Death of a Black Man, The

It’s 1973 and Gary Sobers has just led the West Indies to Test match victory over England at Lord’s cricket ground. Eighteen-year-old wheeler dealer Shakie and friend Stumpie discuss get rich quick schemes from Shakie’s Kings Road flat, where Shakie’s Yorkshire built ‘African’ furniture is sold at huge mark up to wealthy Chelsea-ites. Stumpie has a bigger vision; African drums with African musicians on television – notwithstanding the stiff competition from broadcaster’s favoured Saturday night fare of Lulu and sundry comedians. Then word reaches Shakie that his father, a gifted Jamaican musician has died at 49 years old in a Manchester gutter, his talent unrecognized, penniless and unmourned. Caught in the middle is Jackie, the thirty-year-old mother of a child fathered by Shakie when he was fifteen. Jackie becomes the focus of the more sinister scheme that spirals from the collapse of Shakie’s furniture empire, and the loss of funds needed for saving black music from white exploitation.

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