The Voice Newspaper October Issue

OCTOBER 2019 ISSUE NO. 1901

YOUR FIRST

72-PAGE MONTHLY

NEWSPAPER

£2.50

WWW.VOICE-ONLINE.CO.UK

Made by History essay competition returns

Free inside: UK Black Business Guide

Rudolph Walker: Celebrating an icon of stage and screen on his 80th birthday

‘I’M STANDING FIRM’

EXCLUSIVE: Gina Miller speaks to The Voice about motherhood, courage, racism, campaigning and her fear over what will happen if we don’t stand up for what is right

Page 6-7

2 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Inside

ROUND-UP

THIS MONTH

BBC announces Windrush drama

BPA celebrates 25 years p12-13

Adoption feature p32-33

Destination: Liverpool p37-40

Lifestyle OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 51

Young Voices Meet Africa’s fashion trailblazer p48

Our ‘Made By History’ essay contest returns for a fifth year

T

HE VOICE newspaper’s annual Made

By History essay writing competition is now under way and entries are welcomed from pupils up and down the country.

The Made By History competition, open to all schoolchildren aged 9 to 14, is now in its fifth year and aims to encourage students to study history and connect them with the icons of the past through unassisted research and a journey of self-discovery.

The competition is run throughout October, which is celebrated as Black History Month, and the winner will be announced in November.

Competing students across the UK are asked to submit a 500-word article on the topic: “Who is your favourite black author and why?”

The winning entry, selected by an independent panel from the community, will be published in The Voice newspaper

England’s netball team to play Jamaica p71 COMPETITION: Last year’s winner Judah with his mother

What our young voices have to THEATRICAL VISIONARY say p50-51

alongside a picture of the au- the chamber at the iconic London venue. thor.

In addition to the main prize, The winner of the competition will also receive an Ama- each of the participants in attendance was presented with zon Fire tablet.

Last year’s winner was a certificate for participaJudah Hibbert, who wrote tion while special prizes were the poem The Windrush Scan- handed out to the winners of each age group. dal.

A surprise announcement at The theme for last year’s competition was “Celebrating the presentation revealed that Lynette Linton speaks to Lifestyle about her of career so farcomthe winners last year’s The Windrush Generation”, focusing on how Caribbean petition were invited to tour No immigrants to the UK made a 10 Downing Street, where the positive contribution to Britain. Prime Minister of the UK reThere are also sectional prizes sides and works.

The visit was fulfilled in awarded to individuals from March this year, and the four different age groups.

After he was announced as winners – with their parents the winner during the presen- and teachers – had an amaztation ceremony at London City ing day.

The Made By History presHall, Judah said: “I thought I would come somewhere near entations have been held at last place... I just didn’t think it prestigious venues including the Imperial War Museum and was good enough.”

However, Judah’s poem im- the House of Commons, and a pressed the judges during the similar event will be held this selection process and also the year to celebrate the competiguests at City Hall when he tion’s fifth year.

The entry categories are read it aloud, with his mum, in front of those gathered inside broken down by age, with one

Rodney Hinds

News, views, stories & videos

Our forgotten black nurses p8

Lifestyle p41

Spotlight

group for nine-year-olds, anEveryone needs 10-year-olds, a comaother herofor p56-57 bined group for those 11 and 12, and a final grouping for children aged 13 and 14.

The rules are as follows: – A limit of 500 words and a picture can be included; – Submissions should be typed unless the handwriting is legible; – Plagiarism will be penalised and the essay removed; – Essays should be the stuWhere to go this Black dents’ original with eviHistory Month work p62-63 dence of unassisted help; – Parental permission for all students must be provided in the event they may be interviewed and photographed by The Voice.

All entries must be emailed to: madebyhistory@ thevoicemediagroup.co.uk or posted to: The Voice newspaper, Made By History Competition, Unit 1 Bricklayers Arms, Mandela Way, London, SE1 5SR. The deadline is October 24 at noon.

BBC ONE has announced the commission of feature-length drama that focuses on the Windrush scandal.

Sitting In Limbo, from award-winning production company Left Bank Pictures is written by author Stephen S Thompson.

The drama, set in 2016, is based on the true story of his brother Anthony Bryan and his personal struggle to be accepted as a British citizen during the Windrush scandal.

Apology over xenophobic attacks

SOUTH AFRICA has apologised to Nigeria over xenophobic attacks that left 12 people dead earlier this month.

Mobs in Johannesburg and Pretoria targeted businesses owned by foreigner nationals during the deadly spate of violence.

No Nigerians were among those killed but it is understood that Nigerian-owned shops and businesses were among those targeted.

THE 10 MOST POPULAR STORIES ON VOICE-ONLINE.CO.UK 1. IKEA’s jerk chicken and “rice and peas” goes viral 2. Joy Morgan’s mum: No one cared because my daughter is black 3. Africa lights London 4. Piers Morgan launches another lengthy rant at Meghan Markle 5. Birmingham woman celebrates 100th birthday 6. Anthony Joshua’s lack of class after Lennox Lewis dig 7. Black community says: ‘Stop bullying Naomi Campbell’ 8. Leave Meghan alone 9. Hackney Carnival 2019: Everything you need to know 10. Skunk Anansie’s Skin was ‘irritated’

by Beyoncé claim

The Voice celebrates the achievements of Rodney Hinds – our sports and features editor Rodney received the ‘Lifetime Achiever Award’ at the National Diversity Awards in Liverpool on Friday, September 20. The awards were set up to honour and celebrate role models and community heroes who demonstrate outstanding devotion to enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion.

Rodney is the long-standing sports editor of The Voice, having joined us in October 2000.

Over his impressive 35-year career in journalism he has penned three books, including Black Lions – The Story of Black Footballers in England, and he is the cofounder of the prestigious Football Black List as well as being one of the early members of the Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMs).

He has helped to establish a network that acts as a first port of call both for black professionals in the sports media and talented newcomers looking to develop their careers.

He has been instrumental in helping so many journalists over the years, acting as both professional mentor and friend.

Rodney has become a regular voice on radio and face on TV providing his expert analysis and is a regular speaker/lecturer at various schools, colleges and universities.

The entire team at The Voice is extremely proud of his achievements.

Got a story? email us at yourviews@gvmedia.co.uk EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Paulette Simpson E. paulette.simpson@thevoice mediagroup.co.uk CORPORATE AFFAIRS & COMMUNICATIONS Paula Dyke E. paula@thevoicemedia group.co.uk T. 020 7708 6693

ACTING MANAGING DIRECTOR George Ruddock T. 020 7510 0366 E. george.ruddock@thevoice mediagroup.co.uk

ONLINE EDITOR Leah Sinclair E. leah.sinclair@thevoice mediagroup.co.uk T. 0207 510 0376

NEWS DESK E. newsdesk@thevoice mediagroup.co.uk T. 020 7510 038

NEWS EDITOR Vic Motune E. vic.motune@thevoicemedia group.co.uk T. 0207 510 0383

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Joel Campbell E. joel.campbell@thevoicemedia group.co.uk T. 0207 510 0381 SPORTS & FEATURES EDITOR Rodney Hinds E. rodney.hinds@thevoicemedia group.co.uk T. 0207 510 0377

ADVERTISING AND SALES T. 020 7510 0340 E. advertising@thevoicemedia group.co.uk CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS T. 0207 510 0366 E. subscriptions@thevoicemedia group.co.uk

The Voice Newspaper Unit 1, Bricklayers Arms, Mandela Way, London, SE1 5SR T: 020 7510 0340 Fax: 020 7510 0341 Web: www.voice-online.co.uk GV MEDIA GROUP LTD

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 3

MAKING OF AN ACTIVIST PEER

Last month Sir Simon Woolley was made a Lord, an appointment marking a significant milestone in a life spent on campaigning for race equality and black political representation. For The Voice, he recalls some of the things that have shaped him

M

Y JOURNEY from being a black working-class political activist to being knighted and then becoming a lord in the space of three months has been described as the fastest social rise in British history.

In reality it is the 50-plus years of my life that make up the backstory for those three meteoric months, particularly the 25 years of frontline civil rights activism.

Growing up on the St Matthews council estate in Leicester back in the 1960s and 70s, there were two things I realised very quickly.

SUPPORTIVE

First, money was very tight in our household.

And secondly, I realised I was black.

I know the latter statement sounds like the blindingly obvious – “just look in the mirror, Simon”, I hear readers saying.

Yes, OK. But, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

I grew up in a loving and supportive white foster family.

But back then gangs would often roam the street taunting black boys with chants such as “send the w**s to Vietnam”.

I knew the term was a racial insult, but as kid I couldn’t understand why they wanted to send us to Vietnam – or even

where it was. I asked my mother after one bout of abuse: “Why do they want to send us to Vietnam?”

To this day I don’t remember her reply.

I just recall her holding my head close to her heart and sobbing. I thought, “boy, that Vietnam must be a bad place”.

The other moment of clarity I had about my racial identity was during a Cub Scouts away day, where I met other Cub Scout outfits around the country.

A three-legged race was held as part of the day’s activities.

Me and my friend Ian Harding, another black kid, joined forces against seven or eight other pairs.

Judging by the size of the other kids, we were easily the youngest pair on the start line.

The starter shouted “On your marks, get set, go” – and we were off.

A number of pairs had already tangled their legs in an unrhythmic mess, falling to the ground on top of each other.

But Ian and I just began a motion with which, demanding no thought, we quickly built up speed and then sprinted to end like supreme athletes.

When we crossed the line and dared to look back, even the fastest white kids were trailing miles behind. I thought to myself, rightly or wrongly:

TREASURED TIMES: Simon, left, with his brother Mick in 1972

“Yes, that’s what being black is.”

As glorious as that moment was, black success – both personally and externally – was mostly seen back then through the prism of sport: Muhammad Ali, Pele and, in the main, all Olympic sprinters.

On every other measurable front – such as jobs, housing, policing and education – things didn’t seem quite right for us.

Discrimination seemed to be everywhere, even in my school classroom.

For example, I clearly remember during a geography test at junior school the teach-

On every measure but sport, things didn’t seem right for us er asking me what the capital of Spain was.

What knowledge I had of cities was mainly as a result of my passion for football.

So, quick as a flash, I confidently answered: “Real Madrid.”

“Wrong,” she said, with an air of ‘are you stupid?’.

“But miss, I swear I’m right,” I countered.

“Well, I swear Simon’s wrong,” she hit back. “In fact it’s just Madrid.”

These incidents stand out, not least because I’ve replayed them over and over again.

But in those formative years an often daily diet of micro, sometimes physical, racial aggression leaves you with a deep sense that all is not right.

But it didn’t come together until much later, after leaving my job in advertising, going

back to school, studying in Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador, where I witnessed – not first-hand – people dying for their cause.

I realised then that I had no excuse but to fight for racial and social justice in the UK. My lucky break was to meet Lee Jasper, the firebrand activist, who then, as now, would never walk away from a racial injustice fight.

We both agreed that political empowerment must be the bedrock to our struggle, if we were to take on establishment.

That was the beginning of Operation Black Vote, an organisation that was established in 1996 to address the black British and ethnic minority democratic deficit and to increase the number of councillors and MPs from our community.

Back then we had no money, but it didn’t matter.

DYNAMISM

Along with my colleagues and friends Ashok Viswanathan and Derek Hinds we just got with it.

The energy and dynamism during those early years was infectious.

We were fearless, strategic, and with Lee and Derek we had preacher activists that would take communities with us.

I had to learn slowly, sometimes painfully.

But eventually I was able to find my own voice.

And if you call it gift, as some have called it, it was/ is the gift of being dogged, avoiding burning unnecessary bridges and persuading people that if we – black people – gain, they don’t have to lose.

Of course, this doesn’t always work.

There are times when you get shafted.

But I find that those who mistake decency, whether mine

News Feature

DETERMINED CAMPAIGNER: Operation Black Vote founder Sir Simon Woolley was made a crossbench peer by outgoing prime minister Theresa May; inset below, a young Simon, far left, at a Butlins holiday camp in 1970

or other people’s, for weakness, often get a rude awakening further down the line.

What I did conclude very early on in my journey is that fighting social and racial injustice is pretty much a thankless task.

But once you’ve accepted that you’re not doing this for plaudits, but because you think it’s the right thing to do, it is easier to find peace within yourself that the goal of trying to make a difference is the most fundamental part of your success.

Then, lo and behold the fruits of our labour began to appear in ever-greater numbers. We can now count over 120 black and minority ethnic magistrates, 60-70 councillors, five MPs, four mayors, and three government ministers that have come through our OBV schemes.

All along, The Voice has been crucial in documenting my journey with OBV and getting my message that we can make a difference in challenging inequality directly to the black community.

From the earliest association

with the newspaper through former editor Winsome-Grace Cornish until now, The Voice has shown why it is important to have a media platform that champions the issues that matter to us.

To my total surprise, after the success of helping to create more black councillors and MPs, I got asked to design the government’s instrument for fundamental change on race equality – the Race Disparity Unit.

HONOURED

Its mantra is fundamentally important: “Explain these persistent race inequalities or produce policy that will change it.”

And again, to my surprise, the state decided to bestow me with a knighthood.

A few months later, outgoing prime minister Theresa May informs me that my role in tackling race inequality could be strengthened by being a Lord.

Of course I feel honoured.

But more importantly I feel empowered to do much more and faster.

4 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 4 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Feature

CAMPAIGN TRAIL Strong and proud – for 37 years, The Voice has been fighting your corner Office to change a decision to deport a blind musician who had faced a six-year battle to stay in England.

‘Blind man’s joy’ was the headline when 36-year-old Anthony Starret Francis received the news that he had won the right to stay.

The Voice was also not afraid to take on the national newspapers – and in March 1985 it accused The Sun of being racist and urged our readers not to buy it. This was after the notorious tabloid described Everton Samuels, a Rastafarian, as being work-shy after he faced a series of legal woes and a judge gave him seven days to find a job.

The Voice headline proudly declared ‘Hard working Everton proves he is no lazy Rasta’.

tember 1992 to help save the life of 10-year-old leukaemia sufferer Steven Pethers. The response from Voice readers was overwhelming.

Under the headline ‘Didn’t we do well’, the appeal had struck a chord with readers and the Anthony Nolan Trust said more than 100 volunteers came forward – the most the bone marrow donor register has ever received from the black community.

As the newspaper now moves to being a monthly publication, our readers can be sure that the campaigning spirit will continue unabated.

CELEBRATING

By George Ruddock

F

ROM ITS humble beginnings from a small office in Hackney, east London, in August 1982, The Voice newspaper has been speaking up for Britain’s black community and championing their rights.

It was the vision from its inception by The Voice founder Val McCalla that Britain’s fastgrowing black community should have a voice amid all the social unrest erupting during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Indeed, the lead story on the front page in the first edition on August 28, 1982, above, was about an east London family who were being targeted by a racist gang.

This marked the beginning of the publication’s longstanding reputation for campaigning on the many issues which affect the welfare of black Britain.

A quick dive into The Voice’s archive also revealed that this has been the strength of the newspaper over the past 37 years.

In January 1983 under the headline ‘Doorstep Death’, The

Voice was the first newspaper to interview the family of Colin Roach, the 21-year-old black man who died mysteriously in the foyer of the Stoke Newington Police Station from gunshot wounds.

There were no witnesses on the scene where the death occurred and the police initially said it was a suicide. This led to tensions on the street and the demand for a public inquiry by the black community.

The next year, The Voice led a campaign to get the Home

In August 1988, The Voice led a campaign to raise money for famine-hit Ethiopia by urging its readers and Notting Hill Carnival goers to dig deep to help the African country – noting that if every attendee gave £2, that would raise a million for a good cause.

The Voice was also celebrating with bus conductor Lloyd Alexander in November 1988 when he was awarded £77,000 after a long-running battle against his London Transport employers after he was injured while working.

It was The Voice which highlighted his case after the transport union refused to fight a compensation claim on his behalf. A picture of the happy conductor was splashed on the front page under the headline ‘£77,000 is just the ticket’.

The Voice was also leading the appeal for bone marrow donors to come forward in Sep-

THERE FOR YOU: The Voice has changed a lot since its inception in the 1980s, but one thing remains the same – our commitment to connect, campaign and celebrate with our community

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SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

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6 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 6 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Exclusive Voice interview

‘FEARLESS? I’M NOT’ When businesswoman Gina Miller was first thrust into the media spotlight in 2016, she had no idea about the impact it would have on her life

By Vic Motune

I

T’S PROBABLY fair to say that Brexit is the most important political event to happen in Britain this century so far.

And businesswoman Gina Miller’s role in the increasingly divisive national debate about it has seen her hailed as a remarkable woman of courage and principle, someone who took on the government – and won.

Miller, 52, became a public figure when, in 2016, she led the successful legal challenge which forced Theresa May to get Parliament’s approval before triggering Article 50 and leaving the European Union.

VICTORY

Her victory was hailed as the greatest legal upset of modern times. It came as no surprise to many in the black community when she was named as the most influential black person in Britain by the 2018 Powerlist, beating the likes of British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, grime star Stormzy and boxer Anthony Joshua.

The list recognises people in the UK of African and African Caribbean heritage who are rated on their “ability to change lives and alter events”.

Praise has also come from other arenas. Journalist and broadcaster Rachel Johnson, sister of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has described as Miller as a “remarkable woman, whose courage one can only admire, whatever your politics”.

And Baroness Helena Kennedy QC said that Miller was “strong, resourceful, principled and brilliant – a heroine for our times”.

But her national profile has come at a huge cost.

Her success in taking on the government has seen her become a hate figure for many hardline Brexit supporters.

In Miller they not only saw a passionate Remainer but also a

feisty black female who made no apologies about her willingness to fight for what she believed in.

These characteristics seemed to trigger an extraordinary range of vitriolic messages, racial abuse and death threats directed towards her.

In the same month that the Supreme Court delivered its historic judgment, Metropolitan police officers revealed they had issued eight “cease and desist” notices to people

The threats against my family and children are terrifying who had sent Miller threatening messages.

Many referred to her as a traitor and mentioned her perceived “foreign-ness”.

Miller’s solicitor, Mishcon de Reya, was subjected to abuse as a result of its involvement in the case, and Brexit supporters mounted a protest outside the firm’s offices.

The level of abuse on social media reached such a level that Miller was forced to spend up to £60,000 on personal security after a £5,000 reward was offered on social media to anyone who ran her over.

In July 2017 Rhodri Philipps, 4th Viscount St Davids, was jailed for 12 weeks for making the offer.

Philipps had offered the sum on Facebook to “the first person to ‘accidentally’ run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant”.

Before deciding to legally challenge the government, friends and members of her legal team had told her it was likely to be tough and some close friends even advised her to walk away from the case.

Three years on from her first legal challenge, is she still having to spend a lot of money on personal security?

“It’s never stopped,” she says. It’s worse than it was in the first case because people are at a different place now.

Three years on there’s a lot more anger, people are actually a bit more extreme on both sides.

ABUSE

“The online stuff I don’t worry about so much, because a lot of that is armchair abuse.

“But it’s when I get the packages or letters – if I get stuff with white powder and I’m not sure what that is – so have to hand it in to the police.

“Or the most scary ones are if I get something, a message or an email or a letter, which says, ‘We know where your children are, we know where their school is – we’re going to take them today’.

“The threats against my family and my children especially, that’s terrifying. And I still get those all the time. And, in an odd way, it has made me even more determined to carry on. It’s had the opposite effect of frightening me.”

She continues: “In the beginning my children were very frightened because they were little. Now they’re 12 and 14 they understand much more.

They understand that I’m fighting for them and their friends and their future. So they do understand. I look in the mirror and the question I ask myself is, ‘Why am I doing this?’ And I believe that going forward this will have a massive impact on our democracy.”

Most people would not have the courage and fearlessness that she has to fight for a cause they believe in.

When put this to her, she says it’s not a description of herself that she recognises.

“There’s this idea out there that I’m fearless. I’m not fearless. I tend to think of myself as being fearful. I’m fearful of

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silence and letting people get away with things.

“I’m fearful of what that will happen if we don’t stand up for what is right.”

It would be no surprise if the fierce criticism and scrutiny that inevitably comes with Miller’s public profile would wreak havoc with confidence.

But according to Miller, the inner resolve and sense of purpose it took to face the barrage of racist and threats to physically harm her was shaped by growing up in British Guiana, (now Guyana) where she was born and spent her early childhood.

In particular, she pays tribute to the influence of her father, Doodnauth Singh, who served as Attorney General of Guyana.

“He was a civic rights and human rights lawyer. In a country which has a death penalty that takes on a huge

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significance, because literally, every case has the possibility of somebody’s life ending.

“My father’s view was very much that the law was there to protect people. But even if you didn’t use the law, everybody has a right to protect each other. I think a lot of who I am today is based on actually not just my father, but my mother as well in that I was brought up to believe that the way we live our lives is not just about ourselves, it’s about a community and everybody matters.”

She continues: “Apart from giving me these values, they also gave me confidence in myself. If you’re confident, you don’t worry about what other people put onto you. When you lack confidence, it’s easier to worry about what other people

think about you. But if you are grounded and know who you are and what you believe in, then it’s very difficult for people to shake you. You’re like a tree that’s got good roots in a wind. When you’re battered, you still stand. They gave me a belief in myself as well and in my own abilities and my strength and my own goodness.”

It was this confidence and willingness to stand up for what she believed was right that underpinned her earliest experience as a campaigner after the birth of her first daughter, Luci-Ann, in 1988.

It was she says, the first real awakening to her own strength.

“In the 1980s the NHS was on its knees just like it is now.

There were shortages of midwives, medicines and everything else. I was about to have my beautiful baby girl, but

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COMMUNITY

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 7

Exclusive Voice interview Feature

STILL FIGHTING: Clockwise, from main, far left, Gina Miller has faced a torrent of abuse over the last three years; at London’s Supreme Court earlier this month; the campaigner still spends money on security; speaking to the media outside the Court of Justice last month; she remains a passionate speaker

there was no one to deliver her, so she was starved of oxygen and is now severely disabled.

There was nothing wrong with her up until I went to give birth. She’s now 31 but her mental age is five or six.

BATTLE

“So I had to fight for her because everyone was telling me in those days that they wanted to take her away, that she should go into an institution.

So that’s the first battle I was ever involved with, lobbying and campaigning to keep her, but also to have statements.

“Now, for every child in the UK who has special needs, the government has to do this thing called a statement, which gives them the special education, support and money they need. But when my daughter was born only people with

money or influence could get that because you needed to have consultants and specialists and lawyers. I thought that was unfair. Every parent and child deserves that. So that was my first campaign, was to get all children, including my daughter, a statement.”

