Mohamed Said
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 2, 2008
- 20,906
- 30,248
SAL DAVIS: MY LIFE WITH SIDNEY POITIER
(From ''The Autobiography of Sal Davis,'' with Mohamed Said).
‘’I liked school for the fun of it, being with my friends and all that but not for serious studies.
Three schools expelled me for truancy – Goan, Aga Khan and Arab Primary schools.
These were schools for the upper class.
Later in life as a pop star whenever I was in the news the issue of me dropping school in England would come out.
The tabloids would report me as a talented musician but would also insinuate that I was a school dropout.
I changed schools frequently for indiscipline.
I was a really naughty boy in the real sense of the word.
I remember around 1955 I went to see a movie ‘Blackboard Jungle’ among other stars in the movie was Sidney Poitier and Glenn Ford those were big movie stars of my time.
Sidney Poitier being black had a special appeal to us and we looked up to him as our hero.
As I sat with my friends in the dark theatre bathing in the movie little did I realise the hero I was watching in the silver screen would one day come to be my friend and we would spend time together in New York after being acquainted in Paris.
As luck would have it I was to get know Sidney Poitier well and we became buddies. However, this is another story.
The movie was about gang rivalry in America.
The movie had another special appeal to me because at the start of the movie Billy Haley sings “Rock Around the Clock” a hit song which introduced the Rock and Roll craze in Mombasa and other towns in East Africa.
Arnold Raphael correspondent for East African Standard in London built up my image.
All I needed for me to get free publicity in East Africa was for me to invite Arnold to my house for ‘pilau’ which he really loved and in no time I will be in the pages of the East African Standard.
As 1963 was ending, I was now performing at the Sombrero Night Club in London and I was in the process of signing a very important contract with The Establishment one of London’s most fashionable clubs.
I had to let the contract pass because I had to travel to Kenya for independence celebrations, which were to take place on 12th December 1963.
One day Tom Mboya rang me and asked me to go and see him.
Tom Mboya came to England in 1957 to study at Ruskin College, Oxford the same year I came to England. Tom Mboya was staying at Cumberland Hotel opposite Marble Arch near Hyde Park.
I went to see him and he informed me of the government’s intention to invite me to uhuru celebrations along with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba.
Mboya was the Chairman of Independence Celebrations Committee.
I had an occasion of seeing Miriam Makeba in London when she appeared in a show with other South Africans called ‘King Kong.'
Usually after a show, we in the show business as is the tradition go backstage to meet fellow stars.
It was here that I met Makeba briefly.
At that time Makeba was not a very big celebrity, which he came out to be later.
Mboya told me that I should write a song for Kenya’s independence.
I wrote”Ayayaa Uhuru” and the song was recorded by Philips of Holland.
When Kenyatta and his delegation came to London to Lancaster House for constitution conference, I went to see him and I presented the song to the Kenyan delegation.
Jomo Kenyatta was with Paul Ngei, Charles Njonjo, Njoroge Mungai and others.
I had the tape with me and I played it to them.
They loved the song.
I arrived in Nairobi and government officials received me at the airport.
What a homecoming.
In 1957 I left for England and none one except my immediate family was aware of my journey.
I was coming back not as a ‘learned brother’ as my poor father had envisaged but I was coming back as a pop star at the invitation of the new Kenyan government.
I was coming back home and the whole country was aware that Sal Davis was coming home to take part in the independence celebrations.
I was a state guest and together with Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Miriam Makeba we stayed at the Norfolk Hotel.
As state guests, the police escorted us wherever we went with the press not so far away from us.
It was very difficult for me everyone was trying to reach me at the hotel, friends and relatives let alone the press, which wanted to have interviews.
I had not realised that I had grown this big. I was a big star.
This was the first time I met Belafonte and Makeba but I had known Sidney Poitier in Paris in 1963.
I was performing at a jazz club in Paris called ‘The Mars Club.’
It was at that club that I met Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark were going to Yugoslavia to shoot a film called ‘The Long Ships.’
I was doing a show there - ‘Sal Davis at the Mars Club.’
The Club had on its list of reputable artists and pianists.
I was at that time very young, 22 years old.
My show was for about ten to twenty minutes. When I came on stage in those days, they usually introduced me in this way, ‘Ladies and gentlemen this is Sal Davis all the way from Kenya listen to him.’
The mentioning of Kenya gave the place a sense of importance and uniqueness though for all intent and purpose it was true I was from Kenya but musically speaking my carrier did not begin in Mombasa or Nairobi but in Manchester and London.
