The Denver Gazette

Many lands, many names

BY MICHAEL KLEBER-DIGGS Star Tribune

“You can only become the person you always were,” Antonio Michael Downing writes in “Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming,” a rich memoir about how far some folks have to travel just to arrive where they began. In this case, Downing navigates multiple lands and personas. He lives in Trinidad, Canada, America and England. He navigates the world as Tony, an innocent child; as Mic Dainjah in his chaotic youth; as Michael Downing, a corporate careerist; as Molasses, his spiritual self; then as John Orpheus, a persona he maintains in his life as a musician.

Downing was born in Venezuela, but didn’t stay there long. His father, a rolling stone who tumbles in and out of his life, disappeared, leaving his mother unable to parent him. She dropped him off in Trinidad, where he was reared by his grandmother, Miss Excelly, a religious woman who lived a humble life in a lush and dangerous area called Monkeytown.

Those early years in Trinidad shaped Downing in ways that are beautiful and tragic. He cleaved to Miss Excelly, and, beyond the author himself, she is the closest “Saga Boy” gets to a hero. This is true even though Miss Excelly gets it stupendously wrong, ultimately failing in the primary obligation every caregiver owes every ward — the duty of protection.

We come to understand Downing’s fate would likely have been significantly worse if not for Miss Excelly. Her death in Downing’s early teenage years is a disruptive event, sending Downing suddenly to rural Canada and what would turn out to be a brisk and harsh series of multiple stand-in parents.

A saga boy is a West Indian playboy dandy, a tradition dating back to World War II. Saga boys favor luxury in all matters of appearance. Often, behind the scenes, the lifestyle required ugly hustle. It is, therefore, a façade, a mask obscuring the true character underneath, even as the person behind the mask was there the whole time.

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2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/282484302141624

The Gazette, Colorado Springs