The reasons Harry Bellafonte, one of the 20th century’s most iconic artistes was so well-known and loved in India are historical—his film Calypso was a huge hit here. The liberal left related to his political activism in the American civil rights movement and his songs that reflected their idealistic concerns in those years, also helped popularise him.

Indeed it is this association with Martin Luther King and the movement that is often used to describe his significance. But to hear Bellafonte’s own account of his life is to understand at a much deeper level what made him an artiste many embraced.