A challenge to the bosses of City firms also developed her campaigning strengths.

A career in marketing led to a career in the investment industry.

She co-founded the investment firm SCM Private and launched the charity True and Fair Foundation in 2009 which encourages the super-rich to give back to society.

This led to the creation of the True and Fair Campaign in 2012, which campaigns against mis-selling and hidden fund charges in the City of London’s

fund management industry.

Three years after her history-making challenge to the government she’s back in the Brexit spotlight again.

After launching legal pro-

Brand Britain, if you like, has really been damaged ceedings against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for the prorogation of parliament claiming that it was unconstitutional to do so, the Supreme Court agreed with her stance and on September 24 ruled that the decision was

unlawful.

In a historic judgement the court said it was wrong to stop parliament carrying out its duties in the run-up to the Brexit deadline on October 31.

Delivering its conclusions, the Supreme Court’s president, Lady Hale, said: “The effect on the fundamentals of our democracy was extreme.”

VICTORY

The decision marked a huge victory for the businesswoman and campaigner.

But Miller says the abuse she has faced following her latest court challenge is even worse than in 2016. But for her important principles are at stake.

“If Boris Johnson gets away with proroguing parliament it would mean that any future prime minister who decided that they didn’t like the fact

that MPs were objecting to any policy that they were bringing forward they could just close parliament down for five weeks. You can’t set that as a precedent.”

IDEOLOGY

But regardless of how we do eventually leave Europe, Miller says her key worry is the damage it has done both to the country and the image of our democracy around the world.

She says: “What started off as people being against the EU has changed. I think Brexit is now a very different thing.

It’s been hijacked by people who have a particular agenda about how they want the country to be. And it’s much more of a right-wing ideology and agenda.

“We’ve seen this in history so many times, the rise of pop-

ulism and the way the press has been used as a tool for propaganda and division. The thing we’ve never had tested before and the thing that frightens me so much is social media. You can call out the media, but nobody quite knows how to contain the Internet.

Miller adds: “The damage that has been done to our country on the international stage, both in terms of respect and our soft power, can’t be underestimated.

“Other parts of the world looked to us as the people who’d sit in the middle, collaborate and bring others together. Now, they wonder what on earth has happened? When I have travelled abroad people have asked why is Britain selfharming? Brand Britain, if you like, has really been damaged internationally.”

8 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 8 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Feature

OUR FORGOTTEN NURSES

Before Windrush and the NHS, there was another generation of black pioneers

S

TEPHEN BOURNE, author of the acclaimed Black Poppies and several other books on black British history, has discovered the forgotten grave of a black nurse who worked at a well-known London hospital in the late Victorian era.

Bourne was researching the life of Caribbean-born Annie Brewster when he managed to locate her grave in the City of London cemetery in Newham, east London.

She was buried there in 1902 and when the historian and author went in search of it, he was told by the cemetery authorities not to expect to find a headstone.

UNLIKELY

He was told that if there had been a headstone, it was unlikely it would have survived after 117 years.

However, when Bourne located the burial plot, he discovered a stone memorial in fairly good condition, bearing Brewster’s name, although the large cross had fallen over.

It was an emotional discovery for Bourne, who began his writing career in the 1980s contributing to The Voice. And his discovery has shed light on a generation of black nurses from Africa and the Caribbean who were working in Britain and helping patients before nurses from the Windrush Generation arrived in 1948.

Annie Catherine Brewster was born on the island of St Vincent in 1858. Bourne said: “Her father, Pharour Chaderton Brewster, was a wealthy merchant who originated from Barbados. He settled in Britain with his family, including

Annie and her younger sister Laura, in the 1860s.

“In 1879 Pharour was a widower and a successful businessman, living with his daughters in Grove Vale, East Dulwich, south London, when he married an Englishwoman, Angelina Impey, at St Giles’ Church in Camberwell Church Street.

According to the 1881 census, the family were still at the address in Grove Vale.”

assistance from the hospital’s archivist, Jonathan Evans, I accessed several records relating to Annie. The first, dated December 16, 1881, described her as a thoroughly satisfactory probationer. She was a favourite with all the sisters under whom she worked. And she was considered gentle and kind to her patients.”

Evans explained that Brewster was recruited by Eva Luckes, who was appointed matron of the London Hospital in 1880.

DETERMINED: Clockwise, from main, left, Stephen Bourne scoured records to find more information on Annie Brewster; Brewster’s resting place in Newham, east London; Brewster as a young nurse

She was a favourite among INFLUENCE Luckes was a forward-thinking pioneer who, says Evans, “deall the sisters voted the greater part of her life to raising standards of the under whom care of patients, nationally and she worked internationally, through the Further research by Bourne revealed that Pharour moved to America in 1893 and settled in New York, where he died in 1920 at the age of 85.

Bourne added: “On May 14, 1881, Mary Seacole, the famous ‘doctress’ of the Crimean war, died in London at the age of 75. Is it possible that Annie was aware of Mary’s achievements and was inspired by her to join the nursing profession?

“That same year, Annie was recruited as a nurse by the London Hospital situated in Whitechapel in the East End of London. There she remained until her death in 1902. The hospital served a poor, ethnically diverse community.”

During a visit to the archives of the London Hospital, Bourne uncovered a small treasure trove about Annie’s nursing career. He said: “With

influence of her writings and of those whom she trained”.

Evans added: “Luckes reported that Brewster was known to all her colleagues as ‘Nurse Ophthalmic’ because of her painstaking work with elderly patients who were going blind.”

In 1902, Brewster died at the age of 43 following an emergency operation.

Luckes and the rest of the nursing staff were reportedly devastated.

The matron reported at the time: “She had spent the best and happiest years of her life at the London Hospital. She was with us for just over 20 years, nearly 14 of which had been spent as the nurse in charge of the Ophthalmic Wards. With her quick intelligence, she became very skilful.

Hospital friends mourn her loss and keep her in affectionate remembrance.”

Some of the faces of those who made history in Britain Eva Lowe was a Jamaican nurse who, in the 1930s, faced many rejections before finding a position at St Nicholas Hospital, Plumstead.

She was assisted by Dr Harold Moody, Una Marson and the League of Coloured Peoples, which was founded in 1931.

In spite of resistance, this organisation led a successful campaign for black nurses to be recruited in Britain.

Winifred Scott,, also known as

Winifred Blackman, was born in London’s West Ham in 1917. In 1939, she was employed as a nurse at St Nicholas Hospital, Plumstead.

Winifred worked as a nurse throughout the London Blitz of 1940/41.

Princess Tsehai Tsehai, pictured left left, was the daughter of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, who trained as a nurse at London’s

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children.

She worked as a nurse all through the London Blitz and then, after the liberation of Ethiopia, she honoured her father’s request to return to Ethiopia, but died in 1942.

Haile Selassie founded the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital in her memory, which also served as a nursing school. Tsehai is the Ethiopian word for ‘golden sun’.

Princess

Ademola,

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pictured

was the left, daughter of the Alake of Abeokuta, the paramount chief of Northern Nigeria.

They travelled to Britain in 1937 to attend the Coronation of King George VI and the princess remained to train at Guy’s Hospital where she qualified as a state-registered nurse. She specialised in midwifery. The princess remained in London during the

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Second World War before returning to Nigeria.

The unidentified nurse featured in Stephen Bourne’s new version of Black Poppies. This photograph, above left, left is the only one of a black nurse in Britain from the First World War that has been found. She is seen here at a convalescent home for wounded soldiers in Surrey in 1915.

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10 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 10 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

News

WHOSE MONTH IS IT ANYWAY?

CELEBRATE THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT: Historian Colin Grant says that Black History Month should keep its focus and not become ‘a vague tribute’

Recent years have seen some local councils in the UK rebrand Black History Month as something that celebrates all ethnicities – prompting fears that the event’s future is in doubt. Darell J Philip reports...

H

ISTORIANS AND politicians have come out in defence of preserving Black History Month after a number of councils across London have decided to rebrand it as ‘Diversity Month’ to include all cultures within local boroughs.

Originating in the US in 1926, Black History Month was introduced in the UK in October 1987 and spearheaded

by Linda Bellos, leader of Lambeth Council at the time.

She said: “Black History Month provided an opportunity to show a history we knew existed but which had been hidden. Few of us – and by us, I mean British people of all ethnicities – knew much about the role our nation had played in colonising and absorbing some of these ‘native’ countries and cultures.

“I myself often had to say ‘we did not come to Britain for the weather’ when questioned, but it was very clear that most white British people did not know what positive contributions black people made, and continue to make, to the UK.” However, in recent years, some local authorities have come under intense criticism for their efforts to turn it into Diversity Month.

Last year, the Conservativeled boroughs of Hillingdon,

in west London, and Wandsworth, in south London, cast a wider net.

Hillingdon Council said: “Hillingdon has not participated in Black History Month for more than 10 years. The council constantly celebrates different aspects of our multicultural history and we do not restrict our activities to one month or any particular topic.”

or defused in a vague attempt to assuage the past and pretend that we are now all in a celebratory mode.

“Black History Month needs to continue. I think there can be other months for other cultures – I wouldn’t want to deny anybody their stories, but I think to try to ram everything into one month to tick a box is a nonsense, really.”

PASSIONATE

Black Britons are overlooked in the school curriculum Among those who are concerned by such moves is the historian and author of Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, Colin Grant.

He told The Voice: “All cultures should be celebrated throughout the year. The difficulty is they will obscure the fundamental reasons for Black History Month by making it into some vague tribute.

“Black History Month also celebrates people who have been in opposition to the British government. It celebrates the spirit of revolt and rebellion and that must not be lost

Historian Stephen Bourne, author of Black Poppies: Britain’s Black Community and the Great War, was equally passionate on the importance of Black History Month remaining a key event on the British calendar.

He said: “It saddens me that some London boroughs have changed the focus of Black History Month.

“For 20 years I have taken part in hundreds of Black History Month events. In addition to grassroots community groups, I have visited schools, academies, libraries and senior citizen centres.

“I have been invited to many organisations such as the Black Cultural Archives, the Imperial War Museum, City Hall, National Portrait Gallery and the National Army Museum, all of which have recognised the importance of Black History Month and the contribution of

Africans and Caribbeans to our country.”

He continued: “Without Black History Month, British schools and academies and their history teachers will lose opportunities to learn about the history of black people in Brit-ain. Except for Mary Seacole and Walter Tull, black Britons are overlooked in the curriculum.

In the world of education, our young are more likely to learn about African Americans from history.

Black History Month gives opportunities to grassroots historians like myself, who do not work in academia [universities], to present a black history that young people in our schools and academies are currently deprived of, but can be proud of.”

However, it appears that the unfavourable response to the rebranding of Black History Month led to Wandsworth Council making a dramatic U-turn earlier this year.

A council spokesspokes man told The Voice: “October will see a celebration of black history in Wandsworth’s libraries, with more than 20 separate events being staged, while a programme of events celebrating our other diverse communities will be held at other times throughout the year.”

One council which has never attempted to rebrand Black History Month is Hackney Council in east London.

Cllr Annoinette Bramble, deputy mayor of Hackney, inset, said: “We’ve been celebrating the contribution of African

and Caribbean people to the borough for many years and have been involved in Black History Month since its inception in 1987.

“Between October and January, we hold an entire Black History season. We’ll be launching it this year by exploring the power and politics of African and Caribbean style and hair with a communityled exhibition at Hackney Museum.

“We’re committed to continuing to celebrate black history through this and other events like Hackney Carnival, our Windrush programme and a range of other events. We have no plans to create a separate, overarching diversity month.

“We value the borough’s individual diverse communities and actively promote diversity by shining a light on the qualities of each of the borough’s diverse cultures all year round.”

Is Black History Month still important? The experts answer...

Derek Owusu, editor of the anthology SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (2018) and author of That Reminds Me: “The reason why we have Black History Month is because our history was taken away from us, denied us and covered up. To rere place it with Diversity Month seems like another attempt to cover up or do away with our history.

“There is nothing innately wrong in celebrating other cultures, but there are 12 months in a year so why should it take place during the month which for many years has been recognised as one which celebrates the history of black people in the country?

“I find it strange that there has been a

push for this change during a period where we have begun to see an emergence and interest in black British culture – through food, music and the creative arts.

“My fear is that the introduction of a Diversity Month will make it easier for those in control to pick and choose what we should know, just as is the case in the national curriculum.”

“First there was an attempt to send our people back to the Caribbean and now there is an attempt to take away from us the month which celebrates our history in the country. That is hugely insulting and a slap in the face.”

Emmanuel Akin, 21, political acac tivist and advocate for young people: “I’m not against celebrating other cultures and etheth

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nicities, as I do know that they’ve contributed to this great world we live in today. However, there has been a deserved right for the black race to have its time in the year to be celebrated.

“Black History Month brings common ground knowledge of where we, as the black race, come from. Anything less than this would, in effect, silence black people or blackcentric infrastructures.

“The study of Black History Month is something to be valued not only in schools or organisations, but in the world of living today.”

Danielle Wong, director of opera-tions for Final Call Productions, a Christian theatre and film produc-

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tion company: “Britain is multicultural so I think it’s a fantastic idea to celebrate the many different cultures that make up our society, but not during Black History Month. “‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)’ is a term that’s been long debated – some for it, some against – as different ethnic groups are not happy being labelled and lumped together in this way. Black culture and history is very different to Asian culture and history – so why label it under one category?

“Black History Month is an important time of recognition, celebration and education to our black community, especially to our young people. It should be left as it is and at the same time look at other ways to do the same thing for the other cultures that make up Great Britain.”

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OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 11

Guest column

HIDDEN HISTORY OF WINDRUSH

The shocking revelations in 2018 are not new. As early as 1945, the government launched a campaign to discourage Caribbean migrants from coming here, writes David Olusoga

B

LACK HISTORY Month is an American import. It was introduced to Britain in the late 1980s, having begun as “Negro History Week” in the America of 1926.

Over the succeeding three decades, it has become so much a feature of the calendar, part of the rhythm of British national life, that an October without it would, for many people, be unimaginable.

A central element of every Black History Month, in schools and in community events, is the collective urge to celebrate the story of the Windrush and the great wave of migration that began – symbolically at least – when that famous ship docked at Tilbury.

The Windrush has become part of British folk legend; its name recognition extends far beyond the black community.

Ever since the spring of 2018, however, individuals and communities who celebrate Black History Month have been unable to deploy the Windrush story, or even use the word Windrush, as freely as we once did.

This is because the word that now most commonly follows Windrush is the word scandal.

Before the scandal, the Windrush story tended to be presented in purely celebratory terms.

There is nothing essentially wrong with this, and there is much to celebrate here; the story of a remarkable generation and its gradual triumph over discrimination and dis-

advantage is among our most important narratives.

But too much focus on the resilience of that generation, and how they overcame the racism and discrimination that they encountered, has at times obscured other discussions and other narratives.

What was sometimes lacking were discussions about where that racism came from and how far up the chain of British society it spread.

STRUGGLING

It seems perverse to suggest that anything positive could come out of a scandal that has devastated the lives of so many people. It should not be forgotten that survivors (a better word than victims) of the scandal are still struggling through the labyrinthine compensation system.

Yet if there is a positive, it is that the shocking revelations of 2018 reminded us that hostility towards non-white migrants existed long before the Theresa May’s “hostile environment”. The scandal now firmly associated with the word Windrush began even before the ship had set sail.

The events of 2018 were, in truth, merely the latest chapter in a longer story, because what happened in the scandal of 2018 was intimately linked to less well-known events decades earlier; behind closed doors, in the offices and corridors of power in Whitehall.

Britain’s post-war migrants – if that is the right word for them – came to find work and

HOPE: Windrush Generation members came to find work and new opportunities; inset, Caribbean families arrive in the UK new opportunities. Many were invited by London Transport, the NHS and other companies and quangos.

But one of the main reasons

sult, British companies wanted them. The problem was that Britain’s leaders did not.

Decades ago, the documents that reveal the views of Britain’s post-war governments on

The arrival of the Empire Windrush was described by officials and ministers as an invasion and incursion why so many got on ships and, later, planes and headed for Britain was because as subjects of the British empire, they had every right to do so – and they knew it.

They also knew that Britain needed them. According to figures calculated by the British Cabinet Manpower Working Party in 1946, Britain needed 1,346,000 additional workers and in every practical respect, the Caribbean was perfectly placed to be part of the answer to Britain’s labour shortage.

The West Indians who came to Britain spoke English, were well-educated, had skills the country needed and, as a re-

the issue of black migration started to be released. What they reveal is the story of how successive British governments sought to discourage West Indians from coming to Britain.

When that proved difficult, they almost unthinkingly equated the emergence of the black British community with the emergence of a “colour problem”.

The arrival of the Windrush was described by officials and ministers as an “invasion” and an “incursion”.

The 1945-51 Labour government launched a campaign of disinformation in the Caribbean designed to convince black

people not to come to Britain.

People were told that there were no jobs in Britain and that the thousands of vacancies they could see listed in the British newspapers – widely available in the colonies – were not real jobs, but “paper vacancies”.

DELAY

When these falsehoods failed to prevent West Indians leaving, officials in the Caribbean were ordered to tamper with shipping lists and make sure that migrant workers were moved to the back of the shipping queues and, as one document reveals, “delay the issue of passports to migrants”.

After this came a 14-year struggle by British governments – both Conservative and Labour – to pass immigration laws that limited the numbers of black and brown people able to exercise their rights and settle in Britain.

It was a relic of one these acts, that had lain inert for years, that was detonated by the Hostile Environment and led to the Windrush Scandal.

What 2018 made clear was that there is another way of look-

ing at the Windrush moment, not just as the symbolic start of post-war migration, but as the beginning of the long and ugly debates on immigration, race and Britishness that have been part of British politics ever since 1948.

The scandal compels us to confront the fact that the racism and discrimination that the Windrush Generation of 1948 and their children endured did not just come from the teddy boys who attacked the black community of Notting Hill or the boarding house owners who put “no dogs, no blacks” signs in their windows.

Some of it came from governments led by some of this country’s most celebrated prime ministers.

David Olusoga is a British Nigerian historian and broadcaster. He has been described as ‘one of the UK’s foremost historians’ and has presented several acclaimed documentaries for the BBC. The popular academic will be a regular Voice columnist.

| THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 1212 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

MetBPA – 25th anniversary

A FORCE FOR GOOD IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE

PIONEER: Janet Hills, current chair of the MetBPA and its first female leader; inset below left, MetBPA police staff

The MetBPA has really come a long way since it was founded in 1994, working towards improved relations between the police and the black community, says Tracy Washington

B

ACK IN 1989, statistics showed that black and minority ethnic (BAME) police officers were joining the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

The numbers were small but growing.

However, those that were recruited were resigning more prematurely than their white colleagues.

It was these alarming facts that brought about a two-day seminar in 1990 which was attended by many BAME officers.

EXPERIENCES

This event came to be known as the ‘Bristol Seminars’ and it provided a ‘safe space’ for officers to speak freely about their shared experiences.

The seminar highlighted the bullying and racial discrimination that some officers were being subjected to.

Outcomes from the event included a report which suggested numerous changes for the MPS including training, recruitment initiatives and support for BAME officers.

Following the seminar, officers (now alongside civilian staff) decided to continue to meet up in a social environment and explore a new found sense of solidarity and energy.

These events became known as the ‘Bristol Reunions’.

The popularity of these

meet-ups led to a meeting on April 21, 1993 to develop the Bristol Reunion Network, which is now recognised as the inaugural meeting of the Black Police Association (BPA).

Although this was the inaugural meeting, the BPA was officially launched on September 26, 1994.

The launch had taken 17 months of hard work to organise.

But while encountering roadblocks and naysayers, the success of the launch proved to have been well worth all the effort.

The venue was filled to capacity and the BPA’s first elected chair, Ron Hope, told those gathered: “We acknowledge that we will not achieve everything at once – indeed much of the work will require ongoing activity for long-term results”.

That statement is as true today as it was then.

Some of that work is outlined in the BPA’s ongoing key aims and objectives.

These include providing a support and social network, assisting the development of new and existing policies and working towards improved relations between the police and black communities.

The outcomes of this work has also enabled the BPA to become involved in major reports on policing, such as the Macpherson Report, the

Damilola Taylor murder investigation and the Morris Report.

Through this kind of involvement the BPA has had a major impact on tackling racism in policing.

The success of the BPA within the MPS prompted a need for national representation of BAME officers and staff around the UK.

MOMENTUM

So in 1999 the National Black Police Association (NBPA) was born, which then created a momentum for other constabularies around the UK to also form a local BPA. Most constabularies in the UK now have a local BPA. Those that are celebrating their 20-year anniversaries this year are Nottingham, Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands and Gwent, while Lincoln is the newest BPA to be launched.

The growing profile of the BPA has enabled it to establish long lasting partnerships with fellow networks within the criminal justice system like the Society of Black Lawyers (SBL) and Association of Probation Officers (ABPO).

These relationships also reach overseas to enforcement agencies such as the NBPA (USA), the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcers (NOBLE) USA, Police and Prison Officers Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) South Africa and

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Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Jamaica.

These partnerships enable the BPA to share good practise, development and learning within worldwide policing.

While forming these relationships we have not forgot-

Programme’. This was also the birth of the Young Black Positive Advocates (YBPA), a group born out of the Leadership Programme who are ‘Young People for Young People’.

Their aim is to create a positive perception of being Black

the form it is in today which stands under the umbrella name Voice Of Youth And Genuine Empowerment (VOYAGE).

There are so many accomplishments that the BPA (now called the MetBPA) has achieved, it is impossible to list them all in this article.

But we are looking at documenting our history.

We will continue to support the recruitment of those from African, Asian and IMPACT Our organisation has evolved and so has our surroundings.

Caribbean backgrounds ten our young people as they truly are our future.

In 2001 the ‘Paddington Project’ was created. This was a programme for 14- to 17-yearold people to help create them into young leaders.

This in turn would assist them in advocating change in local communities while enhancing their thirst for learning.

As the programme evolved, so did the name. In 2002, it was renamed the ‘Leadership

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and young.

This group is aimed at 12- to 25-year-olds and is still running today.

In 2004, the programme was renamed ‘Young Leaders for Safer Cities’ (YLfSC) and became a BTEC Level II accreditation course which is achieved with over 100hrs of study for young people currently in Year 9.

Students are recruited from within schools to participate.

This has now progressed to

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The work that we do continues to have an important impact.

We will continue to support the recruitment of those from African, Caribbean and Asian (ACA) backgrounds while challenging any wrongdoings we see rear its ugly head.

As an organisation, we are striving to be the change we wish to see.

