With 2010 World Cup just 99 days away, ESPN has reopened an old topic about Joe Gaetjens the hero during the US victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. The article tries into kill all the misconceptions that were portrayed about Joe Gaetjens and show him as he truly was. In the movie “Game of Their Lives”, he was portrayed as a voodoo fanatic when he was actually Catholic. There are mangled facts about Gaetjens family origins and the English media trying to call his goal a fluke as well as his mysterious demise.
Joe Gaetjens was not Belgian. And his father wasn’t, either.
His name sounded Flemish. The Flemings are the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium. Considering the tidal wave of Flemish immigrants that washed over North America in the 19th century, the assumption that Gaetjens was of Belgian descent held credence. But Gaetjens, in spite of the ‘-jens’ suffix, is not a common name in Flanders.
Genealogic research shows that Joe’s great-grandfather, Thomas, migrated to Haiti from Bremen, in northern Germany, where the Gaetjens name is rather common. (A close variation on Gaetjens — Gätjens — is also oft-heard just north of there, over the Danish border.) Thomas arrived in Haiti shortly after 1825 (when France officially recognized Haiti’s independence) and married Leonie Dejoie, whose father was a general and had played a part in Haiti’s self-determination. That connection opened a path to prosperity for the Gaetjens family…
Joe Gaetjens did not practice voodoo.
“Absolutely not!” shouts his indignant younger sister, Mireille, reached in Puerto Rico.
“The Game of Their Lives,” the 2005 movie about the historic upset, had been ludicrously inaccurate. The film made light-skinned Gaetjens, played by dark-skinned Jimmy Jean-Louis, out to be some sort of voodoo nut.
The Gaetjens family was appalled. In real life, Gaetjens was Catholic, like most Haitians, and went to church every Sunday…
After the U.S.-England game, a barrage of excuses was blasted from the England camp. It had been too hot. Travel had been strenuous. But this one would stick: Gaetjens’ goal had been a lucky one.
All Americans and most English present on the scene dispute that.
Gotta give The Heatwave Blog their due for this one….classics never die….check the details below…
…Yesterday was 25 years to the day since Wayne Smith’s anthem Under Mi Sleng Teng was first played in a dance.
The tune was built at Jammy’s studio in Waterhouse before being unleashed during a clash with Black Scorpio at Waltham Park Road on 23rd February 1985. It flattened the dance and dominated the scene for months, with dozens (and later hundreds) of artists and producers rushing to record their own versions of the rhythm track.
Generally acknowledged as the first fully computerised dancehall riddim, Sleng Teng completely revolutionised Jamaican music and paved the way for all the ragga, bashment, dancehall or whatever you want to call it that I love so much….
Check the original below and peep a video medley after the jump….
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Rex Nettleford performing in 1965; photo by Maria LaYacona
I made the mistake of not getting this out last week, when The Hon. Rex Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC passed. For that, I apologize. For those unfamiliar with Rex Nettleford, and the legacy he leaves behind, see the passage below…
Jamaica lost one of its most revered cultural figures last night when Professor Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), died, just hours before he would have celebrated his 77th birthday…
…”Jamaica and the entire world have lost an intellectual and creative genius, a man whose contribution to shaping and projecting the cultural landscape of the entire Caribbean region is unquestionable,” (Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce )Golding said….
In the time since his death, numerous pieces have come up all over the net, a few of which I’ve compiled below…
Not too much to say about the man that hasn’t already been said.
For some vibes to spin throughout the day to remember him by, check this out…
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Joell Ortiz spits a quick history lesson on Haiti over the instrumental of the moment nowadays, Jay Electronica’s “Exhibit C”. Check out the audio below…
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Through the music blog Ears Of Green, I stumbled on this video documenting the history of reggae music. Check out part one of this 5+ hour documentary, “Revival,” below…
‘Revival’ is the first episode of the six part series ‘Deep Roots Music’ - 1982. All of the episodes are narrated by Mikey Dread and are focused on the history and culture of reggae music. ‘Revival’ contains extremely rare footage of Toots and The Maytals, Count Ossie and The Skatalites. There also are some interviews with cultural historians which make it more interesting.
Check out the rest of the episode after the jump. For the full documentary, with all six episodes, click here.
In the late ’70s, British football club West Bromwich Albion had the most exciting team in English football… They played a trio of black players which they called the Three Degrees (named after the a female Philly vocal group); the late Laurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson. Two of the Three Degrees where Caribbean born, Regis from French Guiana and Baston from Grenada.
Although not by any means the first black footballers to play professionally in England, the Three Degrees challenged the established racism of English football and marked a watershed that allowed a generation of footballers to enter the game who would previously have been excluded by their ethnic background. A strong and fast traditional centre-forward, Regis was voted PFA Young Player of the Year in 1978 and earned the Goal of the Season award in 1981–82, for his powerful long-range shot against Norwich City in the FA Cup.
You may be wondering why the picture above has more than 3 black players in it. It’s a picture of Albion’s “Black” XI, essentially its all the black squad members of Albion’s 1st and reserve squad.
Check out this clip where the trio link up to mash up Man United 5-3, it’s an amazing performance. Notice how the crowd reacts to the players and the coaches commentary at the end, it’s just a testament to what these guys had to face.
…Guyanese have not only contributed to the Caribbean, but the entire world.
I just learned of the passing of Dr Ivan Van Sertima, a former professor of the University of Rutgers and an important son of the soil, who told the United Nations that Columbus did not in fact discover the Americas.
Van Sertima was a Guyanese-British historian, linguist and anthropologist. He was a noted for his Afrocentric theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas….
For a country’s citizens, the national flag is indisputably a symbol of general pride. They would consider any offense to their flag to be an offense to their country. Beyond being an icon though, a flag’s origin can often say a lot about a nation’s social make-up or history. Haitians feel no different and even reserve a special day to honor it. That day is May 18th.
Check out the rest of the story behind the flag here
