St.George’s Grenada 14^th Jan 2009 –The Caribbean is moaning the lost of one of the greatest calypsonians ever to pass through the art form. Trinidadian ,”The Mighty Duke” whose real name was Kelvin Pope died, after having fought a blood disease called myelofibrosis for a number of years. Myelofibrosis is a disease that disables the functioning of the body, causing it to undermine the production of new blood cells.

Although he succumbed to the disease, he will continue to stand out in history as the only Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian to have earned the Calypso Monarch title four consecutive times from 1968 to 1971.

His “Big Tunes” tunes included renditions like ‘Black is Beautiful’, ‘Brotherhood of Man’ and ‘Teach the children’ and “Thunder”.
Yet, “How many more must die”, a social commentary which not only spoke out against racism in general, but apartheid in particular, was a rendition that affected the black Caribbean and Afro-Americans profusely .It also brought the world to face up ( head on) the atrocities of apartheid, one of the more darker era in the life of South Africa.

The Mighty Duke, “the calypsonian who was always well dress” was also an outstanding composer and stood out as one of the more forward advocate of the arts: calypso.

Duke was born in St Vincent but migrated to Trinidad at a tender age and lived at Andel Road in Point Fortin, (the breeding ground for some of the most outstanding calypsonians ever produced in Trinidad) before moving to Cap-de-Ville Main Road.

He had a career in teaching,then he left same to pursue calypso, taking on the moniker of The Mighty Duke and living up to his name not the least by his dapper sense of style appearing always in finely tailored jackets with intricate designs
With his passing in the run up to Carnival 2009 The Mighty Duke joins Kitchener and Andre Tanker in a group of Calypso giants lost to us before the Greatest Show on earth.

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