Tracy Washington is the Office Manager for the MetBPA.

www.voice-online.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 13

25th anniversary – MetBPA

SUPPORT: Clockwise, from top, NBPA Conference; Team Voyage; Women’s Forum IWD event; a BPA social; Young Black Positive Advocates (YBPA)

The officers who have served as MetBPA chair over the years...

LEADERS: Dr Leroy Logan MBE, left, and George Rhoden

Mike Fuller QPM (interim): 1993 Ron Hope: 1994 – 1995 David Michael QPM: 1995 – 1997 Paul Wilson: 1997 – 2000

Dr Leroy Logan MBE: 2000 – 2004 George Rhoden: 2004 – 2006 Alfred John: 2006 – 2010 Bevan Powell MBE: 2010 – 2013 Janet Hills: 2013 – Present

Community work as vital as ever EACH BPA continues to strive to enhance the representation of the police service they are a part of, to improve the relationships of the communities they serve.

Upon its formation, the main aim and objective for the MetBPA was to improve the working environment for black and Asian personnel within the MPS (now ACA).

As it stands, this is still the main objective today.

For further information visit metbpa.org.uk or voyageyouth.com

AIM: the MetBPA’s main objective is to improve the working environment for black and Asian personnel within the MPS

OCTOBER2019 2019 14 THEVOICE VOICE OCTOBER 14| |THE

Dotun Adebayo

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Join the debate online voice-online.co.uk/opinion

LET’S MAKE HISTORY

We don’t have to celebrate the past this October if we could be helping to decide the future

B

THE FRONT PAGES: Boris Johnson and his continued insistence on leaving the EU on October 31 stands to overshadow any important black faces in this month of supposed celebration

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ORIS JOHNSON has tried his utmost to wipe Black History Month off the face of the map this year.

By announcing that Britain would leave the EU “do or die” on October 31, he has ensured that the celebratory month will be irrelevant at best and cancelled at worst.

Black people won’t make it onto the front pages of the national newspapers this year – as we did last year when Boris’s predecessor, Theresa May, enforced a hostile environment on the so-called Windrush Generation.

Finally, at the 31st year of asking, Black History Month got the respect it deserved – but only, ironically, by black British people being denied the respect they deserve.

Maroons did when the British wanted to re-enslave her people. She fought them, beat them and became the greatest general Jamaica has ever known.

In the same way that Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Fela’s mum), or the ‘Lioness of Lisabi’ as we know her back home.

She led the women of Nigeria on a ‘no taxation without representation’ rebellion that forced the abdication of a king.

These battles are no differ-

That, of course, is history.

Just as Brexit is history. History that Black History Month cannot compete with. Unless...

Unless we put ourselves at the centre of this country’s future. Just like multi-millionaire businesswoman Gina Miller.

If we make her the poster girl for this year’s Black History Month it could be a vintage year. She is probably the most hated black woman in the country. In other words, she is one of the few people who can wipe that “picanniny smile” off the prime minister’s face.

If she gets her way on Halloween, it will be British history but also (more importantly) our history. Black history. In Black History Month.

After all, hers is the story of an ordinary black woman (albeit with a stash of disposable income) who has already taken on the establishment and won.

She kiboshed the British government’s plans to push through Brexit without reference to parliament. Just ask Theresa May, Boris Johnson, or Her Majesty the Queen (would I lie to her?).

Whatever the outcome of Brexit, Gina Miller has taken on two prime ministers and beat them hands-down.

In the way that the Jamaican national heroine Nanny of the

ent than the one Rosa Parks fought. Her refusal in 1955 to give up her seat for a white man would eventually bring down segregation in the southern states of America.

I see little difference between these three great women. They represent definitive moments in black history.

They also represent the inspiration that we all (but especially young black women) need and are an enduring reminder that the black woman is the First Lady of mankind.

It is she who has been the bearer of all humanity. Because out of us came everybody else.

The black chick (if you like) came before the egg. And, certainly, way before the Breggsit.

So you see how absurd it is that Black History Month is not more prominent than Brexit? It is certainly more profound.

I pondered all of this as I contemplated my keynote address to the Nurses Association of Jamaica (UK) the other day.

I marvelled at how the black nurse was almost written out of post-war NHS history by the TV series Call The Midwife, until the producers were held to account by a senior black nurse and thereby forced to include a black character in the later series.

The narrative of Windrush is

CENTRE

Gina Miller could be the poster girl for Black History Month

that nurses were recruited from the Caribbean to support the NHS (established the previous year) and without whom the service would have collapsed.

To not acknowledge this with a single black character in the early episodes was tantamount to a whitewash of history.

We should not dwell too long on this. As this year’s Black History Month fights for relevance, we should contemplate why the black woman does not get her props for being the “mother of all mothers”.

Is it because of her tenacity for which the comparison with a lioness might be appropriate – especially when there is a threat to her offspring?

INCURSION

Perhaps it is in this respect that we should view Gina Miller’s incursion into Brexit.

Yet I do not see us waving the flag in support of her in the way that many of us are prepared to stand up and fight for the rights of Meghan Markle.

The Duchess of Sussex, as demonised as she is by the press, has her detractors and supporters. Whereas Gina Miller’s supporters barely register.

So we have TWO poster girls for Black History Month 2019.

Together they can reconfigure the spotlight back onto the women on whose tallawah shoulders they stand.

For the women who weaned us all – black and white – are more important than the politics that weigh us down.

These black women are more than likely the ‘second lady’ in most people’s infancy, after our mothers. One of the nurses told me she was racially abused by a young boy whom she had brought into the world only a few years earlier.

And she had to shake her head in disbelief, as I shake my head in disbelief that Black History Month is continually shunned and sidelined in rather mainstream media who ain’t about to give us the props of our rightful place in history.

Our history is the world’s first. It is the starting point of mankind. Without any apology. That can never be denied.

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by Veron Graham

Midlands News

JAMILLE ON THE BALL Footballer tells young people how psychology degree helps him on and off pitch

T

HE ISSUE of mental health has come to the fore in recent years, but a glance into the lower echelons of the English Football League will reveal a footballer who is way ahead of the curve.

Back in 2011, Jamille Matt, now of League Two’s Newport County AFC, graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a BSc (Hons) degree in counselling psychology, an achievement which gives him something of a psychological edge in coping with the emotional rollercoaster of a sporting career, while also passing on the keys to coping successfully with the pressures to his peers.

EXPERIENCED

Matt, 29, said: “Psychology plays a massive part in football, but it is also about experience. I am probably one of the more experienced lads at Newport so it is about trying to pass some of that on.”

He recently returned to his alma mater to inspire those a little younger than those to whom he is used to giving guidance.

The Jamaican-born striker took centre stage at the Children’s University graduation, meeting pupils from Black Country and Birmingham schools who have been taking part in the programme, which provides innovative and exciting out-of- school -hours learning activities for children aged seven to 14. He shared tips on how he uses the skills he learned while he was studying to prepare for big games.

“It’s fantastic to be invited back to the University of Wolverhampton to support the Children’s University

programme. It all started here for me and I’d like to encourage the children to work hard and follow their dreams,” he told The Voice.

Matt, who joined Newport from Fleetwood FC in 2013, went through college and then onto university, while playing part-time for Sutton Coldfield Town. His goal-scoring prowess alerted the Conference National side Kidderminster Harriers in 2010, who were higher up in the EFL and required full-time participation.

“Credit to them, they allowed me to train a couple of times a week while I finished my degree, and then go fulltime into football,” he said – and added that it was well worth the effort.

“The degree helps because you can savour the moment more. I have played a few games now and I know not

The degree helps because I can savour the moment much more to take the highs too high and the lows too low. I also know if you miss a game but stick to your guns, you will get another chance.”

One of the 20 goals Matt scored in his 57 league and cup appearances last season – an equaliser away to Morecambe – put seventh place finishers Newport into the League Two play-offs, only for the team to then lose 1-0 in the final in extra time to Tranmere Rovers.

Matt also starred in New-

INSPIRING: Jamille Matt and David Wedge with Matilda Rousell and Will Woodhall of Maidensbridge Primary School

GOAL-SCORING PROWESS: Jamille Matt starred in Newport’s giant-killing win over Leicester City; inset below, Matt and the University of Wolverhampton’s David Wedge awarding Maidensbridge Primary School’s Billy Schipper; inset bottom right, Matt addresses the crowd port’s giant-killing win over former Premier League champions Leicester City in last year’s FA Cup, a 2-1 home victory that was rated one of the biggest footballing shocks of the season, pulled off by a team that nearly went out of business 30 years ago.

Amy Allen, University of Wolverhampton Children’s University manager, said: “The Children’s University is all about raising aspirations and encouraging children to aim high, so we were delighted to welcome a successful University of Wolverhampton graduate such as Jamille back to share his experiences.”

Children’s University participants are given a ‘Passport to Learning’ in which they are encouraged to collect hours of learning towards recognised levels of achievement.

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Looking ahead, Matt is confident about the chances of The Exiles, who have bolstered their squad with free agents in the main in an attempt to earn outright promotion this season.

“This is a special group of players,” he told the media.

“On a day-to-day basis everyone comes in with smiles on their faces. That’s something the staff and the manager have created. I’m looking forward to the new season. I don’t want the play-off finals to be the last memory – we are all ambitious players. Footballers have short careers.”

Matt’s talk at the Children’s University about his experiences can be found at youtube.com/ watch?v=TOD3sUDb4sY.

@thevoicenews

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www.voice-online.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 17

Midlands News

DELIGHT AT REOPENING OF CENTRE

T

HERE WILL again be a growing roster of entertainment, education and business-focussed events in the coming months hosted in Aston, Birmingham, promised an exuberant Keith ‘Cipher’ Shayaam-Smith, CEO of the Legacy Centre of Excellence.

Speaking at the recent launch event of the venue formerly known as The Drum Arts Centre, he said: “We at Legacy are overjoyed at the tremendous turnout. I’d like to extend many thanks to all those who attended and took part in creating an incredible and memorable opening which marks the beginning of a new and exciting journey.

“We will use this as a foundation to kick-start our educational, artistic and business initiatives that will support local people, businesses and organisations within Birmingham.”

The return of the centre – believed to be the biggest

black-owned facility of its kind in Europe – is rightly seen by many as something of a success story for the black community.

The Drum had become an iconic venue since it opened in

campaigns failed to save it and in the interim, many of the events it hosted did not happen or struggled to find alternative venues.

Worth an estimated £1 million, the complex’s freehold was purchased by the city social enterprise 7E Youth Academy, with the support of investors last May.

This will be a foundation to BUSTLING kick-start our More than 1,000 people who witnessed the launch education and attended event, which was punctuated by performances, guest adarts plans dresses and a bustling market1996, to rival mainstream city venues like The Birmingham Hippodrome and Alexandra Theatre.

However, unable to attract leading artists and resist the impact of the economic recession, its backers The Newtown Cultural Arts Project decided to close it down in June 2016.

A roster of petitions and

TREMENDOUS: Keith ‘Cipher’ Shayaam-Smith officially opens the Legacy Centre of Excellence; above, crowds gather at the Legacy launch event

place of 40 vendors.

The centre is building a busy programme of events, including a Careers Expo (September 27), the launch of Birmingham’s Black History Month celebrations (September 28), a concert by reggae legend Johnny Osbourne (October 6) and the Magic Girlz Club, in association with singer Jamelia (from October 28).

If you have a story for the East or West Midlands, call/text Veron Graham on 07954 572 988, email veronpgraham@gmail. com, or find him on Facebook or LinkedIn

Girl goes to university with a little help from The Voice ARTISTS: The Blackstory Partnership is Mykal Wassifa Brown MBE, Rebecca Hemmings, Audrey Parkes and Garry Stewart

Black History Month is back at spiritual home

THE RE-OPENING of the Legacy Centre of Excellence means that Birmingham’s Black History Month (BBHM) celebrations has returned to its spiritual home after a nomadic existence since the closure of the former Drum Arts Centre in May 2016.

BBHM kicks off with that ticketed launch event on September 28.

But BBHM events will be taking place across the city, as evidenced by the Pre-Windrush to the Present Day exhibition that was held on September

13 at the Birmingham Hippodrome in collaboration with the Blackstory Partnership.

The event marked the venue’s 120th birthday, and celebrated its history of black representation, beginning with Johnny Richardson, the first black performer to hit the Hippodrome stage, way back in 1900.

The Blackstory Partnership is a collective of artists and activists made up of Audrey Parkes, Rebecca Hemmings, Garry Stewart, Paulette Francis-Green and Mykal Wassifa Brown MBE.

THE VOICE played a pivotal part in the success of a Birmingham student who had dropped out of study but has since set off to university.

Father Norman McFarlane was reading our pages when he came across education expert Eric Mitchell, a former Ofsted inspector turned private tutor.

He sensed that Mitchell could hold the key to his daughter Valetta, then 17, recovering after failing A-level biology and chemistry exams, which dashed her dreams of becoming a heart surgeon.

“The funny thing was that I knew Eric,” he said. “We had mutual friends but I didn’t realise he was the ‘Maths Maverick’ he was reported as being. We looked him up and took it from there.”

LOYAL READERS: Norman and Valetta McFarlane Two years of one-to-one coaching and encouragement at Mitchell’s nearby Sankore Education facility helped Valetta gain A grades in chemistry, biology and psychology, with a B in maths at A-level.

Valetta has now set off to begin studying for a degree in biomedical science at Kingston University.

“Eric broke the subjects down for me,” said Valetta, now 20. “I had lost my confi-

dence but I would say to everyone to always believe that you can achieve. I had to put in the hard work and I am so glad for my parents’ support.”

McFarlane added: “It’s all about the family unit for us.

My wife Sharon and I always wanted our children to strive to reach higher than we have.

I’ve done manual work, security, cleaning, whatever to ensure the finance is there to support them.

“We see what’s going on in the community and we want better for them.”

Mitchell said: “Sankore’s ethos is ‘every child is a gift and every child comes with a gift’. Because I know this to be true, my job is to extract these gifts from the children but it takes a particular kind of knowledge, understanding and skills.”

VOICE OCTOBER OCTOBER2019 2019 18 THE VOICE 18 || THE

Northern News

by Abigail Reid

POWER OF SPORT Former Olympian opens summer camp full of fun activities and healthy meals

EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS: Participants in the Diane Modahl Sports Foundation learn some dance moves; inset above right, Diane and some of the others who made the summer camp special

T

HE POWER of sport helped to improve the lives of hundreds of children in Manchester this summer when top athlete Diane Modahl MBE went for gold by hosting a moraleboosting sports summer camp.

Multiple gold medallist Diane and her husband, Olympic coach Vicente, secured the funds to deliver the five-week camp to children throughout the city. Targeting youngsters between nine and 16, the aim of the Diane Modahl Sports Foundation (DMSF) was to provide an ac-

tive summer of physical activity and nutritious, healthy meals to some of society’s most vulnerable young people.

“The success of the summer camp has exceeded even our own expectations,” said Diane.

BRILLIANT

“I have a brilliant team, they are all people who look like our kids, talk like our kids and probably even live on the same street as them.

“The feedback we received from the parents was, ‘Thank you, we do not know where we would have taken our children

if this didn’t exist.’ It’s been a brilliant success in terms of the partnerships we have created and we absolutely want to do this again next year, if we can get funding.”

The daily camp, which was hosted at Cedar Mount Academy in Gorton, was completely free for youngsters to attend.

Participants engaged in a range of sports delivered by trained coaches, including football, athletics, boxing, dodgeball, dance, cricket, badminton, basketball and free play.

DMSF is a registered charity, which Diane and Vicente es-

@thevoicenewspaper

tablished in 2010. Hailing from a deprived community herself, Diane wanted to champion

It’s more than sport, we are helping to raise their aspirations young people from disadvantaged areas across the North West, helping them to make the most of themselves in sport, education and employability.

One of the aims of the charity is to provide quality coaching and mentoring to enable youngsters to fulfil their sporting potential.

“Throughout the summer, children at the camp were led by professional athletes and sports leaders trained by the foundation.

“We didn’t want to shortchange our kids on the summer camp,” said Diane.

“We wanted to use the skills that we have in our team to enable children to come and play and receive a high level of quality delivery. We were also able to support those who

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want to take sport to another level. She added: “It was more than just sport. We are helping to raise their aspirations so that they can use those skills throughout the whole of their lives.”

The initiative was funded by the charity A Smile for Orly, which wants to put an end to ‘holiday hunger’ – where the absence of free school meals provided during term time can leave some children without the food they need.

Manchester has one of the highest rates of child poverty by local authority area, with 35.5 per cent of children under 16 there living in poverty, according to the most recent data from HMRC and the DWP. “We’ve wanted to do something like this in the past but just couldn’t get the funding,” said Diane.

“We also had backing from community partners and providers.”

In fact, local businesses stepped in to supply fresh fruit and water, while popular Chorlton eatery Dougy’s Caribbean Takeaway delivered more than 1,900 meals in total. The children enjoyed a variety of tasty dishes, including steamed chicken, home-made desserts, banana fritters, jerk pasta and jollof rice.

Dougy’s owner Denis Doug-

las said: “We were able to introduce the children to different cultures through the healthy menus that we provided. It was a sports programme and we were committed to continuing its aim with a healthy African Caribbean diet.

“It was great to see the children integrating and we were happy to support this initiative, because it encompassed a wide range of young people and kept them occupied over the summer, focusing on sports, health and wellbeing.

voicenews

www.voice-online.co.uk

INTENSE

“The youngsters came from areas across the whole of Manchester for an intense disciplined programme and they did so harmoniously.

“It was also good to see the community providers coming together to support the programme and I hope others will join us next year.”

Diane added: “The support we received from the community was overwhelming, it took us by surprise.

“The level of support was what made the difference and it was all kick-started by Dougy and his commitment to young people.

“He personally donated a cheque for £500 back to the charity. It was incredible.

OCTOBER 2019

Northern News

EULOGIES IN FOCUS

COMMON PRACTICE: Daniel Bloomfield came to Leeds from Jamaica in 1954. This studio photo is typical of those included in funeral programmes of firstgeneration Jamaicans and other West Indians (photo: Gerald Donne Photography)

Leeds-based Jamaicans’ photo tradition on display thanks to Lottery Heritage Fund grant

I

F YOU’VE ever attended a West Indian funeral the significance of the eulogy to family members and friends will be hugely apparent.

Now, a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has enabled the rich lives Jamaicans in Leeds have to be showcased in a special exhibition, entitled Eulogy.

The Jamaica Society of Leeds received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £81,900 to commemorate the lives of the city’s first-generation Jamaicans who made the journey from the Caribbean island and have since passed away.

DELIGHTED

The project was also supported

by Leeds Inspired and National Windrush Day 2019.

Chair of the Jamaica Society, Reverend Dorothy Stewart said: “We are delighted to receive this support thanks to National Lottery players.

“Eulogy will help us to capture the individual stories of the city’s first-generation Jamaicans, who arrived as young adults and children, some preWindrush, and often spent their last days here.

“Many who are still with us are in their 80s and 90s. They hold the memories, heritage and traditions they brought with them from Jamaica, which we should preserve today for future generations.”

Launched on August 1, which also marked Emancipation Day in Jamaica,

settled there in the 1940s-60s would employ the services of Gerald Donne Photography.

They would send portraits to family back home in Jamaica and ultimately they would feature in their eulogies.

The Jamaica Society members, local community, and families of deceased firstgeneration Jamaicans worked together to gather these images, which were then were displayed alongside Paul Floyd Blake’s contemporary portraits of their descendants.

They hold the heritage and traditions they brought UPLIFTING Eulogy programme director and exhibition curator, Susan with them Eulogy was initially showcased at Leeds Central Library. The event was attended by His Excellency the Jamaican High Commissioner Seth George Ramocan who commended the project for its “holistic capturing of a person’s life and essential elements”.

Eulogy brings together printed funeral programmes - often elaborately printed booklets and oral eulogies.

Like most new to Leeds the pioneering Jamaicans who

Pitter said: “Eulogy will be a touching, uplifting tribute to a generation who left everything and everyone 5,000 miles behind to answer Britain’s call to its Commonwealth citizens.

“What’s great about Eulogy is that it crosses generations, tells stories that anyone can relate to and reflects not only the DNA of the Jamaican community – but of the city too and I am honoured to help protect and share their inspirational stories.”

Volunteers received training in heritage and other skills

THE VOICE | 19

to help with the launch of a Jamaica Heritage Trail in the city’s permanent collections of Leeds Libraries.

They will also help with the collection of photography and community interviews.

David Renwick, head of the National Lottery Heritage Fund Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “We believe that heritage should be inclusive and want to empower communities to explore and tell their stories.

Caribbean and West Indian migration has played a significant role in shaping the culture

and heritage of Leeds and West Yorkshire.

IMPACT

“We’re delighted, that thanks to National Lottery players, we can support the Jamaica Society to explore and celebrate the contributions of the Jamaican community to our heritage, acknowledging its impact on the region and promoting better understanding in the wider community.”

The Eulogy project will continue until the end of the year

and will also include a series of workshops and events for all ages in memoir writing, storytelling, ancestry, Jamaican culture and heritage.

For further information about Eulogy get in touch with organisers at eulogy@jamaicasociety leeds.co.uk or find them online by searching for @jamaicasocietyleeds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Black Child Agenda conference aims to tackle youth issues head on

IMPORTANT ISSUES: The Black Child Agenda

WHY ARE black children more likely to be excluded from school and what help can parents receive to challenge these exclusions and discrimination faced in the education sector?

This is the focus of The Black Child Agenda conference Tackling The Schools To Prison Pipeline, which will be coming to Moss Side in Manchester on October 26.

Research by the Education Policy Institute has shown that ‘black Caribbean pupils have been disproportionately subjected to permanent exclusion from school, and this continues to be the case to this day.’ In fact, statistics reveal that a black Caribbean boy in receipt of free school meals and with special educational needs is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white British girl without special educational needs.

The Black Child Agenda, founded by

Cheryl Phoenix, is a community interest company supporting children and families throughout the UK who face discrimination, permanent exclusion, bullying, isolation and those not being correctly supported with mental health concerns.

ISSUES

“We want to educate parents, young people and community members on the law around education. So, we will be covering issues such as stop and search, your rights if you’ve been arrested, how easy it is for your child to be groomed into county lines,” Cheryl said.

“We will also look at educational issues such as exclusions, panel hearings, court proceedings, special educational needs, navigating the social services system, care proceedings and safeguarding.”

The London-based organisation is hosting the event in association with

Team GREAT, a Manchester based group with similar aims. In addition to parents and carers, professionals such as teachers and social workers have attended past events and it is very much a family affair with activities provided for children throughout the day.

“People will walk away with right here and now practical knowledge – factual information that they can use immediately. This is an important event for anyone with a child within the education system.

