Death is a leveler. It recognises no class or caste system. Death is the purest form of democracy: one man, one death. That explains the sad passing of our beloved Lord Anything (also known as Eric Saunders) on Sunday 12th November 2006 as he laid in a hospital bed in Puerto Rico. He was only 40 – a young man with plenty to offer. Actually, he had already offered plenty.

Lord Anything was born in St Kitts but his strong Anguillian roots go way back. Joseta Saunders, his grandmother, was born in Anguilla. She was the daughter of Grand Sall from whom Grand Sall Hill got its name. Othneil Saunders, his grandfather (a Kittitian), was appointed headmaster of the East End Primary School, in 1913. At that time it was located at the St Augustine’s Anglican Church. He continued as headmaster when the school was moved to the government-owned East End Primary School building in 1918. Saunders who was also a member of the Anglican Vestry left Anguilla in 1924.

When Lord Anything arrived here in 1987 he joined the Royal Anguilla Police Force in which he continued the family’s tradition of service to Anguilla. He rose to the rank of Sergeant and distinguished himself as a professional police officer who was a friend of all.

No matter how difficult the circumstances and problems with which he was confronted, he always treated people like people. I remember a chap telling me, the other day, that it was a pleasure to be arrested by Sergeant Lord Anything. Though you were wrong he made you feel like somebody. Surely, he was stern, yet caring. In commenting on his sad passing, Frances Barry, a public servant, observed that, “he was a sweet person – a good, honest and clean cop.”
He certainly was and, for that reason among others, Deputy Commissioner, Illidge Richardson, had tremendous faith in him: “He was a committed officer. He was very dependable. He was devoted to duty . . . He was like a brother to us. . . To some he was a father. To others he was a great teacher.”

Lord Anything’s contribution to the wellbeing of the Anguillian people through his service in the police force was phenomenal. Well done our good and faithful servant. But more phenomenal, in my view, was his contribution through the calypso art form in which he excelled. He was a calypso giant. Throughout his calypso sojourn he was a social commentator concerned about the welfare of the Anguillian people for whom he had a special love.

Because of his love for Anguilla he spurned all offers to emigrate, even to the USA. There was no better place on earth, he thought. That was the message of his calypso, The Value of Peace (2002), which Iwandi called “a masterpiece”. Listen:

Me good friend came to me house one night
In a Lexus car and face look bright
He said boy ‘you really need a break
Why not come with me to the States?
Ah got a deal and the price is great.’
Well Ah say ‘me boy I’m disappointed
Material life gone to your head
You want me to leave this sweet country
Where peace and love is free?
Man that price just ain’t right for me.’

Despite its economic difficulties, Lord Anything saw Anguilla as paradise compared to most countries. He preferred its peace and tranquility to “material worth” because:

Out there man stumbling
And they fumbling
But we have a peaceful island
Why should I trade it for material worth
Stop the scrambling
For material thing . . .

Lord Anything also preferred Anguilla’s traditional foods. I can still hear him (in That’s Our Culture) singing:

Conky and coconut dumpling
Dat’s we culture.
Corned fish and corn fungi
Dat’s we culture.
Roast corn and sweet potato
Dat’s the way we live
Fishing and smuggling is our cultural heritage.

As wonderful as Anguilla was, in Lord Anything’s eyes, he did not fail to highlight the negative aspects of its culture. He abhorred what he called a “cut throat policy” where Anguillians do not like to see Anguillians prosper – do not like to see their own people move upwards. That is the truth, thus his calypso Cut Throat Policy:

Greed and jealousy
Plaguing de country
You can’t make progress
Before yer neighbour get vex
And find destructive evil means to discredit you...
If everybody could use you
The whole country will like you
But if you lift your head and seem to be doing well
Someone in society will undermine you
Sooner or later
Look around and you will see
The existence of the cut throat policy.

Looking around, one also sees a rising tide of youth violence. There is a breakdown of discipline in Anguilla’s homes. This is not a new phenomenon because Lord Anything sang about it back in 2002. In You Have a Duty to Care he correctly put the blame for the situation squarely on the shoulders of parents who were neglecting their responsibilities. His advice to them was both powerful and timely:

. . . Train up a child in the way he should grow
Prepare the youth with the skills of tomorrow
Teach them the value of education
Provide the youth with a strong foundation
Show him love, let him know that he is cared for
Teach him good values and what you stand for
Mould him, be firm and treat him nice
Give the child good parental advice.

The chorus:

Good parenting is lacking today
That’s why our children are going astray
Stand up and face your shame
Parents you are the ones to blame
Grab hold of your responsibility
Don’t let them ruin your family
Save the children for you brought them here
Parents you have a duty to care
Yes, you are the one who brought them here
Parents you have a duty to care . . .

