoured as Dr. Chambers, OM, The Jamaican government honoured Jimmy Cliff, on 20 October 2003, by awarding him The Order of Merit, the nation's fourth-highest honour since 2003, in recognition of his contributions to the film and music of Jamaica. He is the only living musician to hold the Order of Merit. 

A true Jamaican icon, Cliff was born James Chambers on April 1, 1948 in Somerton, St.James, Jamaica. As a teenager, he adopted the stage name “Cliff” to acknowledge the heights he intended to climb. With a career spanning nearly 50 years, Cliff’s material can be found on a total of nearly 100 albums/compilations/EPs/singles. His first album to win a Grammy was “Cliff Hanger” (1985). Then, in the early 90s, Cliff returned to the mainstream with his hit remake of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” from the Cool Runnings movie soundtrack.

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

 With more than four decades of material to choose from and a catalogue which includes Many Rivers to Cross, The Harder They Come, You Can Get it if You Really Want, Sitting in Limbo, Wonderful World, Beautiful People, Hot Shot, Rebel in Me, Reggae Night, One More, Now & Forever, Peace, Vietnam, Shelter of Your Love, Dear Mother, We all are one, Wild World and Hard Road to travel. 

Jimmy Cliff in movie The Harder They Come

In 1972, Cliff starred as Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin in the classic reggae film, The Harder They Come directed by Perry Henzell. As the film tells Martin's story, he is a young man without funds. Arriving in Kingston from the country, he tries to make it in the recording business, but without success. Eventually, he turns to a life of crime. The soundtrack album of the film was a huge success that sold well globally to an international audience for the first time. It remains one of the most internationally significant films to have come out of Jamaica since independence. After a series of albums, he took a break and travelled to Africa and subsequently converted to Islam taking the new name: El Hadj Naïm Bachir.

Jimmy Cliff

Also in 1985, Cliff contributed to the song"Sun City" a protest song against apartheid in South Africa. In 1988,his song "Shelter of Your Love" was featured in the hit film Cocktail

Jimmy Cliff

Cliff appeared in the film Marked for Death in 1990, performing "John Crow" with the Jimmy Cliff Band.  His recording of "You Can Get It If You Really Want" was used as a campaign anthem by the Sandinista National Liberation Front in the 1990 election in Nicaragua. In 1991, he performed at the second Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He continued to sell well in Jamaica and, to a lesser extent, in the UK, returning to the mainstream pop charts in the U.S. and in France with a version of Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" on the Cool Runnings film soundtrack in 1993.

Hakuna Matata  from The Lion King

In 1995, Cliff released the single "Hakuna Matata", a song from the soundtrack of the film The Lion King.

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy is also such a good looking bro. I am sure his good looks have not in any way hurt his career! May he stay blessed! I love him. 

One of my favourite quotes from Jimmy Cliff: 

"I consider myself a spiritual warrior, whose battle is always with self. I think consciously or unconsciously, we all are that."

The End

All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright. 

SUPERPOWER LEGACY Or Who Accepted Satan's Mandate To Rule This Material World? Pt 2

SUPERPOWER LEGACY Or Who Accepted Satan's Mandate To Rule This Material World? 

                                                          By Nzinga Nzinga

Part 2                                       

  “…all people, nations and language, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down,”  Daniel 5:19  

“…But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, … Daniel 5: 20    

Jesus' rejection of Satan's offer was certainly outright. unequivocal and uncompromising. Those of us steeped in political jargon would accuse Jesus of having no vision, for, if he did, he would have compromised with a ‘tactical, diplomatic and strategic’ acceptance, masking his hidden agenda to change and rearrange it through the miraculous powers he possessed, into whatever shape he wished once he got the work. 

Such a political subterfuge alias ‘politricks’ was not a viable option for Jesus. Apart from the fact that that was not a response compatible with the spirit of Jesus, Satan, who was also a miracle worker and possessed of powers to see through trickery, he being the trickster non-pareil, would have seen through any subterfuge or diplomatic strategy on the part of the tempted. Jesus’ rejection of Satan's seductive offer would be deemed by intellectual social scientists of the day as 'politically incorrect’.  