Nevertheless, the Kenyan ‘thing’ seemed to give the audience great expectations, a sense of something foreign and hence worth listening to.
When I finished singing Sidney Poitier was standing at the bar together with Richard Widmark and Claudia Cardinale the famous Italian actress, a beautiful girl with round face and long black hair.
Claudia I could tell was slightly older than me may be by a few years.
Sidney was tall, good-looking, and obviously much older than I was.
However, Richard Widmark was much older.
Sidney Poitier called me and I went and stood in front of him. ‘Are you from Kenya?
I have a very good friend from Kenya.’ The moment he uttered those words I instantly knew whom he would refer to.
It was Tom Mboya. Tom Mboya had a good rapport with Black Americans.
I told him, ‘Yes I know Tom quite well he is a good friend.’
Tom Mboya was to have a tragic end.
A Kikuyu, Nahashon Isaac Njoroge just as he was leaving a pharmacy where he had gone to buy medicine, assassinated Tom Mboya in a Nairobi city centre in 1969.
Today the street from which Tom Mboya breathed his last bears his name.
Mboya was one of the leading leaders in Kenya and it was definite he would take over from Kenyatta.
Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark came to the club to watch my show for two nights and then left for Belgrade to shoot their movie.
This meeting in Paris was to be the beginning of my friendship with Sidney Poitier.
I told Sidney Poitier, “There is no shame in telling someone that you are my hero, you are my hero.” Sidney Poitier smiled.
I had another occasion to be with Sidney Poitier and his wife Juanita Hardy in London.
In 1973, Sidney Poitier came to London to shoot the movie ‘A Warm December.’
I called him.
He had rented a house he was not staying in a hotel.
He invited me to have lunch with him at Pine Wood Studios where he was shooting the movie.
I was staying in Churchill’s a hotel at Footman’s Square.
Sidney Poitier sent his driver called Skippy to fetch me in his huge Rolls Royce.
I had lunch with him together with his wife and Johnny Sekka.
Sidney Poitier was acting as well as directing the movie and he casted Johnny Sekka as a villain.
Johnny Sekka and I knew each other well as he was from London although originally from Senegal.
Sekka was among leading black actors in Britain at that time.
He died in 1996 of cancer.''
(From ''The Autobiography of Sal Davis,'' with Mohamed Said).
‘’I liked school for the fun of it, being with my friends and all that but not for serious studies.
Three schools expelled me for truancy – Goan, Aga Khan and Arab Primary schools.
These were schools for the upper class.
Later in life as a pop star whenever I was in the news the issue of me dropping school in England would come out.
The tabloids would report me as a talented musician but would also insinuate that I was a school dropout.
I changed schools frequently for indiscipline.
I was a really naughty boy in the real sense of the word.
I remember around 1955 I went to see a movie ‘Blackboard Jungle’ among other stars in the movie was Sidney Poitier and Glenn Ford those were big movie stars of my time.
Sidney Poitier being black had a special appeal to us and we looked up to him as our hero.
As I sat with my friends in the dark theatre bathing in the movie little did I realise the hero I was watching in the silver screen would one day come to be my friend and we would spend time together in New York after being acquainted in Paris.
As luck would have it I was to get know Sidney Poitier well and we became buddies. However, this is another story.
The movie was about gang rivalry in America.
The movie had another special appeal to me because at the start of the movie Billy Haley sings “Rock Around the Clock” a hit song which introduced the Rock and Roll craze in Mombasa and other towns in East Africa.
Arnold Raphael correspondent for East African Standard in London built up my image.
All I needed for me to get free publicity in East Africa was for me to invite Arnold to my house for ‘pilau’ which he really loved and in no time I will be in the pages of the East African Standard.
As 1963 was ending, I was now performing at the Sombrero Night Club in London and I was in the process of signing a very important contract with The Establishment one of London’s most fashionable clubs.
I had to let the contract pass because I had to travel to Kenya for independence celebrations, which were to take place on 12th December 1963.
One day Tom Mboya rang me and asked me to go and see him.
Tom Mboya came to England in 1957 to study at Ruskin College, Oxford the same year I came to England. Tom Mboya was staying at Cumberland Hotel opposite Marble Arch near Hyde Park.
I went to see him and he informed me of the government’s intention to invite me to uhuru celebrations along with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba.
Mboya was the Chairman of Independence Celebrations Committee.
