Black Uhuru founder Derrick Simpson Receives the Marcus Garvey Lifetime Achievement Award

by Howard Campbell

WASHINGTON, DC – The 28th Caribbean American Heritage Awards were held November 18 at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC with eight persons being honored for contribution to their respective fields.

Heading the list was Derrick “Duckie” Simpson, founder of Grammy-winning group Black Uhuru, who received the Marcus Garvey Lifetime Achievement Award, for his 50-year commitment to Jamaican music.

“It’s a joy getting a award associated with Marcus Garvey. Wi learn ’bout him teachings as young Ras so we give thanks,” he told South Florida Caribbean News.

Simpson started Black Uhuru in 1972 in the rough Kingston community of Waterhouse. The trio won the first Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1985 with Anthem.

The 2022 CARAH awardees list is completed by Eric Adolphe, academic Carole Boyce-Davis and musician Josanne Francis from Trinidad and Tobago; businesspersons Bihari Lall and Stacey Mollison from Guyana and Jamaican entrepreneurs Dr Trisha Bailey and Dwight Smith.

First held in 1994, the Caribbean American Heritage Awards have honoured numerous Americans of West Indian descent including actress  Cicely Tyson and Eric Holder, former attorney general of the United States, Jamaican singer/actor Jimmy Cliff and calypsonian The Mighty Sparrow.