Then there are those who would hold fast to the belief that Jesus was a man of the highest vision since he was there from the ‘beginning’ and knew that ‘time would tell’ that Satan’s power, based on unrighteousness, was but for a time.   Yes, Sons and Daughters of Africa, this world in which we have our being, is under the thraldom of Satanic evils. Of demonic enchantment. It is a world that forces lifelong insecurity. Jesus was fully aware that there is a righteous Kingdom yet to come which would be free from the taint of Satanic misrule, scientific imbalance and distortions, mismanagement, blatant and covert injustice, racism based on colour, and evil machinations, where people will live in righteousness and peace as it was in the beginning before the tempter of tempters had his way and sway over mankind. It will be a world where Truth, Justice, Order and Law will prevail and where people of  all complexions can live in harmony with one another and with Nature. 

This new world will be a world where spirit thieves, greedy men with unrighteous agenda will have no place. Indeed, Sons & Daughters of Africa, as it was in the Beginning for us Africans, so shall it be then, in the end! Amen and again Amen! Sons & Daughters of Africa, have you ever seen a lion or a snake close-up? They may be on show at the zoo nearest you. They are extremely fearsome creatures. Yet this will be a world where the little child will play with the snake and lion without fear, where man to man will be just and the heart of man can in nowise hold a philosophy of racial prejudice and bigotry against another. There is promise of a world responding to the teachings of His Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie the First and not to the devil philosophy of Babylon.   

Jesus’ rejection of Satan’s glittering, overwhelming, fun-oriented, seductive and temporal temptation and offer to be his Main Man in the seat of power on Planet Earth, to be Supreme Master and President of the universe is another prime example of Bob Marley’s ‘We’ve got to fulfil the Book.’ Even Jesus Christ had to fulfil that Book. He had to be tempted by Satan, the grandfather of all tempters. Likewise, Satan had to fulfil his role in the ‘Book’. He had to tempt the redeemer of the world, the divine perfection incarnate on earth, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The world, offered by Satan and rejected by Jesus, some 2000 years ago, is the same racist, competitive, unjust and ‘vampirish’ political and social world system in which we live today. It is a world full of wealth generating conspicuous consumption alongside immense poverty generating want and trouble. We live in a world deeply entrenched in the misrule of unequal rights and injustice, of injustice underwritten by institutionalized and legislated iniquitous customs and practices, writs and rites, at the whim of false gods of ‘politricks’, religiosity, modern science and high technology. 

Bob Marley

It is a world under Satanic power as my beloved Bob sings in Black Survival, “this age of technological inhumanity, scientific atrocity, atomic misphilosophy and nuclear misenergy." Our universe is still under Satan’s mismanagement which, if we want to, we can plainly see, since his rulers and elitist sycophantic minions are too bold to conceal their foul play. My quintessential Bob Marley penetrated their callous megalomaniac practices and egotistic lifestyles thus:

          ♪♪ ‘… men sailing on their ego trips,

          Blast off on their spaceships,

          Million miles from reality

          No care for you, no care for me.’ ♪♪

                   So Much Trouble – Bob Marley

It is abundantly clear that the world in which we live and have our being, whether as one of the minority privileged VIP or as one of the majority disenfranchised underprivileged, is still under the administration of Satan. It still dances to the tune of devil philosophical music, and prances to the dictates of devil philosophical policies. It still pushes the bureaucratic papers supporting and promulgating the oppressive policies of the demonic master. 

George Beckford

This world under satanic orders is ruled by men whose bellies are always full while so many others go hungry. It is a world system controlled by men whose policies, instead of producing places where love rules, produce myriads of ghettoized ‘concrete jungles,’ (Bob Marley) and ‘small gardens overrun with bitter weed’ (George Beckford), whether by accident or design, ‘where the livin’ is hardest.’ (Bob Marley). This is a world overrun by men and women with hardened hearts of steel and coarsened, toxic consciences of lead.

The questions that spring to my mind are really one and the same question, which is: 'Who is the One on earth who accepted this Satanic offer rejected by Jesus? Who accepted to be Satan’s emissary, representative, ruler, president, prime minister, governor, CEO. MD and chief religious leader and headman-in-charge on earth? To whom did Satan hand over the reins of governance of this universe? Who accepted the gift of earthly empowerment to sit in Satan’s seat after falling down and worshipping him? Who accepted the offer to win the whole world at the loss of his soul?'

WHO THE CAP FITS…

Yes, Sons & Daughters of Africa, someone must have accepted where Jesus refused, but who? Which individual or which people?

♪♪Ah throw mi corn.

Me no call no fowl.