“Whether they are doing well or struggling it is an event that you need to tap into because it arms you with the power and information that you need to be able to make a conscious decision about what to do if your child does get into difficulties,” she added.

For tickets and further information visit https://jus-tickets.com/…/the-blackchild-agenda-manchester/

20 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 20 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Letters WELCOME TO YOUR NEW MONTHLY EDITION OF

h t on m e f h t Letter o BREXIT BRITAIN MORE LIKE ZIMBABWE

Connecting, Campaigning and Celebrating our community for 37 years WE ARE delighted to share our new October issue.

As the only national black newspaper serving our community for over three decades, we have redefined our strategic direction.

We are enhancing our publication and have launched a new website.

Our values and commitment remain the same as when we started in 1982 - to provide high quality editorial content, campaign on issues that will make a difference and acknowledge the excellence within our community.

Building on our credibility as an established UK ethnic media brand, we want to ensure that we are around for many years to come and attract the next generation of readers.

We are dedicated to maintaining our campaigning stance and are steadfast in our aim to be the authoritative voice for black Britain.

You can be reassured that we are focused on our purpose and vision which is about connecting, campaigning and

celebrating black excellence.

This first issue is indicative of what you can expect from The Voice each month – exclusive interviews with leading figures; UK, regional and international news; special features that cover new trends in education, health, lifestyle; entertainment, arts and culture, sports and much more.

We will be adding to the depth and breadth of our editorial content by inviting experts in various fields to contribute.

For example, we are pleased to announce that renowned historian David Olusoga will be a regular columnist in the newspaper - check out his column page 11 in this issue.

Please also visit our newly revamped website (www. voice-online.co.uk) to get daily news updates, features, videos and podcasts.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Voice Team

GREAT BRITAIN has become a laughing stock of the world like Zimbabwe because of failure to find a credible democratic solution to Brexit which will enhance the country.

Boris Johnson (inset) is doing what was done by Mugabe and Mnangagwa when he threatened members of parliament with deselection for voting against his plan.

As a fellow writer recently said, and I quote, “the British prime minister wants a hard Brexit, no matter the cost. When he didn’t even hesitate to suspend Parlia-

NEW PERSPECTIVE ON MUGABE’S LEGACY

Re: ‘Mugabe remains a hero despite political errors’ (via Voice Online) AS USUAL, the largely Caucasian reporters, writers and thinkers greeted the news of the death of the former President of Zimbabwe Robert Gabriel Mugabe as an opportunity to exercise their prejudicial view of this African-skinned man; because he refused to be their slave.

Whilst most writers condemn President Mugabe for “destroying” the nation’s economy, these writers did

ment that was a statement of ‘I mean business’.” It’s the style more expected from a military dictatorship and who to know better about military dictatorships than the current President of Zimbabwe and his predecessor?

Mugabe and Mnangagwa sacked or demoted MPs and ministers who had different views failing to understand that parliamentarians are also driven by their conscience, not always the views of ZANU PF leaders.

LAUGHING STOCK: The failure to so far find a solution to Brexit has seen Boris Johnson acting like Robert Mugabe, says one reader

Heather Makawa, via Letters not mention that Zimbabwe’s trains stopped running after independence as not a single African had been permitted to train as a train drivers.

Zimbabwe’s appropriation of farmland belonging to Caucasian farmers was prompted

by England’s and the United States’ failures: “Both the British and American governments offered to compensate white citizens for any land sold to aid reconciliation.”

The castigation of President Mugabe by the major reporters reflects the need for a national publicly funded news programme for England’s African-skin residents;

which is needed to challenge and deflect the polished bias and discriminatory reporting from the establishment press.

Chaka Artwell, via Letters

WHO IN their right mind would order jerk chicken at a furniture outlet? You people deserve to be scammed.

O’Reilly McCarthy, via Twitter

IKEA’S APPROPRIATION

THE VOICE’S NEW ERA

Re: IKEA remove jerk chicken and “rice and peas” dish from menu after image goes viral SO IT’S jerk chicken with a Swedish twist – when I cook other cultures’ food I add my own Carribbean twist.

Everything gets seasoned at my house, maybe doing it this way makes it more familiar and palatable to people not used to Caribbean food.

Corrinne Doyley, via Facebook

GROWING UP, our stories were only ever told in this newspaper (when other media outlets had no interest) and I always saw the newspaper in family members’ homes.

End of an era but looking I just want to know who was forward to seeing the new responsible, did they not even digital site. @_CarinaWh, via Twitter think to research the thing properly? @Howie__ja via Twitter I WAS going to call it ‘cultural appropriation’ but it bears so little resemblance to the original dish that I think it needs its own terminology.

GlobalTalentCom, via Twitter

APPROPRIATION?: IKEA’s jerk chicken with rice and peas didn’t go down very well

@thevoicenewspaper

@thevoicenews

CONGRATULATIONS ON this next phase of your journey.

Look forward to the monthly edition and will subscribe to make sure I don’t miss it.

Dorothy Koomson, via Twitter

voicenews

HOPE AFTER VIOLENCE

Re: South Africa issues apology to Nigeria over xenophobic attacks (via Voice Online) YES. THERE is hope for Africa.

I appreciate this move of reconciliation.

It is a welcome gesture to peace and unity.

However in South Africa, justice should prevail over the xenophobic attacks perpetrators as well as compensate the victims.

God bless Nigeria for upholding peace.

Uwaya Emmanuel Chukwuka, via voice-online.co.uk

www.voice-online.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 21

International News

‘EXTINCTION IS NOT FAR AWAY’

Caribbean leaders express their concerns as the devastating effects of climate change hit home

By Debbie Ransome

C

ARIBBEAN LEADERS have stepped up their global lobby on climate change in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian on the Bahamian islands of Abaco and Grand Bahamas.

The CARICOM regional grouping used a key United Nations event in Geneva to issue a stark warning about the consequences for island nations.

“Our extinction is imminent,” said CARICOM’s chairman, St Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, in his keynote address at the opening of the UN Trade Forum on Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change, held from September 9 to 13.

“The climate crisis has taken away from us the ability to control our own destiny.”

Having visited Abaco and Grand Bahama the week before, the St Lucian leader did not mince his words: “Climate change is not our responsibility. The SIDS [Small Island Developing States] represent less than 1 per cent of global emissions. We can’t control our destiny through mitigation. The fact is, the only thing available to us is adaptation.”

The Caribbean has been pushing for a global reduction in carbon emissions for several years, but the #buildbackbetter message did not gain traction until after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Since then, the region has moved beyond merely seeking aid and sympathy. The order of the day now is trade and investment – and the role they can play in helping small economies and the wider global economy.

‘Invisible’ but not indispensable Delivering the prestigious Raúl

Prebisch Lecture at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva on the fringes of the forum, Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley argued for a change in global perspective.

Speaking on the topic “Invisible Yet Indispensable”, she said the international order needed to be reinvented and that the world had to do better by small island states on the frontline of the climate crisis.

“An international order that is not inclusive, or strongly rooted in fairness and moral legitimacy, will fail to halt and reverse climate change,” said Ms Mottley.

She addressed ”the insidious threats of terrorism and, now, the existential threat of climate change”.

“Just as we find it abhorrent today to contemplate, far less support, removing freedom and choice from other human beings, so must we also recognise that true freedom also requires changing the structural imbalances in power and wealth,” she added.

Prime Minister Mottley described independence without options for development as “a hollow experience that breeds cynicism and fosters marginalisation”. Small states should not be denied fair access to markets and banking services because they are too small to be seen or to matter, she said.

“Even if, for many, we are invisible, we are not dispensable,” the Barbadian leader said.

She told her audience that small islands needed to be empowered and given a voice and a presence “because it is the right thing to do – not just politically but morally”.

Jamaican minister Daryl Vaz also linked climate vulnerability to the global economy when he spoke at the Geneva conference on behalf of Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

THE WORLD AT A GLANCE Guyana’s oil learning curve

Guyana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Frederick Hamley Case, says his country will make mistakes on the road to becoming an oil and gas producing nation but that it is learning from the world’s major producers. Describing Guyana as the “new boy on the block”, he’s quoted by energy specialist Energy Voice as saying that “we are being advised by several governments and think tanks in London. We are getting the best advice we can get”.

St Lucia looks at cannabis trade DELIVERING THEIR MESSAGES: Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley; inset, St Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet “It is important to note that the vulnerability to climate change is increasing the cost of capital and imposing economic and social costs on developing countries. Further, borrowing for climate finance becomes more expensive over time. Financial and risk mitigation flexibilities are therefore critical to allow for faster post-disaster recovery,” he said.

Another Caribbean speaker at the Geneva conference,

The climate crisis has taken away from us the ability to control our own destiny UNCTAD’s Director for International Trade and Commodities, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, also pressed home the link between trade and climate resilience.

“To face the climate crisis, we need all of us, all our tools and means. Trade cannot be a bystander,” she told the UN forum. “The omnipresence of trade means that it cannot be left out of any climate policy.

And it also means that sustainability cannot be an afterthought of trade policy, but must be an inherent part of it,” she added.

Potential or threat?

The message on climate change and the role of the Caribbean, despite its size, was a theme that continued throughout the Forum week.

The Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Didacus Jules, pointed out that while the Caribbean Sea only covered 1 per cent of the world’s ocean space, its blue economy (ability to trade in marine resources) had been valued at $407bn.

He told the Forum that more must be done to make sustainable use of the marine-based resources which remained largely untapped in the Caribbean Sea. Commonwealth SecretaryGeneral Patricia Scotland said the oceans were part of a “truly common wealth” and the world could not fail in its work on the fisheries sector in trade.

She said that smart fisheries could ensure sustainability for micro, small and mediumsized enterprises.

The Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, Patrick Gomes, said that climate change remained the most significant challenge, this century, for the achievement of sustainable development on planet Earth.

Former BBC Caribbean Service Head Debbie Ransome currently runs the website caribbeanintelligence.com.

St Lucia has become the latest country to take steps towards reforming its laws on cannabis and exploring its business potential. The new Cannabis Commission met in September to start its work on making recommendations for a regulated framework for cannabis use and exploring how the island can take advantage of the cannabis industry, while addressing public health issues.

Leaders target Islamist threat

West African leaders have pledged $1 billion to combat the spiralling threat of Islamist militancy in the region.

The pledge, which is to be funded from 2020 to 2024, was announced last month at the end of the Economic Community Summit of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have strengthened their foothold across the arid Sahel region this year, making large swathes of territory ungovernable

and stoking local ethnic violence, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso.

More Russians to visit Jamaica Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, says it is expecting more Russian tourists as Krasnoyarsk-based carrier Pegas Fly plans to increase the number of passengers it flies into Montego Bay. “This [is] exciting news, because it will expand our reach into Continental and Eastern Europe,” Mr Bartlett said. Jamaica is also expecting new flights from Latin America.

Nigeria ends NGO support

Nigeria’s army has stopped the work of international NGO Action Against Hunger, accusing it of supplying a militant Islamist group with food and drugs.

The army said it had warned the NGO against “aiding and abetting” Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria.

Action Against Hunger, which denies the accusations, says its “life-saving assistance” to vulnerable people has now been put “into jeopardy”. Boko Haram’s 10-year campaign of terror has left 30,000 people dead.

It’s not a toy, it’s a snake!

A family in the South Trinidad village of Rousillac made the national headlines when a “toy” snake discovered in a sink turned out to be real. The Trinidad Guardian said 78-yearold Polly Boodoo and her daughter Savitri were told by Polly’s caregiver that she had found a “stuffed toy”. It turned out to be a 7-ft, 70-lb macajuel snake.

22 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 22| THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

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PPORTUNITIES ARE at the heart of a career with PwC. Our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems for our clients, helping them tackle business challenges and improving how they work.

We have School and College Leaver opportunities in Audit, Consulting, Deals, Tax and Technology.

Our aim is to be the leading professional services firm, and to achieve this we must be innovative, responsible and attract outstanding people.

With almost 20,000 employees at offices UKwide, attracting the right talent continues to be a priority to PwC. We support dif-

Whatever the route, we’re focused on our people ferent ways of working, including ‘Everyday Flexibility’ allowing our people to better balance work and life, and ‘dress for your day’, where employees decide what’s appropriate to wear given their daily responsibilities.

At PwC, you can expect to be part of a stimulating environment working on challenging projects where

SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT: PwC is committed to helping its employees reach their full potential

you’ll have access to a world of opportunity and experiences, in a culture that embraces difference.

No matter what your background, PwC have a range of roles to suit everyone.

Here at PwC, we look for talented people eager to learn, with business awareness, intellectual and cultural curiosity, and the ability to build strong relationships.

Trainees can develop and grow within a supportive and nurturing learning environment – in some business areas, this could mean working towards a degree or professional qualification.

Whatever the route, we’re focused on our people achieving their full potential, where hard work and accomplishments are recognised and rewarded with a competitive salary and a tailored, flexible benefits scheme.

Apply now. Take the opportunity of a lifetime.

Visit pwc.co.uk/schools for more information.

@thevoicenewspaper

@thevoicenews

voicenews

www.voice-online.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 23 OCTOBER 2019 ADVERTORIAL THE VOICE | 23

Advertorial

Special Feature

TAKING THE NEXT STEP There are thousands of young people across the UK starting their life at university right now – but opportunities at PwC can also kick-start your career...

Name: Saima How did you join PwC?: School and College Leaver programme Business area: Management Consulting Why did you choose the programme?

I chose the programme when I was deciding what to do with my future. I held a place at university to study International Development but I realised that I didn’t enjoy classroom-based learning and much preferred a more practical method of working.

I knew more companies were offering apprenticeships and had some friends who were looking into working at PwC, so thought I’d see if it was right for me.

I noticed PwC had something for everyone, which was a massive selling point.

What have you gained from the experience so far?

I’m working towards getting my Junior Management Consulting

ON THE RIGHT TRACK: Saima says her time with PwC has allowed her to explore exactly what she wants to do in her career

qualification with Kaplan which includes studying Business Environment and Finance.

In the job itself, I’ve learnt how to better communicate with people of all grades and gained confidence in group speaking and presenting.

ABILITY

I’ve been exposed to new types of technology and have increased my ability on programs like Excel.

I’ve also learnt how to work well under pressure and how to deliver high quality pieces of work in short spaces of time.

What does the programme offer you in terms of career progression?

In a year’s time I will join a Foundation for the Future’ which is the graduate scheme PwC offer in Consulting.

This means I’ll be on the exact same pathway as someone with a degree, except I will be doing this a year earlier than my peers with none of the debt.

Once joining Foundation for the Future, we are the same grade as someone with a degree and there is nothing to differentiate a Higher Apprentice from a Graduate in terms of opportunities and career progression.

Where are you now?

I’m now on my second rotation in Consulting and have been given the opportunity to work on International Development, which is what I wanted to study at university.

This is fantastic as it means

I get to work on something I’m passionate about.

What would your advice be for someone considering applying for a PwC apprenticeship?

My advice if you’re considering

applying would be to just go for it!

If you’re worried about going into a career too quickly and it being the wrong thing for you, you can always change!

PwC help you to work out what’s right for you.

‘PwC is a truly fantastic place to work with countless opportunities’ PROMISING: Ziyad sees plenty more opportunities on the horizon at PwC

Name: Ziyad Your employer: PwC Your job title: Tax Senior Associate What does your role involve?

I assist companies in managing the tax implications of their globally mobile workforce.

In simpler terms, I consult with global organisations to move their employees across borders in a tax-compliant way.

What subjects did you study at school?

Business, Law and Politics Why did you choose to do an apprenticeship?

I’ve always wanted to join PwC and work in the accounting profession.

I attended University for one year but realised it wasn’t the right path for me, so I left to join the apprenticeship programme at PwC. I saw the value in getting into the workplace sooner and gaining practical hands on experience.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to do your role?

Try to learn as much as you can, the technical and soft skills come by asking questions and picking up what those with more experience than you do.

What are the two most important transferable skills you use in your role?

Networking is such a crucial skill. I’ve been able to benefit both personally and professionally by having a strong network at PwC. A good network is not just of people more senior to you but also having people from different backgrounds to give you a more rounded perspective and bring lots of skill sets to the table.

Finally, do you see your career changing in the next five to 10 years, and if so, how do you see it changing?

I see myself at PwC for the next five to 10 years and beyond.

It’s a truly fantastic, inclusive and flexible place to work with countless opportunities.

People always think the grass looks greener elsewhere but the grass looks pretty green from where I’m standing!

24 | THE VOICE SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

Take the opportunity of a lifetime Traditionally, there’s only been one route when school comes to an end.

University. Degree. Career. But things have changed.

Gain work experience whilst at school or college Get a Head Start on our school and college leaver programmes

No matter which path you choose, there are no limits as to how far you can go and how much you can achieve.

Go to uni and give your career a Flying Start Join us whilst you’re at university

Our school leaver programme, just like our graduate programme, offers structured career development as well as learning on-the-job, and study towards real business qualifications. And on one of our Flying Start degree programmes, you’ll get the opportunity to go to uni and start your career with us at the same time.

So whichever path leads you to us, and we have a few, we’ll take you career further. Join PwC. We’ll help you realise your potential. © 2019 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved.

To find out more and apply, go to: pwc.co.uk/schools PwCCareersUK pwc-uk pwc_uk_careers

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 25 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 25

Special Feature

Advertorial

‘CREATE A CAREER WITH US’ HELPING YOU GROW: A job or placement with PwC is a great way to kickstart your career, says Cathy Baxter, left

Whatever your goal in the workplace, PwC can help you achieve it, says Cathy Baxter What are Early Identification programmes and why do PwC value their importance?

Undergraduate Early Identification programmes are an opportunity for students to find out more about different careers while still at university.

Our Early Identification programmes at PwC are a great way to interact with us, find out more about what we do, who we do it for and what your career path could hold working in a professional services firm like PwC. What better way to research your future career than to actually try it out! I know this first hand as I completed a work placement year whilst at university myself and truly saw how valuable the experience could be in developing my employability skills for the future.

On all of our Early Identification programmes students get to do just that.

Whether it is our threeday paid Women in Business or Technology shadow-

ing programme, the Summer Internship programme or our eleven-month work placement, there is something for everyone.

To fi nd out more about these programmes please visit our careers website as I can’t do them justice in a few lines!

How important is completing a work experience programme in progressing your career path with PwC? Work experience isn’t the only way to progress your career with PwC, but I would say it is a great opportunity for you to secure a graduate role with us whilst you are still going through university.

I know from my time at university that it can be quite time consuming applying for roles and therefore to be able to take that pressure away to focus on your studying in your fi nal year is a great advantage.

Many of the students who take part in our work experience programme then go on to be offered graduate roles with us.

How can a candidate improve their chances of gaining work experience with PwC? My main advice would be to do

We’ll expect you to be able to talk coherently and confidently about PwC, the position you’re applying for, the business world in general and yourself.

“If you are unclear about what to do after school or college, I would recommend taking part in an insight programme” your preparation and research before you apply.

This may sound like basic advice, but you would be surprised how many people don’t do this as fully as they should.

Throughout the selection process we’ll be looking for you to show awareness and evidence of the skills and qualities you need to succeed in our business.

Wherever possible, you should be able to demonstrate and highlight how you match our requirements. There is lots of information on our website which will help you to prepare.

The more you know about these things, the more prepared you’ll be, so you’ll have to get researching.

If you do all this then you stand a strong chance of securing work experience with PwC. What qualities do PwC look for in a candidate?

The qualities we look for are aligned to the PwC Professional, which is our global leadership development framework.

It gives us a single set of expectations across all areas of our business, geographies and career paths, and provides transparency on the skills our

people need to be successful in their careers, now and in the future. The PwC Professional focuses on five attributes: whole leadership, business acumen, technical capabilities, global acumen and relationships.

We use this framework to recruit, develop and assess our people at all grades and in all areas of our business, because all of our people need to be authentic and inclusive leaders.

You can find out more about the PwC Professional by visiting our careers website and navigate to the section ‘the skills we look for’.

What opportunities are available to school and college leavers with PwC? If you are unclear about what to do next after school or college then I would recommend that you apply to take part in one of our paid one-week Insight programmes which run over each summer.

As well as giving you a great insight into the work we do and the different career paths available, you will also find out much

more about the different opportunities available for school and college leavers at PwC. If you decide that university is not for you then we have a school and college leaver roles in a number of different areas of the business which you can find out more about our schools section of the careers website.

For those of you who want to go to university then you may like to consider our Flying Start degree programmes in Accounting or Technology, these programmes offer the best of both worlds with the chance to be a full time student with integrated work placements throughout the degree. You could also secure your future with us following the degree.

Whichever route you follow, they all lead to a rewarding future career with PwC. For more information visit pwc.co.uk/schools, pwc. co.uk/flying-start or pwc. co.uk/schools/work-experience

26 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Education

‘OVERSEAS STUDENTS WELCOME’ PRAISE: University of East London’s Professor Charles Egbu says the plans reiterate the importance of international students to the UK economy

A London university hails proposals that say international students will be given a two-year stay in UK after graduating

T

HE UNIVERSITY of East London’s (UEL) pro-vice chancellor has welcomed government proposals to allow international students to stay in the UK for two years after graduating and find work.

International students who have successfully completed a course in any subject at an institution with a track record in upholding immigration checks can benefit from the measures.

It will apply to students who start courses in 2020/21 at undergraduate level or above.

UEL’s Professor Charles Egbu, inset above, said the move will have the support of the UK higher education sector.

“The new proposals clearly indicate the importance attached to international students and the contribution they can make to the UK economy,” he said.

“This offers huge benefits. Over 150 nationalities are represented among University of East London students, and those who come from overseas deserve the opportunity to contribute their newly gained knowledge and skills to the UK workforce.”

Prof Egbu added: “Amidst the uncertainty of Brexit, these new proposals also send a positive message to students from other countries who seek to earn a degree from one of the best higher education systems in the world.”

The move reverses a decision made in 2012 that required overseas students to leave four months after finishing their degree.

RESTRICTION

The change will apply to international students who start courses at undergraduate level or above from next year onwards. Under the proposals, there is no restriction on the kinds of jobs students would have to seek and no cap on numbers.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the change would “mean talented international students... can study in the UK and then gain valuable work experience as they go on to build successful careers”.

She added: “It demonstrates our global outlook and will ensure that we continue to attract the best and brightest.”Many UEL graduates go on to make a difference in their local, national and international communities. Prof Egbu said that international students can offer a wealth of cultural understanding, multilingual skills and abilities.

Professor of international relations Vassilis K Fouskas, who has British and Greek citizen-

ship and has been living and working in the UK since 1992, said: “It is almost certain that a no-deal Brexit would impact negatively on our institutions, both financially and morally.