I had an occasion of seeing Miriam Makeba in London when she appeared in a show with other South Africans called ‘King Kong.'
Usually after a show, we in the show business as is the tradition go backstage to meet fellow stars.
It was here that I met Makeba briefly.
At that time Makeba was not a very big celebrity, which he came out to be later.
Mboya told me that I should write a song for Kenya’s independence.
I wrote”Ayayaa Uhuru” and the song was recorded by Philips of Holland.
When Kenyatta and his delegation came to London to Lancaster House for constitution conference, I went to see him and I presented the song to the Kenyan delegation.
Jomo Kenyatta was with Paul Ngei, Charles Njonjo, Njoroge Mungai and others.
I had the tape with me and I played it to them.
They loved the song.
I arrived in Nairobi and government officials received me at the airport.
What a homecoming.
In 1957 I left for England and none one except my immediate family was aware of my journey.
I was coming back not as a ‘learned brother’ as my poor father had envisaged but I was coming back as a pop star at the invitation of the new Kenyan government.
I was coming back home and the whole country was aware that Sal Davis was coming home to take part in the independence celebrations.
I was a state guest and together with Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Miriam Makeba we stayed at the Norfolk Hotel.
As state guests, the police escorted us wherever we went with the press not so far away from us.
It was very difficult for me everyone was trying to reach me at the hotel, friends and relatives let alone the press, which wanted to have interviews.
I had not realised that I had grown this big. I was a big star.
This was the first time I met Belafonte and Makeba but I had known Sidney Poitier in Paris in 1963.
I was performing at a jazz club in Paris called ‘The Mars Club.’
It was at that club that I met Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark were going to Yugoslavia to shoot a film called ‘The Long Ships.’
I was doing a show there - ‘Sal Davis at the Mars Club.’
The Club had on its list of reputable artists and pianists.
I was at that time very young, 22 years old.
My show was for about ten to twenty minutes. When I came on stage in those days, they usually introduced me in this way, ‘Ladies and gentlemen this is Sal Davis all the way from Kenya listen to him.’
The mentioning of Kenya gave the place a sense of importance and uniqueness though for all intent and purpose it was true I was from Kenya but musically speaking my carrier did not begin in Mombasa or Nairobi but in Manchester and London.
Nevertheless, the Kenyan ‘thing’ seemed to give the audience great expectations, a sense of something foreign and hence worth listening to.
When I finished singing Sidney Poitier was standing at the bar together with Richard Widmark and Claudia Cardinale the famous Italian actress, a beautiful girl with round face and long black hair.
Claudia I could tell was slightly older than me may be by a few years.
Sidney was tall, good-looking, and obviously much older than I was.
However, Richard Widmark was much older.
Sidney Poitier called me and I went and stood in front of him. ‘Are you from Kenya?
I have a very good friend from Kenya.’ The moment he uttered those words I instantly knew whom he would refer to.
It was Tom Mboya. Tom Mboya had a good rapport with Black Americans.
I told him, ‘Yes I know Tom quite well he is a good friend.’
Tom Mboya was to have a tragic end.
A Kikuyu, Nahashon Isaac Njoroge just as he was leaving a pharmacy where he had gone to buy medicine, assassinated Tom Mboya in a Nairobi city centre in 1969.
Today the street from which Tom Mboya breathed his last bears his name.
Mboya was one of the leading leaders in Kenya and it was definite he would take over from Kenyatta.
Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark came to the club to watch my show for two nights and then left for Belgrade to shoot their movie.
This meeting in Paris was to be the beginning of my friendship with Sidney Poitier.
I told Sidney Poitier, “There is no shame in telling someone that you are my hero, you are my hero.” Sidney Poitier smiled.
I had another occasion to be with Sidney Poitier and his wife Juanita Hardy in London.
In 1973, Sidney Poitier came to London to shoot the movie ‘A Warm December.’
I called him.
He had rented a house he was not staying in a hotel.
He invited me to have lunch with him at Pine Wood Studios where he was shooting the movie.
I was staying in Churchill’s a hotel at Footman’s Square.
Sidney Poitier sent his driver called Skippy to fetch me in his huge Rolls Royce.
I had lunch with him together with his wife and Johnny Sekka.
Sidney Poitier was acting as well as directing the movie and he casted Johnny Sekka as a villain.
Johnny Sekka and I knew each other well as he was from London although originally from Senegal.
Sekka was among leading black actors in Britain at that time.
He died in 1996 of cancer.''
