THE FIRST-EVER award given to a Maroon descendant for outstanding contribution to Jamaica will be awarded this year to Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd, the venerable record industry executive who produced some of the most outstanding Jamaican music that is today played and enjoyed throughout the world.
The award which will be known as the Nanny/Quao Abeng Award is named in honour of two of Jamaica's Maroon leaders Nanny, the seventh national hero of Jamaica, and Quao, the military genius from the Charles Town Maroon community in Portland.
SPECIALLY MADE
The award is a specially made abeng, and presented to a Maroon descendant who has performed exemplary in their field of endeavour, and in so doing make a contribution to the development of Jamaica; culturally, socially, economically or academically. It will be one of the highlights each year at the Quao Day Celebration, on June 23, the date in 1739 when the British were forced after several defeats by the windward Maroons, to sign a peace treaty acknowledging the Maroons as a free, independent nation within Jamaica. The abeng is a horn made from the horn of a cow or goat and blown by the Maroons in their battles against the Spanish and British troops.
Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd was born in downtown Kingston to Benjamin Dodd and Doris Anderson who was nicknamed Nanny, after the legendary Maroon leader, Nanny of the Maroons.
Mr. Dodd gives unabashed praise and credit to his mother for her lifelong support of his endeavours as a music producer and entertainment entrepreneur. And history has recorded that it was she who first played the sound system that he had put together and sent back to Jamaica from the United States of America, where he had gone to work. It was at their little family enterprise called "Nanny's Hot Spot", at the corner of Laws Street and Fleet Street in central Kingston that the Sir Coxsone's Downbeat Sound System/Studio One Records sound was born in the early 1950s.
AS A CHILD
As a child, Clement, known to his family and very close friends as Roy, was sent by his mother to live with his grandparents and aunts, the Andersons, in Rose Hill, an adjoining district to Charles Town, Portland, just above Buff Bay heading towards the Blue Mountains. He attended Charles Town Government School, for a year and a half before returning to Kingston, and was exposed to his Maroon roots then. It was an unforgettable experience for him.
The Nanny/Quao Abeng award will be presented by Colonel Richmond 'Pyac' Charles, the leader of the Charles Town Maroons. The presentation will take place on Sunday, June 22 at 5:00 P.M., at the Safu Yard in Charles Town. Member of Parliament for Western Portland and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, the Honourable Errol Ennis, will address the function.
In making the announcement of the award, Keith Lumsden, chairman of the Charles Town Maroon Council, and his brother Frank 'Buck' Lumsden, a captain of the Maroons and two of the principal organisers of the Quao Day Celebration, stated that there is no better a Jamaican to receive this inaugural award than Mr. Dodd, "who in true Maroon spirit, ventured in uncharted waters, with sheer will and passion to accomplish the extraordinary feat of pioneering a Jamaican music industry from humble beginnings that has made a positive impact on the lives of so many, both at home in Jamaica and abroad."
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