“A Brexit deal that leaves the doors open to academic and student mobility would benefit both British and European academic institutions alike.”

The news was also welcomed

by Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK. He said: “Evidence shows

that international students bring significant positive social outcomes to the UK as well as £26 billion in economic contributions, but for too long the lack of post-study work opportunities in the UK has put us at a competitive disadvantage in attracting those students.

“The introduction of a twoyear post-study work visa is something Universities UK has long campaigned for and we strongly welcome this policy.”

OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 27

Education

‘I COULDN’T HAVE ASKED FOR MORE’

Those joining Nottingham Trent University this month can be sure they will enjoy a fun, personalised experience

S

TUDENTS JOINING Nottingham Trent University (NTU) this autumn will be welcomed to a new style of ‘elite’ university, which aims to ensure the success of each individual student through innovative teaching, personalisation and excellent job prospects.

NTU is one of the UK’s largest universities, with more than 32,000 students from across the globe making up its diverse community.

Students study across four vibrant campuses and enjoy a city known for its thriving arts scene, shopping, international sports facilities, and awardwinning nightlife.

SCALE

Even at its large scale, the University offers every student a chance to personalise their experience with an exciting variety of opportunities which span teaching and learning, work placements and industry projects, social life and community volunteering.

Currently on its third University of the Year title in three years, NTU has been praised for its strong student satisfaction, quality of teaching, overall student experience and engagement with employers. Its impressive record on outreach and use of learning analytics to improve retention has also been recognised in recent accolades.

The most recent award of The Guardian’s University of the Year 2019 was received in part due to its high retention of students from low-participation areas and strong attainment of black and minority ethnic (BME) students.

NTU strives to provide the opportunity for all students to succeed and is at the forefront of understanding and apply-

ing what works to support students at an individual level, no matter what their background.

The university is rated Gold in the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework, the highest ranking possible, for its innovative teaching methods.

For example, NTU’s awardwining dashboard helps students to understand how well they are engaging with their studies, giving them the chance to take control of their engagement level and proactively change it.

Audrey-Jacqueline Tettey, pictured above left, from Ghana came to NTU to study for an MA in International Development.

She said: “My experience of studying at NTU has been dynamic.

“The combination of teamwork, group discussions and presentations, diversity of seminars and lecturers and mix of people from different backgrounds has made the course interesting and enjoyable.

“The lecturers are very knowledgeable and pull from an infinitely large store of knowledge in the field of international development.

“I feel they also strike a good balance between encouraging me and pushing me to do my best.”

The university has connections with organisations locally, nationally and internationally, giving students the chance to work on projects with industry partners and gain real-world experience before graduation.

All degrees at NTU offer a work placement and research by the

university has shown that taking a sandwich year placement enhanced graduate prospects regardless of a student’s background and levelled the playing field between advantaged and less advantaged students.

NTU also offers an exciting alternative route to a degree through higher or degree apprenticeships within a company.

Students can develop industry-specific work experience while gaining a matching qualification, earning a fulltime salary, and having no tuition fees to pay back.

This commitment to developing the skills that businesses are looking for mean that more than 83 per cent of graduates have a graduate level job or are in graduate entry training six months after leaving NTU. André Walters, pictured below, studied (BA) business management (in-company) at NTU’s Nottingham Business School and is now a fresh produce buyer at Aldi UK. He said: “NTU played a huge role in helping me find out for myself what it is I want to do in the future.

“I developed a certain view of the world that will ensure that I make the most of and excel in whatever environm e n t I find myself worki n g within.

My experience taught

GRATEFUL: Vice President Education at NTU, Afua Acheampong has travelled to both Canada and the US and has even been to Parliament in her time at the university, right (photos: NTU) me ways of ensuring that I continue to focus on personal development in a world that is constantly undergoing change.

“I took part in numerous activities that the business school organises for its students, in-

quired of the workforce five years from now – it is so important to stay adaptable and flexible in a global world and NTU gives you the right skills for this.”

Students can also personal-

NTU played a huge role in helping me find out for myself what I want to do cluding Thinkubator, where I worked as part of team to solve a real challenge from a business; placement and graduate recruitment fairs; presentations from employers; and a digital marketing workshop.

“The opportunity to take a placement year in my second academic year meant that I was able to fast forward my learning and complete my degree in three years.

“In a competitive graduate environment, I felt better positioned to present my best self to employers.

“Certain skills required of the workforce now will not be the skills re-

ise their NTU journey by joining one of its sports clubs or choosing from more than 100 societies, varying from drama and entrepreneurship, to music and sustainability.

“A programme of volunteering opportunities, including international schemes, give students the chance to make a difference in the local community and beyond, all while developing personal and academic skills which make them stand out in a competitive jobs market.

Afua Acheampong is VicePresident Education at Nottingham Trent Students’ Union and studied law at the University.

She said: “I’ve been involved

in so much during my time here.

“I was [an] NTSU Freshers’ Team Halls Captain and President of NTU Cheerleading, the largest sports club at the University with more than 200 athletes making up seven teams.

INITIATIVES

“Through NTU I participated in the International Student Exchange Programme and studied Political Science at Western Washington University.

“During this time I also cheered in Canada and travelled around the US.” She added: “As VP Education, I represent 32,000 students on their academic experience. I work closely with academics and senior staff at the university, whilst working on national initiatives for BME attainment and social mobility and have even been down to UK Parliament twice.

“I couldn’t have asked for more opportunities on my NTU journey.”

To find out more about NTU, order a prospectus or to book an open day visit ntu.ac.uk

28 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 28 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Business & Money

GRANDPARENTS’ HELP

A HELPING HAND: Talking about finances with grandchildren can give them a greater understanding of the value of money

From budgeting to supporting them through uni, there are plenty of ways they can assist the next generation

G

R A N D PA R E N T S across the country will be relieved that the summer school holidays are over, as two fifths (42 per cent) of them say they were been lined up to provide free childcare, according to a survey by Lloyds Bank.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for many, with lots of grandparents also helping out younger generations with university costs or getting on the housing ladder, or dipping into their bank accounts when kids need something new.

Of course, if you have the means to do so, being able to help your grandchildren financially is possibly something you’re keen to do - but it’s a good idea to think about the most sensible ways of going about it, and balancing gener-

osity with helpful life lessons, too.

Here are 10 tips from Hargreaves Lansdown for how grandparents can help to transform their grandchildren’s lives financially...

1. Teach them about money early Grandparents have the freedom and space to plan the sorts of handy money lessons that parents may not have time for. Everything from Monopoly marathons to shopping trips on a budget can help.

2. Kick-start good habits You can give them their first money box and talk to them about saving up. Check their savings account with them regularly, so they can see the impact of their effort.

3. Encourage them to save Set them a goal which they can reach in a few weeks. Once they have reached that, set another. Matching what they save pound for pound really helps here.

4. Help them invest A Junior Isa can be a great way to do this. As they get older, you can help them assess their investments, so when they have control of the funds, they can make better decisions.

5. Support them with school or university fees Not only will this help your grandchildren cover their costs, but, the cash may also be considered to be out of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.

@thevoicenewspaper

6. Help them budget As grandchildren get older, give them greater responsibility to fend for themselves.

Advance money which involves them setting a budget for several items.

7. Help them on to the property ladder One way to boost the cash you give your grandchildren is to pay them up to £4,000 a year

@thevoicenews

from the age of 18, and agree they’ll put it into a Lifetime Isa. The Government will add a 25 per cent bonus on top, up to a maximum of £1,000.

8. Don’t always bail them out If grandchildren grow up knowing you’ll always help them out, it gives them no opportunity to learn how to balance their budget.

voicenews

9. Pay into a Junior Sipp (self-invested personal pension) Saving for their first 18 years can give them a vital headstart.

10. Consider leaving them a lump sum in your will It could make a real difference to getting them onto the housing ladder or just giving them a better start in life.

www.voice-online.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019

AYESHA: THE ENTREPRENEUR ON A MISSION

Business & Money

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY: Left, property expert Ayesha Ofori; below, some of the attendees at a recent seminar held by Black Property Network; below far left, Ayesha is dedicated to helping others benefit from property investment

Ayesha Ofori is on a mission to empower historically underrepresented groups through property investment. Here, she tells The Voice about starting her business

By Vic Motune

R

ECENT STATISTICS have highlighted that, in the UK, black households are much less likely to be property owners than those headed by someone white or Asian – and are also much more likely to be living in social housing.

Fewer than a third of black households are headed by owner-occupiers – either owning their home outright or with a mortgage – according to a House of Commons briefing paper published in June 2017.

This compares with twothirds of white families and 58 per cent of Asian households.

One entrepreneur is out to change statistics like these.

Ayesha Ofori recently launched the Black Property Network (BPN), which has a much bigger aim that just getting more African Caribbeans on to the property ladder.

Through the network, Ofori is aiming to encourage more people from the community to become property investors and achieve the kind of financial independence that comes from running a successful property portfolio.

BPN enables members to access seminars, workshops, networking opportunities and mentoring, to help them learn about property investment and development.

The aim is to support people to invest confidently at all levels whether through direct property investments, crowdfunding, or by starting their own property portfolios or property-related businesses.

She has held BPN presentations at the London Business School, Kings College London, the London Institute of Banking and

Finance, KPMG, the Women in the City Afro-Caribbean Network, and others.

For Ofori – who recently appeared in Management Today’s “35 women under 35” list of young female talent – the creation of the BPN reflects a long-held passion.

POTENTIAL Born and raised in London, Ofori’s mother held a number of jobs in order to support her education and enable her to fulfil her potential.

She graduated from Imperial College London with an MSci in Physics.

After university, she went on to work for Morgan Stanley in investment banking.

Later, she earned an MBA from London Business School before joining Goldman Sachs as an executive director where she worked for over six years as a wealth management advisor to ultra-high net worth individuals and was one of the bank’s most senior black women in a clientfacing role in Europe.

But after more than a d e c ade of work-

ing in the financial services sector, Ofori resigned from her successful banking career to focus full-time on her passion – sharing what she knows about property investing and mentoring others.

The entrepreneur left banking last year to set up Axion Property Partners, a firm that works with individuals who want to make UK residential property investments, and the Axion Academy, focused on educating underrepresented groups about property investment.

GOALS This year, she launched the BPN and PropElle, a network for women who want to invest in property with confidence.

A similar concept to BPN, PropElle enables members to access education, networking opportunities and mentoring, to learn about property investment and development, and invest through crowdfunding.

As well as providing guidance on wealth enhancement and managing assets for her clients, Ofori also built her own personal property portfolio through direct investments and property development.

When she created BPN, one of her key goals was empowering her community.

“As a young woman growing up in Brent and having family and people in the community round me I could see that things were tough financially,” she told The Voice.

“On the flip-side, through the last day job I had before I set up the Black Property Network, I really got to see the difference between what it’s like to live on one side of the coin and on the other. A lot of my clients had made money in property.

“I’d made a significant amount of money in property myself and it was one of the reasons why I was able to give

THE VOICE | 29

up my banking job. I’d wanted to give something back to my community, to people who grew up like me.

“Helping people to become property investors was the perfect vehicle. The thing about property is that the barriers to entry are quite low. You don’t need any special education or special skills. Pretty much anyone can get into it.”

can make a real difference.”

The property entrepreneur continued: “If you want to go out and build a portfolio, then yes, it does help to have money because then you can get out and start buying properties.

“But money isn’t even essential for that. For example, you could partner with someone.

“One of the things I do is

Not everybody is going to do this full-time, but even a bit extra a month helps Ofori is also determined to dispel some of the most persistent myths that prevent black people from becoming property investors.

She said: “The reason why a lot of people in our community don’t invest is because of this perception that they can’t afford it or they don’t know what they’re doing.

“So I said to myself, ‘if I can help people see that these things aren’t actually barriers then a lot of people can get into this’. Property investing is something that can really change your life.

“Not everybody is going to leave their job and do it full-time like me, but even if you’re just getting a bit of extra income every month... it

mentor people. I recently told one of my mentees, for example, that she needed to work on building up her credibility as an investor. Although she didn’t have money, she had time and the drive to succeed.

There are people out there that have money but don’t have the time to invest it.

“So if you can put forward a credible proposition to them, you can start to attract investment and build up your business that way.

“The other thing to bear in mind is that there are property strategies out there that don’t require much upfront capital, but they require time and effort instead.

“For example, a rent-to-rent strategy, which is where you

would rent a property on a long-term lease.

“You agree in your contract that you can sub-let and then you rent out the property but for a higher amount than you’re currently paying the landlord and you keep that incremental profit for yourself.

“On a single property, the profit you’re probably talking about is a couple of hundred pounds a month.

“But when you have multiple properties like that in your portfolio, it starts to add up.

“A lot of people I speak to have often never heard of a rent-to-rent strategy so for me that’s what the BPN is about, giving people the education, giving them the access.”

As well as empowering people financially, Ofori has a definite vision for the BPN. “One thing my husband and I have often talked about is reaching young black men and boys who may sell drugs or don’t have mainstream jobs.

“Property investing is something that they can consider.

You don’t have to necessarily go to an office, there isn’t someone giving you orders, you are still your own boss and you don’t need qualifications. For them, this could provide a credible alternative to making money.

“If we’re looking at issues and problems within the community that we can solve, this is one of them.”

30 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 30 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Soul Stirrings

by Marcia Dixon

IBE IN THE DRIVING SEAT He may have stumbled into radio just eight years ago, but now Premier Christian Radio’s Ibe Otah is the station’s first-ever black drivetime show presenter

Gospel news

MORE THAN 30 artists will be taking part in the second annual Selah Music & Arts Festival, with 2013 Britain’s Got Talent finalists UPMass Gospel Choir among them.

Award-winning Sarah Téibo, and reggae gospel star Annette Bee will also take part in the event, organised by the GMIA (Gospel Music Industry Alliance).

The festival will run from October 3-5 at London’s Holy Sepulchre, The National Musicians Church.

Meanwhile, on October 4, radio presenter Loretta Andrews will host the JUMP Music Video Awards, and the event will close with performances from popular artists.

For ticket details visit jus-tickets.com.

N

E OF the most popular religious radio stations has a black man presenting its flagship show for the first time.

Ibe Otah has landed one of the top presenting roles in Christian broadcasting, as the new presenter of the 3pm to 6pm drivetime slot on Premier Christian Radio, and he is the first black man to do so.

For someone who started out in radio eight years ago, with just a two-hour show on Premier’s sister station Premier Gospel, Otah hasn’t done too badly.

TOP PRESENTER: Ibe Otah will host the drivetime show

FEATURE

He’ll now be presenting one of Premier’s most listened to shows, which features a mix of music, current affairs, a chart countdown and interviews with Christian movers and shakers.

“The show is about connecting with people on their way home, or even if they are at home making tea for their children,” he said.

When informed he had got

the job last month, Otah was elated.

He recalled: “I was really happy and excited as this was something really big for me.

Radio is something that I fell

I want to bring my personality and to be a blessing into accidentally years ago, and the fact that I’m doing this now is like God saying, ‘You fell into this but it was purposed for you’.”

Like many people these days, Otah has a multi-faceted career.

This former teacher sometimes puts on events, and is renowned in the Christian community for his comedic talent, his hosting ability and his skills as a music producer. And he’ll still be presenting his show on Premier Gospel.

Artists with whom Otah has

worked with over the years include Lurine Cato, Ni-Cola, and Noel Robinson, and he has just released a single with US artists Seth & Nirva called Pour It Out. He’s set to release his debut album next year.

A Christian for more than 28 years, he currently attends Impact Christian Centre along with his wife and two children.

UNIQUENESS

It is Otah’s desire to make an impact with his show.

He said: “I just want to bring uniqueness, my personality, my transparency and my skills that I’ve learnt throughout life to the show and to be a blessing so that they know I’m a normal Christian going through stuff like everyone else and to be that voice of hope.”

Now in his 40s, this opportunity couldn’t have come for Otah at a better time.

“I still feel young,” he said.

“It’s all about God’s perfect timing – if you just obey and trust God and listen to him, everything falls into place.”

Theologian lands top job after Brexit book A BLACK British theologian has been appointed at the new director of Oxford Centre for Christianity & Culture.

Professor Anthony Reddie, inset, currently serves as Extraordinary Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of South Africa and Europe Secretary for the Council for World Mission.

He will start his new role in January 2020.

Prof Reddie is a leading scholar in the field of black theology, as editor of the Black Theology journal, the author of more than 70 essays and articles on Chris-

tian Education and Black Theology, and the author or editor of 18 books.

His latest book – Theologising Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique – will be the subject of a panel discussion at the 2020 conference of the Society for the Study of Theology, and is the first intercultural and postcolonial theological exploration of the Brexit phenomenon.

When Prof Reddie takes up his new role he is expected to initiate a new strand of work with his expertise in understanding the growth of religiously inspired nationalism across the world.

Thought for the month “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” — Philippians 4:19

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OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE| 31

Culture. values. family.

Share more than your home – adopt.

Don’t write yourself off.

When it comes to adopters we welcome all enquiries and applications, regardless of sexuality, status, and background. In short: if you want to adopt, we want to hear from you.

Find out more today, call: 0300 369 0556

We believe it’s important that an adoptive family can promote a child’s ethnic, cultural, and religious background. It can make it easier to gel as a family, and helps a child establish their identity.

32 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 32 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Adoption special

‘Please come forward’ There is a shortfall of adoptive parents from a BME background – and if you have time, patience and a loving home, you could be one of many to take a youngster in need under your wing

M

ORE PROSPECTIVE adopters from black and ethnic minority (BME) communities are urgently needed to address the current shortfall.

That’s one of the key messages of this year’s National Adoption Week (October 1418). So if you live in London or surrounding areas and have ever thought about becoming an adoptive parent, Coram Ambitious for Adoption would love to hear from you.

Children awaiting adoption have often experienced very difficult early experiences and losses.

They therefore need uncon-

ditional love and support to help them form positive attachments and thrive in life.

For this small group of children, adoption provides the most successful route to the long term stability and emotional security most children can thankfully take for granted.

Prospective adopters across London are urgently needed to come forward as the latest figures show that the number of approved adopters in the capital fell by 27 per cent yearon-year, and the gap between children waiting for adoption and approved adopters has doubled over the same period.

Sue Lowndes, managing director of Coram Ambitious for Adoption says: “We encour-

age enquiries from prospective adopters across a diverse range of backgrounds and

“We can teach our son about his heritage” communities in London and surrounding areas. The most important thing is that they are able to provide safe, secure and loving families for vulnerable children.”

Lowndes continues: “We

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A LOVING FAMILY: Many children in need of homes come from a challenging background, so stability and security is key – and Coram offer a huge range of services to make sure you are fully equipped to provide it

help to find adopters for children from different ethnic backgrounds, and focus on matching children with families who can respect and promote the child’s ethnicity, culture and identity.”

Veronica and David adopted their son Ethan through Coram in 2017 when he was 15 months old.

As black adoptive parents, they felt it was important to adopt a child of African or Caribbean descent so they would be best placed to understand and promote the child’s cultural heritage as they grew up.

Veronica said: “We feel very comfortable to teach our son about his heritage and are best placed to support him with any

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 33 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 33

Adoption special challenges and issues. In our culture, adoption isn’t something that’s always considered.

I think we need to dispel myths around adoption.

“There are children who need a home and there are regular people out there ready to adopt.

“I think that’s something that everyone in our communities could resonate with. Ethan has completed our family and it’s about letting others know that they can have this experience, too.”

Coram provides support and training to adoptive families at every step of the process, and afterwards whenever it is needed.

This includes parenting skills training, ‘stay and play’ groups, life story book training, and art and music therapy to help adopted children.

The first step for anyone interested in adopting is to join one of Coram’s free adoption information events, which take place each month.

These give prospective adopters the opportunity to learn more about the adoption process and speak informally to staff, social workers and experienced adopters. Upcoming

events are taking place on October 16, November 5 and November 20, and places can be booked at coramadoption.org. uk/adoption-events.

Coram will also be hosting an Adoption Activity Day focused on BME children on October 19,

“I would encourage you to come to an event”

open to adopters already approved.

Adoption Activity Days are a supportive, safe environment for approved adopters to meet with children waiting to be adopted.

More details can be found at coramadoption.org.uk/adoptionevents.

Also during National Adoption Week, Coram will be sharing real-life stories, showing the many different types of adoptive families out there, de-bunking some of the myths surrounding adoption and releasing new vid-

eos with advice and information to help prospective adopters at every step of the way.

Lowndes says: “If you’re thinking about adoption this National Adoption Week, I would really encourage you to come to one of our information events, to learn more about the process, how we work and how we can support you as adopters.

You can also take a look at our Adoption Information Pack to get an idea of what to expect.

“I hope you’ll be encouraged

by Coram’s unique offer, our friendly and experienced team and the support and guidance we can give you throughout your journey to becoming a family and beyond.”

Coram Ambitious for Adoption is a Regional Adoption Agency, a partnership between leading voluntary adoption agency Coram and local authorities across Greater London, working to find permanent families for children. Find out more at coramadoption.org.uk.

32 | THE VOICE SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

John, a Nigerian actor, and Jane, a Ghanaian lawyer, who live in Croydon with their one year old adopted son Ivan, share their story.

We started trying for a baby in 2009 but by New Year’s Eve I was feeling despondent but my husband John said that 2010 would be our year. Little did we know that we were at the start of a nine and a half year journey to become parents.

Between 2010 and 2016 we had 10 rounds of IVF. We were lucky enough to get pregnant four times: two pregnancies ended in miscarriage very early; two resulted in second trimester losses.

At the end of 2016 I decided enough was enough; we had to find a new way to build our family. I was keen to consider adoption. John less so at first, because although he did want to adopt at some point in the future he felt more wedded to idea of having a biological child first. He was also concerned about being able to bond with a child who was not biologically his and of being rejected by that child.

We attended information meetings to find out more and, slowly, John became convinced it was right for us. The main change for him came at an open evening when he had the opportunity to speak with a male Asian adopter who was there to adopt for the second time! This calmed the concerns John had. John also begun to reflect on his own up bringing and realised he as a child was taken in and cared for by his Uncle. Therefore he felt it was only right he gave a child in need a loving home and great start to life. We looked at our relationship with nieces, nephews, and friends’ children and we decided that we could love an adopted child so we continued to do reading and research.

We registered our interest in April 2017 and the journey began. Stage One took eight weeks and, during this time, we filled out forms, attended training and carried on reading to better understand the journey our future child may have been on. We then had to take a six month break before starting Stage Two, which we found challenging because it put our journey on pause.