While parents have a duty to care for the children, Lord Anything made it his duty to highlight, in his calypsos, the plight of the poor and less fortunate. He was their friend and he claimed in Things Getting Tight (2001) that government was ignoring their interests. He sang that while the “big fellows” were doing well the “poor people [were] catching hell” because of the skyrocketing cost of living on the one hand, and low wages on the other; and that things were so difficult for lower paid workers that “commercial banks [were] seizing [their] cars and jeeps” and putting their “houses up for auction.” While this was happening, he said, the rich were getting richer:

Even though poor people catching hell
They [government] still say the country doing well.
Lord have mercy on us
Dem fellows squeezing us.
For time so hard
Dog an all can’t find bones to bite
Things getting tight, things really tight.
Injustice and frustration
Bring hardship on the land
While poor people suffer
Big fellows bread getting butter.
And when things don’t go their way
They catch a plane and fly away
Watch dem you will see,
They don’t give a damn about you and me.
Check dem carefully,
They knocking glass and laughing at we.

In Serious Concerns, Lord Anything sang about a range of issues which were occupying people’s minds and he asked the government to do address them:
They are concerned about how we promote the foreigner
...And ignore the citizens of Anguilla
. . . If we continue this course of action
We will be selling out our island.
Serious concerns Address the cries of the nation.
Without a doubt, he was the voice of the people:

My heart bursting with fright,
Because de country ain’t running right.

More correctly, Lord Anything was the voice of the voiceless who were too afraid to speak out. At times Anguillians are unhappy with certain policies of government but refuse to voice their dissatisfaction – too afraid to offend the powers that be. Why? The fear of victimization or fear of losing favours. But such fear did not bother him. He sang the way he saw things despite being advised to keep his mouth shut – to throw water pon dat. It was his repugnance of that attitude, his advocacy of openness, which led to Throw Water Pon Dat (2003), one of his most popular calypsos. It highlighted what he saw as corruption and malpractice in high places which people did not want him to sing about. Listen to a few lines:

Since we fraid to offend and see and don’t see
People getting away drinking government money
And when dey privatise anything you hear
Dem same fellas buying most of de shares. . .
Dey on de boards collecting plenty big dollars
Yet dey owe de government up to six figures
And begging me, do not sing bout dat
Throw water pon dat
Grabbing social security money, like it comes from a money tree
While de old people pension list getting slash annually
And dey warn me, do not sing bout dat
Throw water pon dat
Some grabbing at everything dey could put their hands upon
While de state of dis country continues falling down
And dey tell me, do not sing bout dat
Throw water pon dat
Dis happens daily
And even blind men can see
Dey ripping de gall out of dis country.
Part of the price which Lord Anything had to pay for speaking out against societal ills was that he was never once crowned Calypso King of Anguilla. Many people, including me, are of the view that he was robbed of the crown on a few occasions. Incidentally, I like this bit from Sister Ijahyna’s column in last week’s Anguillian: “No one can take Lord Anything’s place and I am sorry he cannot be here to wear the crown that I believe he could have taken many a competition night.”

Lord Anything took his misfortune in good spirit. He never stopped competing. You know why? He sang not for the crown but for the message. He sang not for the crown but for calypso. And he was satisfied being the voice of the voiceless whatever the consequences.

A calypso martyr, Lord Anything was of high intellect. To quote a release from JeLeCour Productions: “It has been for us an education in dealing with one so brilliant, one so unassuming, correct and yet so non-judgmental . . .” Because he was a thinker, Lord Anything always saw the bigger picture. In this regard, he envisaged Anguilla’s future as being bound up with that of the rest of the Caribbean and therefore sang in support of a political union of Caribbean states:

We should be one,
One great nation . . .

That was the message of his calypso the United States of the Caribbean:

Trading blocks are forming annually all over the world
Working towards common goals...
We should take pattern Start falling in line
Now is the time . . .

While most Anguillians have fears about regional integration, Lord Anything urged:

Take pattern from NAFTA and United Europe Rally together, form one trading block.

And about some of the benefits of integration, he sang:

Caribbean integration
It is key to future prosperity
Same destiny, same motivation, same intention
Throughout the region
Try bargaining from a position of strength
If we are divided larger nations they will dictate If we are united they are forced to negotiate Rally together
We can’t afford no delay...
Neither did death. With Lord Anything’s passing, we have lost a good role model – a lighthouse which guided many down the straight and narrow. But we will ever be thankful for the quality of life he lived and for his legacy of rich calypsos. JeLeCour was on the ball when it said that “the world will never see the likes of [him] again . . . His greatness as a calypsonian par excellence is well known” especially for his “lyrics [about] the social conditions affecting us as a people, for which it seems that his writing skills were particularly well geared . . .”

Well said. In the calypso world he was a Puritan in Babylon. He never sang any “fatty bum bum” songs. To quote Bummy Lake, “Lord Anything never sang smut. His calypsos always had a good message.” That’s why I was deeply touched when Iwandai said, during HBR’s coverage of his interment, that Lord Anything will never sing again, “until he sings in heaven’s choir.”

His career as a police officer aside, Lord Anything did his utmost through calypso to make Anguilla better than he met it. He used the art form to cry out for help for the poor and less fortunate, and to demand accountability, openness and transparency in government.

He also used the art form to educate. Among other things, he encouraged people to exercise their constitutional rights of freedom of thought and expression. He definitely exercised his rights. He ventured where others feared to tread. He was the voice of the voiceless. He refused to be intimidated. Nobody or nothing could have shut him up. Only death. And it did. But death cannot kill his music and message. They live on. Absent in body. Present in calypso. May his soul rest in peace.

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