“Third World founder gets emotional send-off.” Howard Campbell (Jamaica Observer) writes about the poignant tributes in honor of Ibo Cooper.

As his casket entered University Chapel in St Andrew yesterday, the strains of Sata Masa Gana welcomed Ibo Cooper on his final journey. As his family led the procession out three hours later the former Third World member’s colleagues bade him farewell with Rasta Man Chant and Redemption Song.

Throughout the service speakers paid tribute to lbo the Renassiance Man, an insecure country boy who came to Kingston during the early 1960s for a government scholarship at the elite Jamaica College (JC).

They recalled his unyielding love for family, undying passion for music, and a commitment to the less fortunate that he passed on to his four children. Three of them, Arianne, Akiri and Abean, were present to salute their father who died on October 12 at age 71.

It was the siblings’ third service for the year, having lost older brother Arif in March and their mother Joy in September. Each gave tearful homage to their father, a co-founder of Third World and who became a senior teacher at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts after leaving that band in 1997.

Akiri, the youngest of Ibo’s children, spoke about his old man’s dedication to three tenets — intelligence, benevolence, and obedience — and how he always made time for Joy, his wife of 50 years. “He never missed an anniversary, never missed an opportunity to show her his love. I won’t say rest in peace, rather romance in paradise,” he said to rousing applause.

Singer Fabian Pinkney did a fabulous rendition of Donny Hathaway’s A Song For You, which Ibo requested to be played as an expression of his love for his wife. [. . .]

The service was officiated by Reverend Astor Carlyle and three priests from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church — Kes Haile Mikael Brissett, Kes Mattewos Grant, and Kes Ze Dingel Greenland. [. . .]

For full article, see https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/a-song-for-ibo/

[Photo above by Naphtali Junior: Third World members perform a tribute to the late Ibo Cooper during a funeral service held at University Chapel yesterday.]