Stage Two involved a series of interviews with our social worker. Yes, some of the questions were intimate, but all were necessary in order to form a complete view of us. We were approved at panel in May 2018 then the search began for our child.

We went into the adoption process definitely wanting to adopt a black African child and yet our son is Caribbean.

The reality is that it has not been a problem for us. The moment we saw Ivan we knew he was our baby. The bond for both me and John was immediate and Ivan came home with us in January 2019. Fundamentally, he is a little baby that needs feeding and looking after and to us it doesn’t mater where he is from. Some members of the family were concerned about breaking the blood line, but he is here now and they are very happy for us.

Parenting Ivan has felt no different from parenting a birth child, we don’t really look at him as anything different.

The challenges are the same: sleepless nights, worrying about his development, dealing with teething and colds.

We were really fortunate that we were able to meet Ivan’s birth mother. That, together with the preparation training and post adoption support available we feel confident in managing the questions Ivan will have about his adoption as he gets older.

We already know we want to adopt again. Ideally we would like three children, but it’s still early days. If we were allowed to adopt straight away we would, however, there has to be a gap of two years. We will hope for miracles, and if that doesn’t work we would definitely adopt again.

Our adoption journey has been amazing, yes there were tough bits on the way, but now that we have a child, we are looking at the whole experience through a different lens.

Join our adoption community call Adopt London South today on 020 7525 1746

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

Adopt a child with us Adopt London South is the new Regional Adoption Agency that covers South London. We are recruiting and have children from all backgrounds waiting to be adopted. ➜ We run a bi-monthly transracial adopters support group in South London ➜ We produce a newsletter for Black, Minority Ethnic and Transracial Adopters three times a year ➜ We host an annual Black, Minority Ethnic and Transracial Adopters Peers Support Party each year in South London ➜ We deliver monthly adoption support groups across South London

We have a range of adoption information sessions and drop-ins across South London for you to attend.

These are a great way to find out more about adoption.

➜ Visit our website to get more information. adoptlondon.org.uk 020 7525 1746 south@adoptlondon.org.uk

THE VOICE| 33

36 | THE VOICE SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

These active and affectionate children need ‘forever families’ Could their futures start with you?

‘Hello! I love playing outdoors’

Kyle Kyle is an affectionate, energetic threeyear-old who loves spending time outside where he can ride his scooter, run around and let off steam. Indoors he enjoys Lego, his train set, cars and trucks. He also likes creative and imaginative play – dressing up and arts and crafts are two of his favourites. And for quiet time he adores snuggling up to watch Disney films.

Kyle enjoys the company of other children and plays well with his carers’ younger daughter. He sometimes forgets he’s bigger when playing excitedly, but is very caring towards her. He looks up to older

children and tries to copy their behaviour, this has been a really positive influence for him.

Born in the UK, Kyle is dual heritage White British and Black African.

Physically he is a healthy child and meeting his milestones. He is learning to try new foods and developing his own tastes with guidance from his foster carer.

Kyle has experienced significant loss so he needs patient and fun-loving parents who can offer him the security he craves.

You would need to support him to

build trusting relationships and provide opportunities for him to progress his cognitive and speech development.

He responds well to routines and consistency which offer him the security he requires, therefore a family who enjoy structure would support this. You would also need to be willing to support Kyle with ongoing contact with his sisters, at least by anonymized letters annually.

Despite his difficult start in life, Kyle is an enquiring, affectionate child with lots of bounce; could you offer him the home he deserves?

Will you be my family?

We are seeking a warm, stable and energetic family who live outside the Reading area and who can support Kyle to develop to his full potential and grow up to be confident in his future life.

Whether or not you are already an approved adopter, we would like to hear from you.

If you think you could offer Kyle a home, please call 01865 897050 (option 2 for Woodley) now and talk to Sue Beale or Jo Neale

‘I love to try new things’ ‘Hello! I like to dress up, to dance and to draw’

Adopt Thames Valley

VOICEATV2

needs YOU!

Here at Adopt Thames Valley children from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds often wait far longer than other children to be adopted.

Part of the reason for this delay is a shortage of adopters who have understanding and experience of these cultural backgrounds.

If you would like to learn how you could grow your family through adoption and the support we offer throughout the journey, call 0800 731 0171 and chat to our friendly Enquiry Officer Karen. We welcome all enquiries and applications, regardless of sexuality, status, background. In short: if you want to adopt, we want to hear from you.

Adoption. It’s a journey worth making.

Georgia and Thomas Georgia and Thomas are five-year-old twins who are longing for an adoptive family. They are very fond of each other and love playing games together. Thomas is very active and loves spending time outside, especially climbing, riding his bike and playing on the swings or slide. Georgia is more thoughtful and loves to dance and sing and draw.

Born in the UK, they are dual heritage White British and Black Polynesian.

The twins both attend school and are fit and healthy. Georgia previously had support for her speech and language, but she has made great progress and is now a little chatterbox!

A child’s future starts wit h you

Happy and inquisitive, Thomas sees the fun in every activity and has a real zest for life. He is fearless and courageous and loves to try new things. Your home would be full of laughter with Thomas around! He loves playing with his sister or with friends at school, but he will also happily sit and play on his own quietly. He enjoys playing with toy cars and Lego and can remain absorbed in this activity for some time.

Georgia is a happy and sociable little girl, who loves to dress up in pretty clothes and to have her hair brushed and braided.

She looks to her brother for support and encouragement when faced with new activities. Her vocabulary is increasing all of the time and she likes to talk about things she enjoys.

Thomas and Georgia lived with their birth mother for the first four years of their lives but their care was erratic and inconsistent.

As well as experiencing significant neglect, they also witnessed domestic violence.

Despite this, they are happy and sociable children who bring a lot of fun.

Could you now offer them the safe and loving home in which they can flourish?

Could you be our family?

We are seeking a warm and nurturing two-parent adoptive family who can support these two delightful children to develop to their full potential and grow up to be confident in their future lives. Living outside the Swindon area, ideally you will have no other children but a family who do have older children will be considered.

We would like to hear from you, whether or not you are already an approved adopter.

If you think you could offer Georgia and Thomas home, please call 01865 897050 (option 3 for Oxford and Swindon) now and talk to Hannah Ferry or Katie Woollard

www.adoptthamesvalley.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 37

Destination Liverpool

BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS IN LIVERPOOL

Dr Ray Costello

Dr Diane Front

By George Ruddock

L

iverpool will be marking Black History Month with a whole host of events across the city.

A free guest lecture on Wednesday October 9 will kick the month off at the University of Liverpool that will feature guest speakers, Dr Ray Costello and Dr Diane Frost. Dr Costello will give an illustrated talk to highlight the many black sol-

Sir Lenny Henry

diers who fought in the First World War meanwhile Dr Frost will reflect on 100 years after the seaport race riots. The lecture will start at 5.00 pm.

Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey is set to be a night of music and dance on Thursday, October 10 at the Playhouse Theatre, Williamson Square, Liverpool L1 1EL, as it tells the story of Reggae music and its arrival from Jamaica.

Join us as we tell the story of Reggae music from the arrival

of the Windrush Generation, bringing their stories, history and music with them, through the 1960s and 70s as their music evolved to take the world by storm.

Featuring the classic music of ska, rock steady, reggae, calypso, gospel, lovers rock and dancehall played live by the JA Reggae Band and narrated by comedian John Simmit.

Get ready to dance to the music of Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, Toots & the May-

tals, Prince Buster, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lord Kitchener, Millie Small and many, many more.

The legendary Sir Lenny Henry will be in Liverpool on Wednesday, November 6 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, Lime Street, L1 1JE, for his UK stadium tour, Who Am I Again?

The night will see Lenny recall tales and memories from his life and career before he is interviewed on stage by friend and broadcaster Jon Canter.

LIVERPOOL’S BIG FESTIVAL

With 27 years of festivals, concerts and workshops under their belt, Africa Oyé has cemented itself as one of the foremost promoters of African and Caribbean culture in the UK. Its annual free festival in Liverpool is now the largest of its kind in the country.

The Voice caught up with Oyé’s Artistic Director, Paul Duhaney to talk about the organisation’s history and what the future holds.

V: For those who have never been to the Africa Oyé Festival, how could you summarise it?

P: It’s the UK’s largest free celebration of African and Caribbean music and culture.

It all started off back in 1992 as just a handful of small gigs in the city centre and now we fill Liverpool’s Sefton Park for a weekend each June with upwards of 70,000 people in attendance.

V: What were the aims of Oyé when it first began and has that changed over the last 25+ years?

P: All you would see in the

media when it came to Africa back then were negative representations of the continent.

TV and newspaper coverage was entrenched with images of war, disease, poverty and famine. Oyé sought to redress the balance, and highlight the fantastic range of cultures, foods, music and artists that make the countries across Africa so vibrant and inspiring.

The negative stereotypes are still sadly prominent in a lot of the public’s mind but thankfully we’ve seen the many cultures of the continent embraced by so many people - especially when it comes to music! We’re proud to have given first UK festival appearances to international stars such as Tinariwen, Mokoomba and Fatoumata Diawara amongst others, and the rise of Afrobeat in particular has been wonderful to see. We also showcase emerging artists from the UK, which has been a popular addition to the festival.

The next Africa Oyé will take place in June 2020.

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38 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Destination Liverpool

DOROTHY KUYA:

By Louis Julienne

A

s Black History Month celebrations get under in the United Kingdom, Liverpool has its own heroine to be proud of. She is Dorothy Kuya, the mixed-race campaigner who worked tirelessly against discrimination and racism most of her 81 year life.

Dorothy Kuya died on December 13, 2013, after a short illness, but her work to bring black culture to the fore lives on. Here is a look back on her life.

Born in Liverpool in April 1932, to a white English mother and a Sierra Leone father, Dorothy took her stepfather’s name who had helped raise her from a young age.

She trained as a nurse and as a teacher - both callings drawing on her compassionate nature and her quest to acquire knowledge and passing it on. Blessed with excellent communication skills allied to a keen mind and a direct approach, Dorothy was a for-

midable campaigner.

She has been variously been described as a cultural historian (reflected in her interests in African culture and heritage), a political activist (member of the British Communist Party from a young age) and a community champion (a leading member of Granby Residents Association).

It is as an anti-racist campaigner that Dorothy first came to national prominence when she was employed as the first community relations officer in Merseyside.

is locally born with many families established since the 19th Century.

The campaign was successful in convincing government that the problem was not one of language or custom assimilation but of discrimination and racism based largely on skin colour.

Dorothy was also involved in the Martin Luther King Foundation during this period, which resulted in the successful development of South Liverpool Personnel, a community-based employment and training agency.

Many other projects were developed in Liverpool with Dorothy’s input during her time as CRO. Including, the Black Social Workers Project (with Bill Davies, the only black Social Services Area Manager in the region) which led to the first black social workers being employed in Liverpool; Ujaama House, for homeless young people and the Merseyside Caribbean Centre, a social hub for generations of Liverpool 8 locals.

Dorothy was always a political person.

Before she joined the Communist

POPULATION

Prior to her appointment, in mid to late 1960s, she had campaigned with others against the Government’s criteria for funding projects under their Urban Programme to those areas where the “immigration population” forms more than 20 per cent of the local population.

Liverpool, by that criterion, would not qualify as the overwhelming majority of Liverpool’s black population

Dorothy Kuya

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In August 2007 Liverpool marked the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade with the opening of the International Slavery Museum; the first national museum in the world to deal with transatlantic slavery and its legacies. Liverpool, central to the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century, is a fitting location in which to commemorate the anniversary of this important landmark.

The museum opened on August 23, Slavery Remembrance Day 2007, a day that commemorates an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of St Domingo (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1791. Designated by UNESCO, the date was chosen as a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of their own liberation.

The International Slavery Museum features dynamic, powerful and moving displays about the story of the transatlantic slave trade, uncovering the largely hidden account of the exploitation of Africa and Africans. Yet the story told is not only of disaster, but of the remarkable survival of African cultures.

The museum addresses the legacy of transatlantic slavery, both contemporary as well as historic, reflecting issues that are relevant to Britain today, as well as Western Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. Exploring issues such as freedom, identity, human rights and cultural change, the museum will work to fight racism and racial hostility through its comprehensive education programmes.

The International Slavery Museum highlights the international importance of enslavement and slavery, both in a historic and modern context. Working in partnership with other organisations with a focus on freedom and enslavement, the Museum provides opportunities for greater awareness and understanding

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of the legacies of enslavement today.

Museum highlights include: The Freedom Wall. Seven TV monitors displaying video clips showing the views and thoughts about the concept of freedom from campaigners, celebrities, academics, artists and members of the public The Freedom! Sculpture, a contemporary sculpture commissioned by National Museums Liverpool and Christian Aid and created by Haitian artists. The sculpture is made out of recycled objects such as metal car parts and raw junk found in the dangerous slums of Port-au-Prince The life-sized recreation of a Nigerian Igbo Compound The Middle Passage audio-visual presentation. This installation represents the brutal transportation of Africans across the Atlantic, immersing visitors in a recreation of the dark and oppressive transportation suffered by slaves.

Opening times Monday to Sunday – 10am to 5pm. Web: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 39

Destination Liverpool

A LOCAL HEROINE Party (where she met Paul Robeson and Pablo Picasso among others), she was already influenced by PanAfricanism, a worldview she always kept. Dorothy was a major influence on the politicisation of many young Liverpool-born black people who later went on to take leading roles in the black community’s development.

ANTI-RACISM

In 1980, Dorothy moved to London to take up the post of Head Race Equality Adviser for Haringey Council. She worked closely with Bernie Grant (inset below), then leader of Haringey Council, with whom she formed a lasting political alliance on issues including anti-racism and the African Reparation movement.

She was also a member of the inquiry chaired by Lord Gifford that produced the Broadwater Farm report on the 1985 riots in Haringey. She left Haringey Council to set up a con-

sultancy called Affirmata, through which she delivered race equality training nationwide, and continued to campaign against racism and sexism in children’s book that she had begun some years earlier in Liverpool, contributing to Roy Preiswerk’s Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth, published in 1980.

In the mid-1980s, she became chair of Ujima, a London-wide housing association and helped steer the organisation to become the largest black-run social enterprise in Europe.

A founder member and Director of Ujima, Tony Soares said “she was the best chair I ever had, supportive and decisive.”

Dorothy returned to Liverpool in 1994 to a house she had bought some years before, in Liverpool 8 [referred to as Toxteth by the media] where she was born and raised, as she always intended to return.

Retirement for Dorothy meant increased voluntary work, particularly related to African heritage.

With Eric Lynch, she instituted and conducted the Liverpool Slavery History Trail tours around the city helping reveal Liverpool’s hidden history.

She was a key figure in trying to establish an international library of African and Diaspora literature, although this has not been successful as her campaign for the establishment of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool which she saw as part of the reparation to African slaves. The museum opened on August 23, 2007.

OVERTURNED

A few years after returning from London, Dorothy was informed by the council that her house in Jermyn Street would be demolished and she would be rehoused. Incensed by the suggestion, through the Granby

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Residents Association, Dorothy played a leading part in getting the decision to demolish over 200 homes overturned, nearly half of which had been boarded up and left unoccupied for years by the council and housing associations with a view for redevelopment.

Dorothy commissioned me to produce a report for the Council on alternatives to the demolition, including gauging owner-occupying interest in living in the area. Among its recommendations the report proposed for empty properties be sold for £1 each providing the properties were brought up to proper building and living standards.

The Council sat on that report, produced in 2000, for years leaving the empty properties to deteriorate further. However, just a few months before Dorothy’s passing, 20 people were selected through a draw to buy the £1 properties. Her time on that

project had not been wasted after all.

More recently, she devoted her activist time to fewer projects but still retained a passionate involvement with the National Assembly of Women that took up issues and campaigned for women rights worldwide Dorothy’s and with Africa Presence.

It was set up to promote African heritage and culture and the group acquired a building with historical connections to Africans in Liverpool as its centre.

EXCEPTIONAL

Dorothy bequeathed her library (over 2000 books and publications) to Africa Presence.

Dorothy has made a lasting impression on me as an exceptional, passionate and articulate person with an energetic mind. She was kind, generous with her time and a role model to me. She was a fighter for just causes or as Angela Cobbinah writes in her tribute to Dorothy, “her fight was about enabling truth, equality and change.”

Proudly Pressents...

The Young Achievers Awards Join us in celebrating our 7th Annual Young achievers awards!

As part of our Black History Month Celebrations Steve Biko Housing Association and The Steve Biko Foundation would like to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our young people aged 18-25 in Liverpool within the L8, L15, and L7 & L1 Communities.

This will be our seventh successful annual celebration and we would like to ensure the positive achievements of all our young people are acknowledged and celebrated!

Music, Entertainment and hot food will be provided on the night.

If you would like to nominate a young person please contact: Shelique Braithwaite E: admin@stevebikoha.org T: 0151 734 4933 All food provide on the night will be Halal, we will also have vegetarian options too.

This is a FREE event however RSVP is required. Confirm your attendance ASAP to avoic disappointment.

ent m n rtai n. . . e t n io ic, E lebrat s u e M d, C all o o F ’s H 19 e 0 org ber 2 e G o ct St d O 10pm r 3 2 to 6pm

40 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Destination Destination Liverpool Liverpool

THE LIVERPOOL SICKLE CELL AND THALASSAEMIA SUPPORT GROUP

Advocacy Information & Advice.

Lobbying for improved services.

Home visits The Sickle Cell Group, Providing moral support, information, advice and an opportunity to talk to people who understand your experience

Befriending.

Help improve the quality of like for individuals who are affected by Sickle Cell and thalassaemia

Meeting Held Every Last Friday of the Month Time:5pm - 7pm

Venue:- Abercronby Health Centre, Grove Street Liverpool L7 7HG For further information please contact

Identifying health and social needs.

Chairperson : Vee Sibanda 07739 731431 or Vice Chairperson Mrs Funmi Dairo 07586 433434 Abercronby Health Centre, Grove Street Liverpool L7 7HG

Email : liverpoolsicklecell@gmail.com

Charity Registered No: 1161738

LORD MAYOR NAMES CHARITIES SHE WILL BE SUPPORTING

By George Ruddock

L

iverpool’s new Lord Mayor, Councillor Anna Rothery, has announced that she will be sponsoring four charities during her term of office. They are the Anthony Walker Foundation, Amadudu Women’s Refuge, Liverpool City Region Pride Foundation and Merseyside Somali Association.

She said: “I am hoping to raise a lot of money for my charities this year to raise the profile of the excellent work they do. There are so many worthy charities who all do outstanding work, I only wish I could sponsor them all.”

Councillor Rothery was sworn in at a ceremony at the Town Hall on September 4, making history as the city’s first ever black Lord Mayor and

she immediately indicated that she wants to be a role model for the black community and encourage people to strive to achieve their goals, regardless of their background.

are to promote racial harmony through education, sport and the arts, promoting the celebration of diversity and personal integrity and the realisation of potential of all young people.

The Amadudu Women’s Refuge offers assistance to women and children fleeing domestic abuse. The service offers temporary accommodation for families, providing support, understanding and access to additional services when required.

TOGETHER

The Toxteth-born councillor, who represents the Princes Park ward, has served on the city council since 2006 and said it is a huge honour to be asked to serve as Lord Mayor in her beloved home city.

She said: “There is so much to celebrate in this city and I’m proud to be the city’s first black lord mayor and I look forward to bringing our communities together,” she said.

“I hope that by taking on such a public-facing role I can be a positive role model to young men and women who come from similar back-

CAMPAIGNS

Lord Mayor Councillor Anna Rothery grounds to me.”

The four local charities she will be sponsoring are: The Anthony Walker Foundation is a registered charity

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established by Anthony’s family after the racially motivated murder of the black Liverpool teenager in 2005. The aims and objectives of the charity

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programme of events, initiatives and campaigns.

WELFARE

The Merseyside Somali Association provides needs assistance and advance education among the Somali community in Liverpool. It also provides facilities in the interest of social welfare as well as a meeting place providing immigration advise, translation, access to welfare rights and benefits.

It also stages social and cultural activities.

The Liverpool City Region Pride Foundation champion the rights of LGBT people living in and visiting the region.

The Foundation fight to highlight the daily barriers these group face and create an inclusive culture through a diverse

If you think you can help raise money for The Lord Mayor’s Charity please contact Liverpool Town Hall on 0151 233 4651 or email town.hall@liverpool.gov.uk or donate at liverpooltownhall.co.uk/lmca.

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Lifestyle

OCTOBER 2019

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Meet Africa’s fashion trailblazer p48

Everyone needs a hero p56-57

THEATRICAL VISIONARY

Lynette Linton speaks to Lifestyle about her career so far Where to go this Black History Month p62-63

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Lifestyle

RUDOLPH’S BIRTHDAY BASH EastEnders legend Walker is celebrating his 80th year – and everyone’s invited

BY DARELL J PHILIP

T

HOSE WITH a few years behind them will remember him as Bill Reynolds in the hit 1970s sitcom Love Thy Neighbour, while those of the younger persuasion know him as Patrick Trueman in EastEnders.

With an incredible 60 years in show business behind him, Rudolph Walker will be celebrating the achievement along with his 80th birthday in a special bash put on in his honour at the Hackney Empire on October 20.

Hosted by comedy duo – Eddie Gee and Robbie Nestor – the celebration in honour of this television and theatre icon will bring together some of the best in black entertainment including calypso artist Tobago Crusoe, comedian Richard Blackwood, singer Jermaine Jackman and the highly accomplished London Community Gospel Choir to name just a few.

Walker – whose birthday is on September 28 – is looking forward to being among good company on the night.

“It is great that I get to celebrate my birthday and many years in show business with friends and family,” said Walker.

He continued: “I have to thank my wife [Dounne], and my agent, Sarah Moore, who put this together for me.

“I’ve been told that there will also be some special guests appearing who have not been listed on the promotional poster which is rather exciting.”

Walker, who received an OBE in 2006 for his services to drama, feels humbled to know that both his generation and a younger generation of entertainers will come together to

celebrate this special occasion with him.

“Well, that in itself is fantastic. It’s something that I am very much looking forward to celebrating,” he said.

“Over the years I have tried my best to encourage the younger entertainers, so I feel blessed and privileged that they are participating and entertaining the crowd while also raising vital funds for my foundation.”

All proceeds from the event will go to the Rudolph Walker Foundation – a charity which Walker set up a decade ago to develop and nurture the crea-

their treatment by those in authority.

“So in response to this I devised a programme through drama where they could meet after school and be involved in writing and directing their own pieces of work.”

He continued: “I would invite some of my celebrity friends to come along, judge their work and present them with trophies and motivational talks. Then, 10 years ago I was approached

by Mervyn Cage to work with young people in Hackney.

