THE SINGER AND THE SOLDIER

Apr 17, 2011 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan

Evelyn Caesar was no fortune teller. But back in 1975, she took one good look at her daughter’s boyfriend and predicted that he would murder her one day.
Her daughter was Volda Caesar, but she went by the name Abiola.
At the time, Abiola was 26, and one of the lead singers of the Yoruba Singers, a local band that utilised African rhythms and that was making a name for itself in the Caribbean.
Abiola was slim, her skin was brown and silk-smooth, her neck was long and she had a regal, African-princess bearing.
She had discovered her singing talent as a child while attending church with her grandmother at Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara. In her early twenties, she joined the African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa (ASCRIA), an organisation created by political activist Sydney King, later known as Eusi Kwayana.
One Sunday she travelled to Berbice with ASCRIA, and when she returned, she informed family members that her name was now Abiola.
And it was at around that time that she started a relationship with a young Guyana Defence Force lance corporal named Desmond Angoy. He was five years younger than Abiola and was a military policeman and an athlete for the army. He would often visit Abiola at her mother’s BV home.
Mrs. Caesar remembers that Desmond was tall, fair in complexion and handsome.
But she had also seen signs that suggested that Desmond had a violent side. Her first glimpse of this happened one day when the soldier was walking down the BV ‘line top’ on his way to Abiola’s home. As he neared his destination, Desmond accidentally struck his foot on one of the railway sleepers. To Mrs. Caesar’s surprise, he immediately burst into a torrent of cursing.
Although he calmed down before he reached her home, the incident disturbed Mrs. Caesar enough for her to question her daughter.
“What kind of friend you pick up, girl?” she asked Abiola.
The daughter defended her boyfriend’s actions by explaining that he had been drinking.
Not long after, Mrs. Caesar had a second disturbing experience with Desmond Angoy.
When the young lance corporal visited Abiola, Mrs. Caesar noticed that his arms were covered with several pieces of band-aid. She subsequently learned that Angoy had a spat with relatives at Craig, East Bank Demerara and had smashed several window panes with his bare hands. Like any good mother, Mrs. Caesar voiced her concern about his violent streak. And again, Abiola came to his defence by explaining that he had been drinking.
Mrs. Caesar made this retort to her love-struck daughter.
“Just like how he drink and cuff up them window panes, is the same way that he gun drink and kill you.”
Desmond Angoy was also a possessive individual and the third thing that happened was that he tried to make Abiola leave the Yoruba Singers. At that time, the band was going on regular tours to the Caribbean. Leader of the Yoruba Singers, Eze Rockliffe, says that Angoy was “emotionally obsessed” with Abiola. After all, she was beautiful, and he probably thought that her popularity would cause him to lose her. Rockliffe said that Abiola did in fact leave the band for awhile, but eventually returned.
The year 1975 was a big one for the Yoruba Singers, but by then Desmond Angoy’s obsession with Abiola was uncontrollable.
On Saturday, January 4, the band went to play at a nightclub at Belfield, East Coast Demerara. Angoy followed Abiola there and the couple got into a heated row. It is alleged that Angoy then informed his elder brother, 27-year-old Clifton, that he intended to kill Abiola, and even showed his sibling how he intended to do so. The brother became annoyed and the two reportedly scuffled.
Still quarreling, Angoy and Abiola eventually left together, and headed for Craig Village, where he lived.
On January 5, 1975, the Yoruba Singers performed at a Robb Street night club. However, Abiola did not turn up. At around 11.00 a.m., Desmond Angoy arrived at the night club and asked to see band leader Eze Rockliffe. A member of the band informed him that Rockliffe was in a meeting. Angoy told the band member to inform Rockliffe that they would not be seeing Abiola anymore. He then left.
Eze Rockliffe laughed when he received the message.
“We started joking and saying ‘like he kill she’, since Abiola loved music and that was the only way that she would not be associated with the band.”
What none of the band members knew at the time was that lance corporal Desmond Angoy had finally snapped.
Earlier in the day, he had strangled Abiola in a brother-in-law’s home at Craig. There are reports that he also broke her neck. The young soldier had then headed for Camp Ayanganna, where he uplifted an army service revolver. He had then gone to the Robb Street night club to look for band leader Rockliffe. Many wonder why he wanted to contact Rockliffe personally. After failing to see Rockliffe, Angoy, still armed with the revolver, returned to Craig village.
Apparently still enraged at his brother over their fight, he went to Clifton’s home and challenged him to come out and fight. When Clifton’s wife said that he was resting, Desmond Angoy began to kick at the front door.
Eventually, Clifton opened the door. His brother entered and shot him in the chest and right arm. Despite his injuries, Clifton survived the attack. Desmond Angoy then retuned to the house in which he had killed Abiola. Residents heard a single gunshot. When they finally dared to enter the house, they found Angoy and Abiola lying together in one of the bedrooms. They were both dead.
He had crawled into bed next to Abiola, wrapped an arm around her corpse and then shot himself in the head.
The Yoruba Singers were performing in Plaisance when they .received word of the murder/suicide.
“We went through a period of extreme grief,” Eze Rockliffe recalled. “She was a very potent member of the group.” However, a sister of Abiola’s, who was seriously ill at the time, made a remarkable recovery.
“Doctors had given her up for dead, but she recovered and joined the band as Malaika.”
Abiola’s mother confirmed that shortly after the woman’s death, a younger daughter, Marva, had recovered from severe illness that had left her bedridden.
To this day, she still wishes that Abiola had heeded her warning about Desmond Angoy, the tall and handsome soldier who turned out to be a killer…

If you have any information about any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-58458 and 22-58452. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected].

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