In the early 1990s, during the ‘mo fyah’ disturbances, a prominent Guyanese political figure called me in Toronto with the suggestion that I should write a song to help calm tensions. I was reluctant. I do not write songs head-on, and I also firmly believe that song-writers cannot give people positions which they don’t already hold. Bob Dylan didn’t lead Americans to protest the Vietnam war; he was simply articulating what they already felt.

But given the gravity of the situation, I tried to put my hand and I eventually came up with the song ‘Hooper and Chanderpaul’ about an imaginary cricket match. It was an allegorical work about two men …..