Nigeria, Oct. 3 -- Slinger Francisco, better known as Mighty Sparrow, the "Calypso King of the World", flew away on 27 September. He was ninety.

Calypso music was invented in the seventeenth century by African slaves in Trinidad who had mainly been taken from the Ibibio, Efik and Igbo peoples in present-day Nigeria and Congo. It is generally accepted that the name calypso originated from the Efik word "kaiso" (ka isu), which means "go on!", and the Ibibio words "kaa iso", meaning "continue, go on". They were common words used by the slaves to urge somebody to go on or meet a challenge. Eventually, the word "cariso" emerged among Trinidadians. It meant "old-time" calypsos.

Calypso was not just music, but also a coded means of communicati...