Jamaican singer Cocoa Tea (right) shares a joke with American singer Fantasia at the American-Caribbean Inaugural Ball in Washington DC. - photo by Andrew Wildes

Washington DC:

At least two prominent Jamaican music icons, Marcia Griffiths and Cocoa Tea, flew to Washington DC and endured the freezing cold to witness the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States, Barack Obama.

They attended the US Virgin Islands' Inaugural Ball. The ball was under the theme 'A celebration of American-Caribbean Community for President Barack Obama' at the Organisation of American States building.

"Today we stand proud and we stand tall as a people that we have someone who is standing there for us, representing us," Griffiths said.

"I mean, this man is awesome. He's so eloquent, everyone, even the layman, understands every word he speaks and it's so important that every class can understand yuh don't have to be talking any big words that the little man have to go one side and say 'what did he say' - everyone understands every word he speaks," she stated.

Regret

Griffiths said she had only one regret.

"I just wish Bob Marley were here, but I know his spirit, his soul is touched today," she said.

"Oh he would just love it. He'd be laughing and saying 'yeah man, yeah man.' I know Bob's spirit feels this one ... him feel it in the one drop," Griffiths said.

It was that thought that made the event so meaningful for Cocoa Tea.

"Boy is a joy fi see seh it really realise, fi see seh it come true is really a different feeling," Cocoa Tea said.

"It's something that yuh can't even explain ... I and I wouldn't dream seh it woulda happen inna my lifetime because a never something wha no one ever anticipated," he said.

Cocoa Tea was careful not to leave the city without performing his world-famous song Barack Obama for the visitors at the Caribbean ball. A number of other prominent black figures were also in attendance at the gala, including 2004 American Idol Fantasia and Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, the first Caribbean-born person to be elected to the General Assembly in Maryland.