                       Who the cap fit, let them wear it. ♪♪ 

              Who the Cap Fit. Bob Marley

P.S. Sons and Daughters of Africa, I have been reliably informed by history and the international media that the one who accepted this insidious mandate was neither Emperor Haile Selassie, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabral, Fidel Castro, Mwalimu Nyerere, Comrade Gaddafi nor Sir Quete Mesere. In fact, no African leader has had that superpower even though some have acted as if they were mandated to do the great Satanic Will. May the rightful Creator and Ruler of this world predominate. Amen & Selah.

Give us the teachings of His Majesty.

        Wi no waan no devil philosophy...Bob Marley.

PPS.Let me leave as my concluding words with you, these most salutary and relevant 'teachings of His Majesty' Haile Selassie I, the ending of that famous "Until the philosophy...' speech delivered at the UN, New York, on October  6, 1963 and made into the Reggae song, 'War' by Bob Marley. 

THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE

“This then is the ultimate challenge. Where are we to look for our survival, for the answers to questions which have never before been posed? We must look first to Almighty God, Who has raised man above the animals and endowed him with intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him, that He will not desert us or permit us to destroy humanity which he created in His image. And we must look into ourselves, into the depths of our souls. We must become something we have never been and for which our education and our experience and environment have ill prepared us. We must become bigger than we have ever been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.” 

THE END

 All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright. 

SUPERPOWER LEGACY or Who Accepted Satan's Mandate To Rule This Material World? Pt 1

SUPERPOWER Legacy or Who Accepted Satan's Mandate To Rule This Material World? 

                                         By Nzinga Nzinga

Part 1
“…all people, nations and language, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down...” Daniel 5:19  

“…But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride..." Daniel 5: 20    

            
Let us stretch our imagination far out enough to envisage this world run by black people. A world where black people run things. By this I mean a world where black people behave the way white people have been doing for centuries, embracing all the capitalist evils of racism, Jim Crowism, slavery, colonialism, apartheid, neo-colonialism, in short, a display of Babylonian power at its apogee. 

If Africa had been the continent to take on all this world-power seeking, achieving, and maintaining roles, then when a melanin-endowed black-skinned person like my Taata, Richard Watson, or any of these thirteen beautiful Africans portrayed here, show their faces anywhere, whether in Africa or outside, people would recognise a member of the most powerful and privileged race on earth and treat us with the privilege and respect they think we deserve. Black would be the power colour. Black would be the acceptable, wanna-be-colour that all non-blacks would want to be. It is not altogether an impossibility. 

Mwalimu Nyerere & Osagyefo Nkrumah

Maya Angelou 

Martin Luther King Jr.

Peter Tosh

Komla Dumor

Dennis Brown

Whitney Houston

Ken Saro Wiwa

Miriam Makeba & Kwame Toure wed

Ella Fitzgerald

Chinua Achebe

There was a time when slavery, Jim Crowism, colonization and their grandchild, 

apartheid forced the black man to walk with his tail between his legs while the white man flashed his bumptious and cocky one in the black man’s face; when the black man shuffled with his face held down and his 

shoulders bowed, while the white man strutted about, huffing and puffing, with his nose in the air, his chest pushed forward and his shoulders thrown back. 

Then along came emancipation, independence and one-man-one-vote. The black man was legally free but the system was still not geared for his development, and the ones who succeeded the white rulers, behaved like their white predecessors.

That is why it is not inconceivable to see the black man behaving exactly like the white man if he should become superpower of the world as the white man now is. That the white man can get the recognition due to the most powerful race on earth, is simply because of the power attached to his race. The world system is set up in such a way that we have come to believe that it is the deficiency of melanin in him, the lack of colour in his skin, the texture of his hair and other aspects of the Caucasian appearance that generate unto him this recognition.

Hendrik Verwoerd

Although it is easy to believe that the paleness of the skin is what distinguishes the white man’s powerfulness from the black man’s powerlessness, the homage paid to the white man from the lack of homage to the black man, the respect to the one from the disrespect to the other, we know deep in our hearts that it is not really the colour of the skin that determines the reaction or response to these different individuals. The source is more than skin deep. It lies in another element which man has come to worship and adore, SUPERPOWER. 

Balthazar Johannes Vorster

The Caucasian man, from the moment that he started to taste the addictive ingredient or narcotic drug of power, used the differences in colour to get more and more power by making non-white races as powerless as he could render them. This race of pale face men, women and children, used the oppression of colour to subjugate the other two continents, Africa & Asia, destroying their cultures and sucking their nations dry. They set about successfully stealing and perverting the souls or spirit of their already civilized victims under the guise of civilizing them. Ask the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand about spirit thievery! They have quite a tale to tell about these spirit thieves in the physical form of the Caucasian from abroad.

