Music activist dies at 31

He was one of the movers and shakers on the local music scene and his energy will be sorely missed. Founder of the Larubéya drummers, Dax Thomas, died at the Southern Regional Hospital over the weekend. According to his brother, Bert Ramos, the thirty-one year old musician succumbed on Friday night to complications from kidney failure.

Bert Ramos, Brother of Deceased

“About two or three months ago he just like loose his whole balance on himself, he just faint. They take him to the hospital at Karl Heusner and he was diagnosed that he has kidney problems. And since then he has been going through this problem, and every so often he lose consciousness. So my family decided to take him to Dangriga where he could be closer to the family. On Friday they called me about nine-thirty and told me that he wasn’t feeling well. He was all right during the day and by nine-thirty he just went into that same trance again and since nine-thirty he just continue and not feeling too well, so they rush him to the Southern Regional Hospital where he was taking some treatment and doctors was working with him until around twelve when he passed away.”

“It’s like a loss not only to the family, but a loss to the country. For he has just recently been on TV and on the radio station teaching young people about drumming, teaching young people how to make drums and different things through the culture he was teaching. Also, you had some times when some other young people come around and say they would like to learn the Garifuna language and he takes out his time and teach mainly things cultural.”

Funeral services for Dax Delbert Thomas will be held at the Sacred Heart Church in Dangriga on Saturday afternoon at three.