Grenada mourns Mighty Sparrow; celebrates enduring Caribbean legacy

Grena­da has joined Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean in mourn­ing the death of leg­endary ca­lyp­son­ian Slinger Fran­cis­co, the Mighty Spar­row, with Prime Min­is­ter Dick­on Mitchell and the is­land’s Min­is­ter for Tourism, Cre­ative Econ­o­my and Cul­ture Adri­an Thomas pay­ing trib­ute to one of the re­gion’s most cel­e­brat­ed cul­tur­al icons.

In a Face­book post yes­ter­day, Mitchell said, “Grena­da gave him his birth­place. Trinidad and To­ba­go nur­tured his gift. Mighty Spar­row gave the Caribbean a voice the world came to know.

“Through his ca­lyp­so, Slinger Fran­cis­co cap­tured our hu­mour, our strug­gles and our chang­ing times. His songs will con­tin­ue to re­mind us of the ex­tra­or­di­nary cre­ativ­i­ty this re­gion can pro­duce.