“I did the same programme I had done all those years ago in Brixton and it has proven so successful that we now have schools from Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham taking part.

“I can’t deny that receiving the OBE for my VISION “It is our vision to take this proservices to gramme as far as the Caribbean and beyond.” drama gave Walker, who hails from Trinidad, came to London in 1960 me a great aged just 20, just after the first deal of group of individuals from the Caribbean set sail to England satisfaction” aboard the famous Empire Wintive skills and talents of young people.

“Back in the ‘70s, when I starred in a popular television series called Love Thy Neighbour I did a lot of work in schools especially in Brixton,” said Walker.

He continued: “Many of the schools that I worked in such as Tulse Hill, for example, no longer exist.

“In those days, as is the case now, young people were viewed as troublemakers especially by the police, when in reality it was often just a group of friends hanging around on the street after school.

“Many of these young people expressed their frustration at

drush on June 22, 1948. But he says he has had an interest in acting from a young age.

“I started as an amateur actor in Trinidad at a very young age, with little parts in plays as well as poetry recitations at primary school,” he said.

“While I also played cricket for my school with my teachers encouraging me to pursue it further, it was my love for the theatre which took over.

“I joined a leading amateur dramatic company in Trinidad, had my own theatre company at a very young age then naturally made my move to England where I thought I would have more opportunities to succeed – and fortunately for me I did.”

Walker would take evening acting classes and be given some supporting roles and walk on parts before becoming a household name – first with Love Thy Neighbour and latterly in EastEnders.

“I was one of the few leading black actors at the time and the casting director and executive producer of EastEnders were looking for someone to play the role of Patrick Trueman. I am told that my name came up in discussion to play the role and so when I was approached I had no hesitation and the rest, as they say, is history.”

For Walker, being an entertainer was never about the money. He said: “I get a buzz and energy from entertaining

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SCREEN HERO: Right, Rudolph Walker is all smiles with his OBE in 2006; below left, launching the Switchover Help Scheme in London with fellow EastEnders star June Brown in 2011

people. I get to discover things about myself while acting in various roles as well as meet lots of great people who then go on to become lifelong friends of mine.

It has never been about the glitz and glamour. From a young age I have just enjoyed what I do.”

At the age 79, there seems to be no signs of Walker slowing down. “I can still communicate, run around, perform on screen and stage as well as play tennis and cricket. So I have a lot to be thankful for,” he said.

60 years as an entertainer has brought many fond memories to Walker, and so he admitted finding it hard to pick the best moment in his highly illustrious career.

“I would say that doing a play at the Theatre Royal Stratford East called The King of England was one of my best moments

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because it’s one that I have always held dear to me.

“I received an award for best performance which I suppose went a long way towards my future achievements. I also acted in a series on BBC in 1985 called Black Silk which was based on the life of a brilliant Guyanese lawyer called Rudy Narayan who allowed me to take his story to the BBC with him given the opportunity to write the first script.

“There was no Society for Black Lawyers during that time so what we did through that series was groundbreaking.

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“Then, of course, I can’t deny that receiving the OBE for my services to drama and recognition of that fact from my fellow professionals gave me a great deal of satisfaction.”

From Trinidad to England and from stage to screen – Rudolph Walker is here to stay and for those celebrating his many years in the entertainment industry – they are happy that he does.

Tickets for the event, starting at £35, can be bought at https:// hackneyempire.co.uk/whats-on/ rudolph-walkers-80th-birthday/

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OCTOBER 2019

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UNTOLD STORY OF KRIO PEOPLE

THE VOICE | 43

Exercise Lifestyle

Artefacts reveal history of Sierra Leone in museum’s new display

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

A

NEW display at the Museum of London Docklands will explore the unique and largely untold history, heritage and culture of the Krio people of Sierra Leone.

As well as the history, The Krios of Sierra Leone will explore dress, architecture, language, lifestyle and tradition of the Krio community through a mix of contemporary objects from Krio Londoners as well as objects related to British colonial rule in Sierra Leone.

Together, this will highlight the

rich heritage of the people and the diversity of cultures brought to Sierra Leone that became uniquely Krio.

TYPICAL

Key objects on display include a Tillet block (a large carved wooden printing block) from around 1800 that bears the crest of the Sierra Leone Company.

There’s also a silver entrée dish presented to Thomas Cole, Acting Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone and Assistant Superintendent of Liberated Africans, and a Krio dress ensemble showing the typical cultural embroidered dress (‘Kabaslot’) worn by Krio women, will also be on display.

Melissa Bennett, higher edu-

cation programme manager at Museum of London, said: “The story of the Krio people has been largely overlooked in the history books but is of huge significance when looking at the story of not only the museum and the surrounding docks, but of migration and the slave trade in London.

“It connects the shared histories of London, the US, the Caribbean and West Africa and we’ve worked closely with some members of the Krio community to draw out the personal stories, memories and objects that help shed light on this part of our shared heritage.”

The Krios are descended from ex-enslaved African American, Caribbean, African and free peoples who settled in the western

ADVERTORIAL

PEOPLE POWER TAKES CENTRE STAGE

Rebel Music, the latest play from Birmingham writer Robin French, has its premiere at Birmingham Repertory Theatre this month.

Inspired by the Rock Against Racism movement of the 70s, the play is a celebration of the diverse musical legacy of the Midlands.

It runs at The REP until October 5, before touring to venues across the West Midlands.

Rebel Music is a raucous story of people power featuring a soundtrack of punk, reggae and two-tone.

It’s set in the hot summer of 1976, when the country is in economic turmoil and the far-right is on the march. Rock Against Racism puts white punk bands and black reggae bands on the same bill – determined to win the culture war and defeat the National Front.

Rebel Music is directed and co-

created by Alex Brown, who says: “Rebel Music is about teenagers in 1979 who wanted to break down barriers and unite people through music and culture, and who weren’t afraid to fight back against intolerance, hatred and racism.

“Today in 2019, racism is on the rise once more in the UK and around the world. We live in complex and divided times, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the positive power of music and how it can bring people together.

“Rebel Music will celebrate the cultural pioneers who used punk, reggae and two-tone to try and get everybody dancing to the same beat.”

area of Sierra Leone. The first settlers sent there by the British were of black American, African, Caribbean and Bengali descent and were known collectively as the ‘Black Poor’. The Black Poor were a particularly notable community in east London.

Historical researcher Iyamide Thomas said: “As a member of the Krio community, I am proud to be working with the museum to highlight the history and legacy of the Krio people to help bring into focus our connection to the city of London and the wider Atlantic world.”

Visit the Museum of London Docklands to see The Krios of Sierra Leone display for free until September 27, 2020

HERITAGE: Krio clothing is on display, as are stories of their lives in London, inset above.

PHOTOS: Museum of London

OCTOBER 2019 2019 4444| |THE THEVOICE VOICE OCTOBER

Lifestyle

Travel

EXCLUSIVE: Set high on Santorini’s Caldera, the hotel overlooks the Aegean Sea

A vision of beauty Luxury boutique hotel Omma Santorini is a truly stunning choice for a short haul getaway

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

TRANQUIL ATMOSPHERE: Omma Santorini offers individuallystyled suites and rooms

I

F REMARKABLE hotels in desired destinations, authentic gastronomy and the ultimate immersion in perfect surroundings of luxury sound like your cup of tea, then look no further than Omma Santorini.

Named after the ancient Greek word for vision, Omma Santorini focuses on providing guests with the element of discovery through all senses.

The exclusive luxury boutique hotel in Imerovigli, high on Santorini’s Caldera, has been designed to integrate with its unique geography, maximising space and views.

A four-hour flight from London will see you drop right on the edge of the azure Aegean Sea, which you will be staring at from one of the largest pools on the island.

If you ever manage to leave the poolside, the spa awaits you.

Deepen your relaxation with one of the many advanced signa-

ture treatments using pioneering products. Opt for natural healing rituals and ceremonies such as the Volcanic Hot Stone Powerful Massage using sensuous body oils and various nutrient-rich detox and re-shaping wraps and scrubs.

Whether you’re on your own or in a group, the Omma Santorini experience offers individuallystyled suites and rooms (including villas), each with private ter-

race. The hotel’s exclusive spot is the most tranquil atmosphere.

Restaurant fare focuses on Mediterranean Greek cuisine and is created by renowned executive chef Dimitris Stamoudis, who blends traditional dishes with a modern twist.

Using local Santorini and Greek ingredients, each of Stamoudis’ plates showcases a work of art.

The dining experience elevates at night as dinner selections are

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perfectly paired with local and international wine labels, served at the highest point overlooking the Caldera.

Spacious outdoor areas, alongside a prime vantage point, make Omma the perfect Santorini setting for an unforgettable wedding or event.

A truly stunning choice for a short-haul getaway – when you’re considering your options, consider Omma Santorini.

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Junior ministers to tackle smart travel STUDENTS FROM 14 Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) member countries will tackle some of the most pertinent issues facing the regional tourism industry at the CTO-organised Caribbean Tourism Youth Congress in Antigua & Barbuda next month.

The ‘Junior Ministers of Tourism’ will present proposals on three topics — Towards Smart Travel Experiences Within The Caribbean Region; Equipping Our Youth To Thrive In A Changing Tourism Environment; and Making Excellence A Habit In Caribbean Tourism.

The students, aged 14 to 17, will do so in the presence of the key decision-makers from CTOmember governments, among other tourism leaders, at the event to be held at the Royalton Antigua Resort & Spa on Friday, October 4.

On the issue of smart travel experiences, students will propose policies or actions which can be implemented by governments to facilitate smart travel experiences at ports of entry. They will also address the quest for habitual service excellence in the tourism industry in order to keep the industry competitive and growing.

Students will also look at strategies which can help prepare young people for the changing nature of work brought about by technology.

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OCTOBER 2019

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THE VOICE | 45

Exercise Lifestyle

TAKE A VAKATION

Check out Vaka Eiva, a sailing contest celebrating the Cook Islands’ heritage

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

Y

OU WANT to get away, but you want to do something different, something the masses haven’t even heard of. Well how about Vaka Eiva?

More than just a bit of paddling, this year’s event in the Cook Islands marks the 16th edition of the traditional competition which will be held between November 22-29.

The country’s beautiful warm and clear waters attract participants from all over the world, many of whom return year after year to paddle ‘vaka’ outrigger canoes in this fantastic celebration of Cook Islands heritage.

The festival is more than just competitive challenging canoe racing, with several novelty rac-

“The number of paddlers is up by 20 per cent on last year’s event”

viewing boats or from various look-out points along the Rarotonga shoreline.

Vaka Eiva caters for all ages and paddling abilities, offering challenging ocean Iron and Marathon races and action-packed sprint races for paddlers right up to the golden master’s division.

es as well as events taking place across the week celebrating the islands’ culture, customs, food and entertainment.

The ultimate paddling prizes are the coveted Pacific Cup and Pacific Paddle trophies for the open women and men’s 36km race around Rarotonga – and it’s not for the faint hearted.

Held at the end of the week, the punishing round-island race sees paddlers challenged over various sea conditions as they circumnavigate the island of Rarotonga.

Spectators can take in the on-water action from their own

“Preparations for the event are going well, with the number of international paddlers already up by 15-20 per cent in comparison to last year,” says event co-ordinator Eva Allsworth of chief sponsors Matson.

She added: “We are extremely thrilled to bring the Juniors ‘Oe Mapu’ event back after a three-year hiatus and will be hosting this across two days.

“The event has been made even more exciting as we have close to 100 international junior paddlers who have already registered.”

EXCITING

MORE THAN PADDLING: The ‘vaka’ canoes are a traditional part of the Cook Islands’ history

46 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 46 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Lifestyle

Health

Let’s beat breast cancer Keen netballer says sport gave her focus at a difficult time

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

E

VEN BEFORE the first tip-off Val Thomas has insisted that there should be a followup tournament to the inaugural Netball against Breast Cancer Weekend, which takes place this month.

One of the many events up and down the country that will be bringing attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Thomas – a netball development community coach from Birmingham – told Lifestyle that galvanising a group of women to play the wonderful game of netball was a powerful way to get them engaged in conversation around the disease.

“We don’t want to talk about it…” Thomas said of the usual approach.

Thomas said when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, five years after the condition took the life of her mother, the sport she loved helped to give her a semblance of sanity.

She said: “Throughout my period of treatment, netball embraced me with kind friends, restored my fitness levels and reinforced my confidence and determination to make a difference to the lives of others.

That’s the power and inspiration of netball!”

Far from being shy about sharing her experience, Thomas said that she felt compelled to ensure others are taking the right steps to check themselves over.

She enthused: “I have no issues talking about my experience. The hardest part was telling my sons – I have two.

That was the only time I was distressed about.

“My mum died of breast cancer and when she was ill, I remember asking her if she was worried and she responded by telling me not to worry about things in life that you couldn’t control. I remember thinking that was a good way at looking at life.

“I adapted this attitude that once I have gone to the doctors, had the consultancy and I’m taking the steps that I need to, I don’t need to worry about any-

thing. I believe in God and I just thought, ‘you know what, over to you, God’.

“I found my cancer quite early, it was about five millimetres in diameter and I had choices, so I went with the mastectomy – just take it off.

“I didn’t want to go through the whole chemotherapy and seeing if it had come back and all of that. I actually wanted both of them off, but they refused to remove the healthy breast.”

Thomas recognises that her surgery couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment. Early

“I wanted both of my breasts removed but they refused to take the good one” detection is key to breast cancer survival and remission, even more so in black women as the condition is more aggressive.

She said: “I was fortunate.

I was fortunate because I checked.

“I got checked for two reasons. One, because of my mum had had it. The other reason is because my best friend had died after she found a lump in her neck.

“She didn’t feel ill but she went to the doctor’s surgery and it transpired that it was malignant, it was breast cancer that had spread through the lymph nodes, and had manifested in the lump on her neck. She died 14 months later. She didn’t check.”

Ensuring others give themselves every chance never to have to go through that, Thomas says the Netball Against Breast Cancer weekend – founded by Veronica Kumeta CEO – is perfect to promote discussion.

Organised by the LFBC (Ladies Fighting Breast Cancer Charitable Trust), the tournament will raise funds to help

thousands of women and men who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The disease is the most common cancer in the UK – one person is diagnosed every 10 minutes and one in seven women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

The netball tournament will take place over two days, October 5-6, during Breast Cancer Awareness month across key cities – including Birmingham, Nottingham, London, Manchester, Portsmouth and Gosport.

Teams will help raise awareness of breast cancer by playing a sport that most women, some of whom are now survivors of the disease, first experienced during their school days.

Each participating city will organise its own tournament with five teams in each.

Sign up to volunteer today

THE DETERMINATION to spread awareness continues daily, but for those who don’t know where to start and want to be more hands-on with their efforts to help fight against breast cancer, there are charities ready to accept your assistance.

Breast Cancer Support (BCS) is a UK charity providing care and helping people with breast cancer in poverty-stricken countries who can’t afford medication or treatment.

They believe that where people live with breast cancer – be it a woman or a man – shouldn’t determine if they live. So they’re fighting breast cancer in countries across the globe to reduce breast cancer mortality worldwide.

Supported by doctors, dentists and other medical professionals, BCS aims to alleviate pain and discomfort around the world through making medicine, expertise and equipment readily available to povertystricken countries and communities.

BCS do not regard medicine and the ability to see a medical professional in your hour of need as a privilege but a basic human right every man, woman and child should have regardless of their geographical location, race, age, creed, background or any other factor.

IMPERATIVE

Kumeta said: “Netball is one of the most popular sports for women and these tournaments are a great way for LFBC to reach out to breast cancer survivors and those at risk of developing the disease.”

Thomas said: “I’ve played netball since I was in school.

Then I went into coaching, I’ve run my own clubs and gone into Birmingham county, so netball is my life.”

She added: “It was the cancer treatment that actually stopped me playing – after the illness I became unfit.

“I think it’s imperative that this tournament continues and expands.

“It’s a critical way of communicating that there is support out there and that there is life with and after cancer, it doesn’t come to a standstill.

“It’s also helps to promote the fact that the focus shouldn’t just be on the moment, as difficult as that is. Having a network and events like this to focus on gives meaning, it gives you a purpose, it’s a powerful tool to aid recovery.”

Funds raised will help LFBC provide continuing support to some of the 55,000 women, who, according to Breast Cancer Care, are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

They will also enable the charity to expand its work into other areas and by doing so, help breast cancer survivors to live well with the disease.

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To volunteer, head to: breastcancersupport.org.uk/volunteer

FUNDRAISING: Val Thomas is a keen netballer

Study aims to beat neuropathy RESEARCHERS AT Indiana University School of Medicine have launched a new, unique study recruiting black women with breast cancer designed to better understand and treat neuropathy, a side effect from chemotherapy.

The US National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trial, EAZ171, is led by Bryan P Schneider, MD, professor of medicine and medical and molecular genetics and the Vera Bradley Chair of Oncology at IU School of Medicine.

RISK

“We found one of the most prevalent and debilitating chemotherapy side effects, known as taxane-induced neuropathy, is markedly more common in African American women and astonishingly so, almost double the risk we see in women of other races,” said Schneider.

His team’s earlier studies found that women of African ancestry receiving treatment for breast cancer suffer from neuropathy more than women of European ancestry. Neuropa-

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thy is nerve damage that can show up as weakness, numbness or throbbing pain in the hands and feet.

Neuropathy can occur during treatment and be permanent.

Schneider says this toxicity not only impacts a patient’s quality of life, but also reduces the amount of chemotherapy that African American women receive, since neuropathy often leads the physician to lower the dose of chemotherapy or even stop treatment completely.

This effect contributes to why African American women are more likely than white women to die from breast cancer.

“The real goal here is a pragmatic clinical trial where we can answer what we think to be a very important and practical question,” said Schneider. “Can we figure out which chemotherapy would be best for African American women who are undergoing treatment for their breast cancer?”

Courtesy of medicalxpress.com

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 47 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 47

Lifestyle

‘I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT THEATRE IS FOR YOU’

Artistic director of the Bush wants to inspire feeling of inclusivity

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

L

YNETTE LINTON says she is determined to make theatre-going a more inclusive experience that it is at

present.

The artistic director at the Bush in west London has officially been in position since January, and last month saw her roll out her first production – comprising of mostly new work.

Her fresh approach is in keeping with the fact that she doesn’t care much for risk.

She explained: “Art is risky.

The season that we have out together at the Bush – some might describe it as risky, it’s all debuts, writers first plays.

“It’s about going ‘we’re here’.

I am incredibly inspired by James Baldwin – what are we here to do? Take risks and redefine what this landscape is as artists.”

OBSESSED

Having got her feet well and truly wet in her new home, Linton is chomping at the bit to establish her vision: “I properly took over in March. I was still directing Richard II at the Globe Theatre at the time, so I didn’t get into the building until three months after my start date.

“I grew up in east London, we didn’t go to the theatre. Stratford East was the closest one, but it wasn’t cheap enough.

“When I was younger, I thought I liked performing because I was bit obsessed with EastEnders and I thought I wanted to be an actor and so I tried to work out what that meant – but I didn’t get anywhere because I didn’t feel comfortable in those spaces.

“I was always into writing, reading and the English language in school, so I started to write my own stuff and forcing people to read it and then decided to become an actress because of something like EastEnders.

“It wasn’t theatre that was in my face, it was EastEnders, because that was what everybody watched.

“It wasn’t until I met Rikki Beadle-Blair at the National Youth Theatre, because I had

joined it, that he saw something in me that I hadn’t seen in terms of what the medium of theatre meant.”

Prior to having being exposed to Beadle-Blair, Linton says attending theatre and being told off because for opening a packet of crisps was a typical experience – the type of off-putting encounter that kept her in the dark.

She mused: “How do you know you like Shakespeare if you hear all of these horror stories about the theatre and then when you go there people make you feel like you shouldn’t be there?

“When we used to go to the-

“We’re in a place where people are not educated about people of colour and their contributions” atre with school, people used to look vexed that school kids were there. If that’s your only experience of going to the theatre, then you’re going to equate that with people being angry.

“So I never really clocked that this was my medium until someone let me know.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to run a building – and I am so lucky that I am – is because I want to let young people know – and all generations, because my mum still isn’t comfortable in theatre spaces – that this is for you and it is the oldest form of storytelling.

“It’s live and if you watch Netflix, if you watch EastEnders, you should come to the theatre and see stuff on stage.

“It’s a medium and an experience like no other.”

Also firmly on her agenda is shining a light on works produced by writers of colour.

Talking about the importance of giving those voices a platform, she enthused: “It’s so important because I think that there is an illusion that we have to keep reinventing the wheel.

“But actually these writers have been doing their thing for years,” she told Lifestyle.

“I often focus on and go on about black stories that we are not taught in schools and we’re not taught our history here – we know more about the American Black Panthers than we do the British Black Panthers. We don’t know.

“When the Windrush scandal broke, I had people asking me what the Windrush was.

We’re in a place where people are not educated about people of colour and their contributions to this country.

“I think that’s the same as when we talk about the our work as writers in the theatre.

Our work and works previously are not studied as much as (they) should be.”

YOUNG

Paying homage, she added: “For me, as women of colour, Jackie Kay’s work, Winsome Kinnock’s work … I’m standing on their shoulders and it’s really important that I know that and other artists in the future know that. These women and men have been working for decades to get our stories out there.

“To open the building with a show that celebrates that was really important to me.”

Hailed as one of the youngest artistic directors in the game, Linton says there has been a lot of support from peers and well-wishers.

She said: “People do focus on my age. Yeah, I am young and yeah, I am a woman of colour and yeah, I am from east London and yeah, and yeah, and yeah… I could keep going, but come and see the art, come and see the work.”

To get that target demographic through the doors at the Bush, Linton has plans – and lots of them.

“I want to make sure people know that this is a space for them. Next year, we have a show called Level Up and we will be giving away 1,000 tickets to young people. We’re targeting young people that might not have come to the theatre before and making sure they know this a space for them.

“There are a lot of things coming, it’s an exciting time for us here.”

VISION: Lynette Linton is one of the youngest artistic directors around

48 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 48 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Lifestyle

Fashion

Style and substance

Though exceptionally beautiful, Adebayo Oke-Lawal’s work has a deeper meaning

BY URBAN NILMANDER

H

AILED AS one of Africa’s strongest voices in fashion, designer Adebayo OkeLawal has appeared in all major magazines worldwide with his omnipresent message at the fore of his thinking: we’re all free to express ourselves through clothing.

Oke-Lawal isn’t your typical Nigerian voice that grabs the headlines and his sturdy, unwavering stance on the responsiblitiy anyone who gets involved with art or fashion owes the vocation gives a clear insight into the type of character he is.

