"PIECES OF A MAN"- Brief notes on departed Gil Scott-Heron

Meeting the well known and famous has various sides. Could be fuelling the adulation and getting inspired. For me meeting Gil Scott Heron for the first time in 1987 (Bonn, Germany) then often when he came to London was not that dramatic. He was just a "regular" guy. Tall, self confident but very normal.
No airs, no innuendos...
I get this feeling whenever I meet extraordinarily gifted people in person. No intimidation, no awkwardness...because they are at ease with themselves. Any other tale tell signs would mean tilt the balance. They in turn inspire you like a good friend or favourite family member would.
It is like watching great footballers Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane. Totally comfortable with their genius...
Meeting Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in Rio in 1991 was similar. Nyerere was bigger than Mandela in his prime, but in person so, so easy going, like an old pal.
"We are not super stars..." Gil Scott Heron said seriously when I made a joke to the effect. This was manifest in the way he spoke. Always using the pronoun "we" instead of "I" or "me"...

Gil Scott-Heron performing with his Amnesia Express band @ Jazz Cafe, Camden Town, London, early 1999. Pic by F Macha

And this wasn't a modest gesture, Gil Scott-Heron did not see himself as some kind of celebrity; which he was and has been to us, his fans...
No wonder not many knew him and his music; despite being been labelled "Godfather of Rap"...Gil Scott Heron wasn't your usual mainstream musician; his style, his lyrics, his content had a purpose.A musician who is constantly saying truths and pointing melodic fingers and piano chops at our social political economic lies and injustice is hardly going to be mainstream. Honesty is rarely accepted worldwide.
I once asked him if he was not scared of those powerful who he is constantly chiding in his records.
"Only fear for those closely associated to me..."
He shrugged and reminded me of Bob Marley saying once: "My life is not important. The people are more important. Without the people my life has no meaning..."
These are individuals on a mission.
They want things to be better for all of us.
Gil Scott Heron's death left me gutted but at the same time I can feel sunshine on leaves, rooftops, cheeks and roads of this universe. Why? He left so many rich albums and said so much during his 62 years life. In other words he did his duty. Everyone has their destiny.
We have to contribute to Mother universe...

...BEFORE MANDELA THERE WAS MWALIMU NYERERE

A PHOTO FROM THE PAST
Nyerere in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, June 1991...
Mwalimu Nyerere flanked by assistants, officials and bodyguards asking Freddy Macha about  life in Brazil. Pic by Vantoen Perreira...

When we speak of great Africans and role models, an image of a smiling Nelson Mandela with those troubled but noble, yet kind shining eyes, comes to mind. Nelson Mandela is the chap that everyone wants to take a photo with. Twenty six years in jail for sticking his tongue at racial hatred, then stepping out of jail, waving a hand, smiling, saluting the world, forgiving…
Before Nelson Mandela there was Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
But who is Nyerere?
Many do not recognise the name. Known in his time as "Mwalimu", which means teacher in Swahili, Nyerere was born in 1922 and while still at Makerere University, Uganda, at the tender age of 21, started an association for the improvement of Africans. Those were colonial days. Two years passed. He wrote an essay: “The Freedom of Women.”
His father, a tribal chief, had 22 wives. It was part of the “idea of moving towards freedom theoretically,” he told Dr. Ikaweba Bunting of the Internationalist magazine in one of his last major interviews in 1999.
On July 7th, 1954, Mwalimu Nyerere formed TANU which led Tanzania to independence. Here the idea of using Swahili as a unifying language was hatched and fundamental in keeping the peace as there are more than hundred tribes and languages in Tanzania. “The only tribalism that exists in Tanzania is teasing each other.” Nyerere would say in one of his speeches, decades later. Between all this he found time to translate two works of William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar and Merchants of Venice) to Swahili.