*He was riding such a wave of influence in 1984—right at the moment he was gearing up for his run for the U.S. presidency—that his star power often got tangled in the global pop‑culture frenzy of the time. Michael Jackson was dominating the world with Thriller, and the confusion was so real that one of my Nigerian readers mixed up Jesse Jackson with Michael in a cartoon I published that same year in the PUNCH.
When OUR ROOTS later debuted weekly in black and white in The Voice newspaper in the United Kingdom, Jesse Jackson was among the achievers featured in that early series. Those were the days when both men, in very different arenas, were shaping conversations across continents.
Since OUR ROOTS series is now produced in full colour, each profile is updated to include the year of passing for featured figures, including Jesse Jackson’s.
In the days since Jesse Jackson’s passing, tributes have poured in from around the world, and his life has rightly taken front‑page space. The Yoruba proverb “Eja nla lo l’omi” — “A big fish has gone into the water”—captures the moment perfectly. It is a metaphor reserved for the departure of someone of immense stature, someone whose presence shaped the tides.
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Jesse Louis Jackson was exactly that: the last of the great activist titans, a trailblazer who expanded the horizon for generations. He has taken his bow, but his legacy endures—etched into history, activism, and the countless lives he touched. He shall not be forgotten.
It really has been a striking, almost uncanny pattern this year. January and February 2026 have felt unusually heavy, especially during Black History Month—a period meant for celebration, remembrance, and honouring lineage. Instead, it has also become a season of farewells.
What we are sensing is real: a cluster of losses among Black achievers, elders, and cultural giants whose work shaped politics, arts, activism, scholarship, and global Black consciousness. When figures of that magnitude depart in close succession, it creates a kind of collective emotional echo. It reminds us how intertwined our histories are, and how deeply these individuals have imprinted themselves on our cultural memory.
There’s also something profoundly symbolic about these transitions happening during Black History Month. It sharpens the meaning of legacy. It reminds us that history is not static—it is a living continuum, and we are witnessing the passing of torches.
TAYO Fatunla is a British‑Nigerian comic artist, editorial cartoonist, writer, and illustrator whose work has appeared on MSN.com via EURweb.com. . He is the creator of OUR ROOTS, the long‑running illustrated series celebrating global Black history and its trailblazers. His contributions to visual storytelling earned him the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
A former cartoonist for major Nigerian newspapers, Fatunla was named Professional Creative Cartoonist of the Year at the 2024 Annual Achievement Recognition Awards (The Building Blocks Initiative, UK). His public‑facing work also includes illustrating Camberwell’s Black history walk map, further cementing his role as a cultural educator and visual historian. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tfatunla123
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