When legendary Jamaican singer and actor Jimmy Cliff went to Nigeria recently to receive an award as a Peace Ambassador from the Economic Commission of West Africa (ECOWAS), alongside his Ivoirian counterpart, Alpha Blondy, he was able to renew his links with Jamaican-born novelist and broadcaster Lindsay Barrett.

Barrett had been partly instrumental in Cliff making his first trip to the African continent three decades ago. The author of the classic Jamaican novel Song for Mumu, Barrett has lived and worked in West Africa for 43 years. Although he set up the first Cliff tour in Nigeria some unscrupulous promoters hijacked that event and created major problems for Cliff. In spite of this he and Barrett have always remained friends over the years. The following conversation between them took place in Port Harcourt capital of Nigeria’s richest state after Cliff received the award from ECOWAS.

Barrett: How do you feel receiving this prestigious award here in Nigeria and especially here in Port Harcourt where your tour of Nigeria began to go so disastrously wrong so many years ago?

Cliff: You know, this nullifies the impact of those individuals who tried to spoil my very first trip to Africa. It nullifies all of that because you know I have always felt that Nigeria is a very special place. As you know, in Jamaica we have very high regard for our ancestral roots so we look up to Nigeria, Ghana and most of West Africa, even though a lot of us have not traced our direct descendant communities. So coming back now and receiving this award just wipes away that bad experience. Really and truly I had long ago put that experience behind me but getting this award has just put the icing on the cake so I really feel good about it.

Barrett: In the last decade or so you have done a lot of joint performances with other stars such as Gilberto Gil in Brazil and others around the world. What does this signify in terms of your career path, why are these collaborations important to you?

Cliff: It’s links you know. I call it links because we know the story of our people, how they left here and went all over the Diaspora and I have always felt the need to make links with our people wherever they are. So I went to Brazil, I went to Cuba and of course to many parts of Africa and performed with as many people as I could. It is making the necessary links to show that it was there it is there and it always will be there.

Barrett: Will you keep on coming to Africa?

Cliff: I can never stop coming to Africa. Now that I have got this award from ECOWAS I will make a suggestion to them to do a tour of all ECOWAS states for peace. I tried something like that in the past for the frontline states in the fight against apartheid and for full African liberation but it didn’t quite work out because of timing. Now I feel the timing is better, the conditions are better and this is something I really would like to do.

Barrett: There must have been some very important high points in your career. What were these?

Cliff: You know there have been very many high points in my life. I feel that I have completed Act One in my life and I am now in the process of commencing Act Two. My very first international hit record, Wonderful World, Beautiful People, was a high point. Making all those links I have told you about, those were very high points. The start of my movie career through, my role in The Harder They Come was a significant high point. That was the first Jamaican international movie and it is something I will forever be proud of. Then my first trip to Africa, my tour of Nigeria, in spite of all the problems, that was a major high point in my life and my career. I had been performing all over the world in Europe and the USA and so on but when I came to Nigeria, the welcome that I got with all the thousands of people lining the streets to welcome me, I had never had anything like that up to that time. So I have no regrets. It helped me get to know Africa better and since then I have met presidents and leaders all over the continent and these meetings have also been high points in my life. So, yes I have completed Act One but with my new album, Existence, in the pipeline there is still a lot in the future that I am looking forward to.

Barrett: Have you any plans to do more films?

Cliff: Yes I hope to do more films and right now although I am focusing on preparing my new album, I am working on two films as well. One is based on the life of a legendary Jamaican from my childhood who was known as Wappie King. You know when I spoke to a major Rastafarian intellectual Mortimer Plano and asked him about Wappie King all he said to me was “Jimmy that was a really bad man.” For me it is his fearlessness and his energy that I want to capture in a positive light. The way he spoke to the law and how he went to the gallows was really unique and I want to capture this spirit in a positive way. The second film could be called a love story. I wrote it long before Usain Bolt made his mark. One of the central characters is an athlete, a sportsman who has the ability to succeed in any sport he chooses but he chooses to be an Olympic champion. Then there is a young woman who has the grace and the beauty to become a high fashion model and that is what she sets out to achieve.

The third character is a singer who has been at the game for some time and hasn’t exactly hit the high point but has the talent to keep trying. It is a triangle with the two men being in love with the female character. The working title of that film is Centre Stage as each of the main characters is fighting to get to centre stage. Then I am also still working towards doing a sequel of The Harder They Come.

Barrett: Well Jimmy I want to thank you for being just who you are and tell you that you remain an inspiration to Jamaicans of all ages all over the world not just at home.

Cliff: Lindsay, thank you too. It is good to see that you have remained true to yourself and I want to tell you that you too have helped me in ways that you may not even know. I look forward to seeing more of you in the future.