Oliver Benjamin
clothes he wore in the modest coffee shop were worth about as much
as the coffeeshop itself. It was this trait, together with his generosity
of spirit that would bankrupt him years later, despite his immense
earnings.
That same generosity of spirit impelled him to take such an
interest in young Roy, the shy and misunderstood youth who seemed
to belong nowhere and have no friends. To provide him a place in the
world, Davis explained to him the real meaning of Abyssinia.
“Abyssinia was the center of the world,” he said, “It stood
between the East, the West, the South and the North of humanity.
Because of its location and also the free nature of its people,
Ethiopian blood and culture became a wonderful blend of all of them.
That’s why their Eastern neighbors, the Arabians, referred to them as
Habbishat, or “mongrels.” Europeans pronounced the word
‘Abyssinia.’ So the name comes from that Arabic insult, ‘Land of the
Mongrels.’”
“Land of the Mongrels,” Roy repeated.
“But what beautiful and gracious mongrels!” Davis exulted.
Roy studied the entertainer’s unusual face. “Are youa mongrel?”
he asked.
Sammy burst out laughing in the ingratiating manner he would
employ later among different and more demanding audiences, his
broken nose bending inwards with his upper lip rushing up to meet
it. “Yes. Yes I am. I’m part black, a little white, half Puerto Rican and
Jewish too.”
“Why are youJewish?” Roy had never met a black Jew who
wasn’t Ethiopian.
“Because your God saved my life,” the entertainer told him, “He
took my eye, but he saved my life.”
Roy’s father walked over and stared mournfully at the amber
puddle drying up on his linoleum floor. “Sammy,” he said, “if you
don’t like my coffee, just say so. I can poison it for you.”
Sammy Davis laughed and agreed that would be an
improvement. After Roy’s father had retreated to the counter to
secretly add some bourbon, the entertainer turned to Roy and
confided:
“And some people like their coffee with a kick!”
Roy stared in the window of his father’s old shop, now a popular
Ethiopian restaurant called the Blue Nile. There was nothing left of
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