CHARLES KONG SOO

charles.kong­soo@guardian.co.tt

When ca­lyp­son­ian Lord Nel­son (Robert Alphon­so Nel­son) re­ceived his Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt) for his con­tri­bu­tion to Cul­ture, from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), St Au­gus­tine cam­pus on Sat­ur­day, he trans­formed the uni­ver­si­ty's grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence, Tu­na­puna, in­to a ca­lyp­so tent or fete with his spec­tac­u­lar song and dance per­for­mance.

Re­splen­dent in his sig­na­ture all-white suit, un­der his grad­u­a­tion robes, be­decked in gold jew­ellery and rings, he was beam­ing with pride and joy. Af­ter be­ing con­ferred with his hon­orary doc­tor­ate from UWI Chan­cel­lor Robert Bermudez, Nel­son's ac­cep­tance speech took the form of his inim­itable song and dance per­for­mance of two of his 'mon­ster' sig­na­ture songs 'Meh Lover' and 'All Ah We Is One Fam­i­ly'.

The 91-year-old vet­er­an en­ter­tain­er aka 'Dis­co Dad­dy', 'Pa­pa', or 'Nel­lo' had the UWI grad­uands, pro­fes­sors, par­ents, guests and uni­ver­si­ty staff elic­it­ing bois­ter­ous sing-alongs, clap­ping and danc­ing in the aisles and seats.

The crowd went wild when the ever­green Nel­son was in full flight and took off his jack­et and robes and waved them ju­bi­lant­ly in aban­don.

Speak­ing to the Sun­day Guardian af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny, Nel­son said "I feel great. I am hum­bled and give thanks to Almighty God for grant­i­ng me this ho­n­our.

UWI graduates dance during Robert "Lord Nelson" Nelson's UWI graduates dance during Robert "Lord Nelson" Nelson's performance after he received the Honorary Doctor of Letters degree at UWI Graduation at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, yesterday.

ANISTO ALVES

"This is an­oth­er ad­di­tion I am proud to re­ceive while I'm alive for my con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture, ca­lyp­so and the arts. My speech was trans­lat­ed to a trib­ute of song and dance on stage. The peo­ple at UWI said it was nev­er done be­fore, that was the first time any­thing like that hap­pened at a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny.

"I over­heard some­one in UWI say that was the great­est thing I got to­day, and I nev­er sang or danced at oc­ca­sions like this be­fore."

He said re­cent­ly he was al­so con­ferred with the ti­tle Chief Ba­ba Gun­wa Shango Baku­la un­der the Or­isha tra­di­tion in Nige­ria by the Ooni of Ife.

Nel­son was award­ed an Hon­orary Dis­tin­guished Fel­low from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad ad To­ba­go (UTT) in 2019.

The vet­er­an en­ter­tain­er burst out in his mis­chie­vous laugh and gave his sig­na­ture tag lines "Ah not old, ah ripe" and "Ah can't miss what I nev­er had."

He shared that be­sides be­ing a so­ca artiste, com­pos­er, and per­former, he want­ed the peo­ple to know him as an ex­cel­lent sto­ry­teller on all as­pects of life.

In 2006 Nel­son was pre­sent­ed with The Caribbean Sun­shine Award in New York. In 2007, he was the first re­cip­i­ent of the COTT–John­nie Walk­er Black Pi­o­neer Award and in 2017, he was ho­n­oured with The Hum­ming Bird Medal Award (Gold).