What happened to Jah Shaka?

London-based Jamaican artiste, Jah Shaka has been reported dead. His age and cause of death are not known yet. Even though some people believe that he must have been in his 70s.

He was born in Jamaica, but moved to London in the late 50s. He shared that music was a pivotal tool that helped him navigate through life wherever he found himself. He reportedly made songs and toured even when he was closer to his death.

Shaka started his career as a collaborator with Freddie Cloudburst – who was a local speaker builder – and was in charge of keeping his sound system in a very good condition to play all the time. He spent years learning how to play records and started building his own record systems.

He became a household name in the 1970s when his sound system developed a cult. He played a role of himself in the film Babylon which was released in 1980.

“When people left Africa for the Caribbean, all they could bring with them was their music, their songs and their memories from home. So, over the years, this is all that people had to keep them together. In the 1950s and 1960s in London, there were house parties – 50, 60 people with only record players. It helped families know other families which was important at that time because the people were so forced to be segregated,” he shared in a 2014 interview.