P.W.Botha

This man, portrayed here, the late apartheid leader P.W.Botha, of the pale skin, straight hair and typical Caucasian features, belongs to a race of homo sapiens which is known from experience as the one which conquers all other races and seems invincible on land, in the air or on sea. They are all over Planet Earth practising racism, bigotry, colonialism, imperialism and such evils. They are wealthy enough to establish welfare states so that their people can have access to material benefits while the system is left wide open for millionaires to operate. They erect elaborate and forbidding edifices to hold, store or dispense their wealth, their treasures, their religion and their education, as the situation and circumstances may warrant. They live in huge, strong, exorbitantly expensive dwellings, often guarded by man, beast or electronic devices.

They take holidays and travel in tourist droves in search of sun, sea, sand and sex, or as they say, relaxation and rest, while some seek more dangerous adventures on safari hunting trips. Their control of international media gives them a free hand to disclose or hide, to smear or exalt, to build up or destroy, to caress or to slap at will.

The most remarkable feature of this most powerful race is their materialistic indulgence as manifested in conspicuous consumption.

If Africa were the one to hold the reins of world power, I am confident that we would behave the same way because that is the way a people who accept the new magna carta to rule the whole world must behave. We would be, if possible, even more showy, conspicuous consumers. Nearly every black man who could, would drive a Benz or a Cadillac, a Hummer, an SUV or any other state-of-art car of equal status. We would behave this way because the essence of this world is very showy and materialist. This world has to be ruled with a materialist imperative, and concomitant with this policy, is a hard, tough, merciless and totally self-seeking personality and nature. I echo Marcus Garvey’s prayer on this eventuality:

‘I pray God that we shall never use our physical prowess to oppress the human race, but we will use our strength physically, morally and otherwise to preserve humanity and civilization.  Marcus Garvey p. 11

And now I come to the main point of this matter. We read in the King James version of the Bible, that some 2000 years ago Satan took Jesus up to a high place and showing Him the glories, wealth and power of the world, told Him that he would make Him supreme world leader of the whole tempting package if He would fall down and worship him. Here is the episode live and direct from the King James Version of the Bible as related in Matthew 4: 8-10. Read it for yourself:

‘Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’

It is not difficult to imagine the supreme power that would accrue to the appointed or anointed supreme leader of the whole world. Jesus was supposed to know everything about divine and human affairs, so if He allowed Satan to take Him that far to offer Him the world and all that went with it, then we have to conclude that the whole world and all that went with it was for Satan to promise out. The world must belong to Satan for him to be offering it to the one individual who would know whether he was lying or not, and whether it was his to offer or not to offer. Jesus didn't say:

‘Get away from me, Satan. You are lying. You can’t help it since you are such a chronic, pathological liar! Ultimately, this world is not yours to offer. Yes, you have it in your sieve now but the time will come when the rightful ruler will wrench it from you without even as much as a by-your-leave gesture.’

If we remember, elsewhere Jesus refers to Satan as the ‘father of lies’. The world had to be Satan’s or he couldn't offer it to the hardest nut to crack. Yes, Jesus was the hardest nut Satan ever had to and would ever have to crack. As we know, Satan did not crack that nut with all his attractive temptations. The devil knew who Jesus was as shown in his reference to Jesus’ identification in the first two temptations. Satan sought out the highest personality with an offer for him to administer all the nations of the world which he, Satan had in thrall.     

Without any hemming and hawing, without much ado, using

the Holy Scriptures as a weapon of rebuttal and refusal to the supreme tempter, Jesus refused the beguiling offer. Satan, who knew the Scriptures inside out, tried to use it in the second temptation to beat down Jesus’ resistance. But Jesus never faltered or weakened in spite of the wily tempter’s charm and his own famished state after forty days of fasting. He turned down point blank the offer to run Satan’s kingdom here on earth. Indeed, Jesus gave a lie to the well-worn adage that every man has a price. He was not for sale. Some of us, who would give anything we possess, even at the cost of our soul, for even a tiny guaranteed niche of privilege in this world, would consider Jesus’ refusal as that of a crazy or foolish ‘sandal-wearing’ ideologue.

To be continued

 All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.