DARING

“For me, fashion, art, music has a revolutionary task,” OkeLawal tells Lifestyle following an acclaimed speech at the design conference Design Indaba in Cape Town, about daring to be himself and not letting society decide how to look.

“If nothing challenges the current patterns, it makes no sense.

“If you do not have an idea that wants change, you should not engage in either fashion or music,” he enthused.

He added: “I am raised with stereotypes, oppressed by stereotypes and inspired by stereotypes.

“Who has decided that girls should wear pink and men blue?

“You should only represent yourself and society should keep their fingers away,” he added.

Oke-Lawal has just released his ninth collection which he has given the name Don’t

Look Under My Skirt, a fit that the society should not bother which clothes you wear.

The clothes have strong colours and are clearly androgynous.

The road to international fame for Oke-Lawal has not been easy.

He grew up in a very traditional Nigerian family, attended a boys school, was bullied for

“I cried and cried – I considered putting it all down and going back to work at the bank” his softness and was interested, very early, in fashion.

In a very masculine society, those interest didn’t always go down well.

“There is something I call toxic masculinity,” he said.

“They expect us men to talk loudest, never cry or hug and stand for the hard.

“It is something we should discuss every day and question.”

Through his clothing and garments Oke-Lawal is posing the question.

H e worked in a bank after school but at all vacant moments, he hung around fashion designers and models to get to know the business.

The goal was clear; he had to work with fashion.

Twenty years old, he started his Orange Culture brand.

“Orange is a colour with no direct

meaning to anyone, it is something you have to think about if you like or dislike,” he said.

Newspapers and people online pulled his work to pieces, he recalled.

“I cried and cried. And considered if I would put everything down and go back to work at the bank,” he said.

He added: “But in the waterfall of negative reviews and angry emails, there was one person who wrote appreciably about how my clothes had changed his thoughts.

It was enough for me – I continued.

“And, I do not want to brag, but today my clothes are in all the important magazines around the world, they have nominated me for many great prizes.

“All because I listened to that one voice that thought I was doing the right thing.”

MAKING A FASHION STATEMENT: Adebayo Oke-Lawal’s androgynous fashion pieces are nod to both his heritage and his beliefs as a young male male growing up in Nigeria

EMOTIONS

Other designers have followed in his footsteps and the question of what is – or should be – masculine is being discussed vividly.

“My brand and my clothes are about showing emotions and it has not been easy in my home country.

“And I will not go into how it works elsewhere on the African continent.

“But much is happening right now in music, design, and fashion moving the borders,” he said.

Over the whole African continent, there has been a minor revolution in recent years.

Young designers, fashion designers, musicians, artists, filmmakers have stepped into the world with a clear African style.

“Fashion is visual and touches people directly. I want to tell you about another Africa than what they show in Western media.

“The west wants to keep the image of the starving child, the diseases and the poverty.

“With my fashion I want to show so much exciting and revolutionary is happening, breaking that picture.

“It is time we are proud and shows how the real Africa looks.”

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SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

Celebrating Black History Month.

Find out about the inspiring journeys of young black Victorian children through the care system at http://bit.ly/BarnardosBHM

THE VOICE| 49

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50 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 50 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Young Voices

‘Black History Month is important to us’ “I think Black History Month in schools is important because most of the time we shouldn’t be learning about one race – it should be about different races. Every year in October we celebrate Black History Month in school and learn about a black person and study about them for one month. One of black people we studied about in our school was Martin Luther King Jr. What I learned about him was that if it wasn’t for him in America, there wouldn’t be that much black people and there would be racism.

What I like about him is that he spoke up for everybody when they needed it the most.” Azariah, age 9

“I think Black History Month in schools is important because it teaches you about how people were treated a long time ago compared to how they are treated now and not only would it help black children, but it can also teach the other children in the class about different cultures.

“I liked learning about Martin Luther King because he was a black pastor who preached and he fought for black rights and was known as a human rights activist.

“But sadly he was assassinated because white people hated him, but he was doing good trying to spread the message around that one day they’ll be free.

“In one of his biggest sermons that people know – ‘I have a dream’ – it says about how one day he wants black children and white children to play together.”

Papa, age 10

“Black History Month is important in schools because it teaches black children about their history and educates them of their culture. Also, Black History Month helps to teach/educate other ethnicities about black people’s history and culture which might help to stop segregation. Segregation normally leads to hatred and racism.

“I love Black History Month. We have a book at school called Different Cultures where we get to learn about black people and other races.

“It’s good that we get to learn about the history of other cultures.

“I remember learning about a girl called Rosa Parks (left), and it was really inspiring to me that she said no to a white person who told her to get out of her seat on a bus so that they could sit down.

“She went to prison but later became a leader and had a sign in her hand which said, ‘We should fight as long as we live’.”

Renisha, age 8

What makes a good teacher?

BY DARELL J PHILIP

F

OR MANY of us, going to school is a big deal. After all, unless we are in the minority that are home tutored by parents, we will spend more of our time at school than we do at home. For this reason, the school environment should be a place where we feel safe, valued and given the freedom to express ourselves creatively, along with the space to grow intellectually.

Besides the home, school can be considered as the foundation upon which our hopes and dreams can be fully realised. Very often, our success in later life is not only dependent upon our own hard work but also on us having good teachers to push us there. Here, we tell you our thoughts on what we think make a good school teacher.

Renisha is eight years old.

Her favourite colour is yellow, she likes fashion and she wants to be an actress when she grows up. She says: “A good school teacher is someone who is competent, which means having the necessary skills or knowledge.

They are also someone who knows how to resolve conflicts or problems.

“A good teacher is also someone who is a good role model, who gives everyone an opportunity to learn and treats everyone equally. The last one is that a good teacher is someone who is caring, kind, compassionate and dedicated.

“There is one teacher in my school I really like because sometimes when there are arguments in class amongst the children, she does not yell at us and say ‘stop, stop, stop’.

“Instead, she just talks us through it and takes time with us. But she always pushes us to what we need to do and

doesn’t leave anybody behind.

“Learning is important because if you don’t learn you won’t be able to do the job you want to as an adult if you haven’t progressed enough.”

Azariah is nine years old and likes football, maths and fun teachers. She says: “A good school teacher is someone who is happy, not angry and has a good control of themselves and the class.

They also know how to keep children in the class happy

In the first monthly Young Voices column, a panel of children share their views on why Black History Month is vital and the qualities of a good teacher.

and help those who are unhappy or feeling angry.

“It is also the teacher’s job to keep us safe and for us to take in everything we need to know about learning. Since returning to school in September, I have just started in Year 5.

“What I like about my new teacher is that she basically lets us do a whole lot of fun stuff and she’s basically really nice. Learning is definitely important because if you don’t learn then how are you going to have a good job?”

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“Black History Month is important because it celebrates black people. The country that we live in is like a white country. There’s not really much black people in London like there is in St Lucia. At school I learned about Harriet Tubman. She was called ‘the Moses of the people’ because she led black slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. She was very kind, adventurous and like me – I like to climb trees and explore nature.” Eliah, age 8

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Papa is 10 years old, loves to play football and has a yellow belt in karate. He says: “A good school teacher is someone that cares about students, teaches them the right things and doesn’t purposely avoid them. They are someone who treats everyone equally. I have a teaching assistant who cares about everyone in the class and helps everyone.

“This is only the second year we’ve had her and she know us all really well. She knows what we like and don’t like.

She helps us with our learning and does everything for us.

“She says we are like her own children. Learning is important because if you don’t learn you won’t know the facts about the things you want to do and where you want to go.”

lots of information in your head, but who makes sure that you understand it and doesn’t move on until you get it.

“I had a school teacher for just a few months who did not shout at me when I fell asleep in class. Instead she kept me inside and helped me to catch up on the work I had missed and was patient with me.

“Learning is important because it will help you in life, like it does with my lip balm business.”

Eliah is eight years old, owns a lip balm business and wants to be a millionaire. She says: “A good school teacher is someone who doesn’t cram

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OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 51

Young Voices

Our ‘Made By History’ essay contest returns for a fifth year

T

COMPETITION: Last year’s winner Judah with his mother

HE VOICE newspaper’s annual Made

By History essay writing competition is now under way and entries are welcomed from pupils up and down the country.

The Made By History competition, open to all schoolchildren aged 9 to 14, is now in its fifth year and aims to encourage students to study history and connect them with the icons of the past through unassisted research and a journey of self-discovery.

The competition is run throughout October, which is celebrated as Black History Month, and the winner will be announced in November.

Competing students across the UK are asked to submit a 500-word article on the topic: “Who is your favourite black author and why?”

The winning entry, selected by an independent panel from the community, will be published in The Voice newspaper

alongside a picture of the author.

The winner of the competition will also receive an Amazon Fire tablet.

Last year’s winner was Judah Hibbert, who wrote the poem The Windrush Scandal.

The theme for last year’s competition was “Celebrating The Windrush Generation”, focusing on how Caribbean immigrants to the UK made a positive contribution to Britain.

There are also sectional prizes awarded to individuals from different age groups.

After he was announced as the winner during the presentation ceremony at London City Hall, Judah said: “I thought I would come somewhere near last place... I just didn’t think it was good enough.”

However, Judah’s poem impressed the judges during the selection process and also the guests at City Hall when he read it aloud, with his mum, in front of those gathered inside

the chamber at the iconic London venue.

In addition to the main prize, each of the participants in attendance was presented with a certificate for participation while special prizes were handed out to the winners of each age group.

A surprise announcement at the presentation revealed that the winners of last year’s competition were invited to tour No 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister of the UK resides and works.

The visit was fulfilled in March this year, and the four winners – with their parents and teachers – had an amazing day.

The Made By History presentations have been held at prestigious venues including the Imperial War Museum and the House of Commons, and a similar event will be held this year to celebrate the competition’s fifth year.

The entry categories are broken down by age, with one

group for nine-year-olds, another for 10-year-olds, a combined group for those 11 and 12, and a final grouping for children aged 13 and 14.

The rules are as follows: – A limit of 500 words and a picture can be included; – Submissions should be typed unless the handwriting is legible; – Plagiarism will be penalised and the essay removed; – Essays should be the students’ original work with evidence of unassisted help; – Parental permission for all students must be provided in the event they may be interviewed and photographed by The Voice.

All entries must be emailed to: madebyhistory@ thevoicemediagroup.co.uk or posted to: The Voice newspaper, Made By History Competition, Unit 1 Bricklayers Arms, Mandela Way, London, SE1 5SR. The deadline is October 24 at noon.

52 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 53 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 53

Entertainment

MUSIC

LEARN FROM THE PROS

Music development group hosts seminars with key figures to demystify industry

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

A

SUCCESSFUL ‘Industry Takeover’ event earlier this year has given Urban Development the impetus to go full steam ahead with a series of events designed to help “anyone aspiring to make it in the music business to get a foot in the door”.

The 2019-2020 Industry Takeover Seminar Series kicked off last month at the Samsung KX in King’s Cross, London, and is set to run until February.

With a ground-breaking partnership with Island Records, award-winning music development organisation Urban Development’s seminar series takes place in conjunction with industry bodies including Universal Music, AWAL, Sentric, Vivendi, We Plug Good Music, My Runway Group, WX, and She.Said.So. Through the unique space that Samsung KX provides, Urban Development has admitted to being excited about delivering its biggest Industry Takeover Seminar Series yet, featuring expert music industry panellists sharing their specialist knowledge, experiences and skills to a new generation of artists and future industry

executives.

Hosted by Capital Xtra’s Remel London, this year’s series is the only space where tastemakers, talent and seasoned executives alike can guide future artists and industry professionals through the music industry, while debating the hottest topics in urban music.

EXCEPTIONAL

This year’s Industry Takeover Seminar Series has been set up to give exceptional young artists access to development funding, mentoring, and expertise in their early stage careers.

The partnership is led by Urban Development founder and director Pamela McCormick, and Island Records’ urban division president Alex Boateng, who both spoke at the opening seminar at this year’s series, offering attendees a first-

hand chance to learn from and network with the label boss, among others.

All sessions will offer panel discussions, a chance to ask questions in a dedicated Q&A segment, and networking opportunities.

With confirmed speakers including Boateng, Simon Pursehouse from Sentric, and Sheffield grime pioneer Coco, this year’s Industry Takeover Seminar Series is set to be the foremost place to learn from, and exchange contact with, industry movers and shakers, build peer-to-peer collaboration and mentoring, and start a music revolution.

The first seminar, on September 17, posed the question: “The art of A&R: is it dead?”

The topic of future seminars and their dates is listed below, with all taking place between 6pm and 9.30pm and costing £10 per ticket.

Dance group seeking new chair ONE DANCE UK have announced they are beginning the search for a new chair for their board of trustees, following the end of Sue Wyatt’s term after five years.

During Wyatt’s tenure, she oversaw the successful merger of the four organisations that became One Dance UK, as well as the company’s relocation to Birmingham.

One Dance UK has become established as a lead support organisation for dance in Britain.

Its outreach work in communities and schools has expanded and its successful membership scheme has provided support to dancers, researchers and organisations across the sector.

Wyatt, inset, said: “I took on the role saying that I would serve only one term to establish a new organisation, secure funding, build profile and relocate outside of London.

“This has all been achieved. It is right to stand down in 2020 as promised, but it is difficult to leave such a vibrant organisation at such an exciting time.

“I am proud of One Dance UK and thank the board and staff for their dedication and hard work.”

INSPIRING

The new appointment – who will take up the post in March next year – will provide strategic guidance on developing the organisation following the company’s relocation to Birmingham earlier this year, as well as providing inspiring leadership to both the board and executive team through this important phase of the organisation’s growth.

To find out more about the role, or make an application (with a deadline of October 14), candidates should visit onedanceuk.org/ about-us/careers-one-dance-uk.

EXPERTS SHARE SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE: Urban Development has partnered with music industry bodies to better provide an insight for those just making a start in the business at this series of seminars

VOICE OCTOBER 2019 54 ||THE 54 THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Entertainment

MUSIC

FEKKY’S A GAME-CHANGER Heʼs kept a low profile of late but the rapper is ready to make a noise with F Music

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

B

Y HIS own admission Fekky’s been quiet. The love for making music and performing simply vanished but having taken time out to reassess what makes him tick the south London artist is raring to go with his latest project For Life.

Sitting at the Curtain Hotel in trendy Shoreditch, east London, Fekky explained to Lifestyle why he had to create a little distance between himself and the industry, why that hiatus is over and why F Music is going to change the game for rappers in the UK. Lifestyle: There’s new music coming, but where have you been?

Fekky: I’ve just been recording, chilling. I feel like when I came in I was battering it.

From the outside it looks easy but when you done five years of hotel to hotel, mad food to mad food, drunk all of the time, I needed to take a break before I got back in the studio.

I am naturally a wild guy so sometimes I have to hold myself down and get to work.

It was reflection, focus and I have kids as well so it was a moment to spend some time with them. There was a time

TIME FOR REFLECTION: Fekky lost the love for music during the recording of an album last year

when I slowed down for a minute and I was with my son, I realised that I’d missed out on bits and he wanted to do certain things like boxing. Unintentionally I had kind of neglected that. You can’t always throw money at everything, that sort of time you can’t get back. In the studio, I started recording

“It was reflection, focus and I have kids as well so it was a moment to spend time with them” an album last year and I don’t know what happened – I kind of lost the love for the music.

I don’t know what it was, I was with my kids a lot and I went through a break up.

There’s nothing to really talk about it happened, it’s done, but having people talk about it online every minute … It made me have a dislike for the way certain people move.

L: Talk about the MixTape, the releases so far and what’s coming next.

F: All The Smoke and No Apol-

ogies with Nafe Smallz were the feelers, they will both be on the project. I had a little thing to Tory Lanez that week and I just thought you know what let me just throw out All The Smoke, it was that type of vibe.

No Apologies was more about me seeing what people think

if I show them if I can do that type of vibe. The next track to come out, Attitude, is like both of those tracks put together.

L: How do you think it’ll go down with your fans?

F: The thing about Fekky’s fanbase is they are mad loyal, I’m

Simone releases ‘gift to the world’

BY JOEL CAMPBELL SINGER, COMPOSER, Grammyaward nominee, award-winning actress, and only child of Dr Nina Simone, Lisa Simone, will release her third studio album this autumn.

“This album is my gift to a world in need of love,” says Simone.

“I want others to know if I can reach this place of peace and joy within, at this stage in my life, we all can.”

By the age of seven, Nina Simone’s daughter had already had 13 nannies and would weep at the prospect of be-

ing separated from her mother through her intensive touring schedule. Through hard but educational years, Lisa patiently rebuilt herself, and now delivers a luminous third album filled with joy and honesty.

Featuring 12 songs filled with soul, gospel, blues, and reggae, In Need Of Love was written and composed alongside her long-time musical companion, Hervé Samb – a free spirit of the Parisian jazz scene and spearhead of the contemporary African sound.

The album was recorded at the La Fabrique studio with French musicians including guitarist Thomas Coeuriot, bassist Laurent Vernerey, and pianist Cyril Barbessol.

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still trying to grow at the same time. The people that were supporting me five years ago have grown up now, have kids of their own and whatever else.

So there is a whole new youth generation that I have to get to. That’s why there are people like Headie and Ambush that are kind of more in with the youth right now. I’ve tried to make the project be for everyone, not just move like a rapper that is catering to his own fanbase, you have to grow it.

look at myself in the next four or five years as the UK Diddy, UK Birdman, putting on artists, through myself. I feel like the album will come after that process. After I put out this project were going to build F Music up. We’ll have a headquarters, studio, we’re going to have the youth coming through. It’s going to be like a lifestyle. I feel like the scene needs that. So I’m going to be a player manager kind of role, playing a bit, but more managing.

L: Why a MixTape and not an album?

F: It’s not an album, it’s just not. It’s a MixTape, everything was randomly put together, it’s 18 songs, I made 78. I feel like an album, I would work on a certain style. This MixTape you’re going to get so much different styles, different bangers coming from left, right and centre.

L: Anything else you want people to know?

F:: For Life, I want everyone to make sure they get that.

Make sure when the tour tickets come out you kop the tour tickets. I feel like over the years people have always said they want to hear more about my life and this is the Fekky that everyone has been waiting for, this is the all rounder Fekky, I feel this is me, my legacy. Lock into For Life and F Music, it’s going to be a big movement, you done know.

L: Take me through the next couple of years as you see it?

F: We’ve got F Music, so it’s bigger than me now, the whole situation is bigger than me. I

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Watch the full interview at voice-online.co.uk

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 55 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 55

This is Brukout!

by Seani B

Feeling the fusion When Walshy Fire asks you to host an album listening party, you move your schedule to make it fit. And when that album is the stunning Abeng, all you want to do is listen...

T

HE CALL came late in the day for me to host a Q&A and album listening party, but it was a request that I didn’t mind reshuffling my diary for as it was to assist a longstanding friend of mine.

Walshy Fire was in the UK to promote his brand new project, called Abeng.

It is an 11-track album which connects Caribbean and African sounds and artists together seamlessly.

Fusing sounds is something Walshy Fire has been doing for many a year. He was part of the collective from Miami called Black Chiney, a juggling sound who made waves in the 90s with their unique remixes that merged dancehall with any genre they could get their hands on. Their mix CDs were a sought-after commodity in the streets.

FUSING SOUNDS: Seani B was ready to help out Walshy Fire with the launch of the new 11-track album Abeng, hosting a chat with the artist, left, in a London hotel

BUSINESS

Walshy, Willie Chin, the now Grammy-winning producer Supa Dups and co were part of a “remix” movement that was growing worldwide. I was doing my thing in the UK, while in Jamaica Renaissance Disco with Jazzy T, Delano and DJ Karim were the guys to beat.

It created a cat-and-mouse game in the business where DJs and bedroom producers would seek out acapellas to create unauthorised mixes that at times were more popular than the originals.

This was one of the first points that was brought up in this album listening session, where Walshy boldly stated that this is where Major Lazer got their “style” from.

Major Lazer are the charttopping act that consists of Diplo, Jillionaire and Walshy – they are big business!

Regardless of family connections, Walshy is a man who talks the truth as he knows it, unapologetically.

Gathered in the Ace Hotel in trendy East London were 100 industry people ranging from club and radio DJs to promoters and publishers all ready to hear what inspired Abeng and what the journey was like to finish this project.

Even though the man has been behind so many projects (like the now-legendary early Chronixx mixtape – which he said was recorded in two hours after a random meet-up with Chronixx in Kingston), Abeng was something Walshy knew was close to his heart of his first visit to Kenya.

He explained that the similarities of Kenya to his home of Kingston, Jamaica, were unbelievable.

Walshy, in total control of the room, said he loved telling the story of Abeng – a childhood friend of his.

Basically, he used to take the mick out of his friend’s name – then found out the true meaning behind it.

“Abeng” is a bull’s horn that

is used to communicate over long distances. And this is exactly what the album is!

When he found out his friend

– are not easy pickings. Once again, Walshy was not shy to tell the truth about dealing with egos. He told us this took

“If others want to listen and enjoy, cool, but this is for my people” had passed, this further concreted the idea to use the name.

With a line-up that boasts the best of three worlds, this must have been a hard task to put together.

Machel Montano, Wizkid, Demarco, Nailah Blackman, Alkaline – to name just a few

three years to put together and there are many tracks that didn’t make the final cut due to various reasons.

Even though he was honest with the many frustrations, at no time did he think to quit and go down an easier route.

I asked him: what was the goal for this album? “To open up

communication amongst our people,” he said.

“If others want to listen and enjoy, cool, but this is for my people.”

NUMBERS

Walshy talked about the rise of Afrobeats compared to the music in the Caribbean, which he doesn’t like to separate into dancehall and soca, and explained why: “In Africa they have the numbers [people].

“If tomorrow you become a star in Lagos you can gain five million followers instantly due to the demographic and amount of people in that space.”

He further explained by separating Caribbean music into categories we weaken

our numbers, when everything coming out of Africa is “Afrobeats”.

I could only nod in agreement.

This was meant to be an evening spent listening to three years of hard work of chasing artists to get that hook and verse – unfortunately or fortunately, it was an evening of enlightenment from where I was sitting.

About 25 years ago I was a kid in my bedroom in west London merging sounds and genres together, just like the kids in Kingston, Miami and New York.

Now, I see what our wild ideas have come to.

The Abeng was working well!

56 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 56 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Film

HOLDING OUT Lifestyle talks to Nickolai Salcedo, star of a new film about a Trinidadian war veteran. He talks about why telling these stories is important, how he got started in acting, and growing up in the Caribbean

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By Joel Campbell RODUCED AND directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, Hero tells the story of Trinidadian war veteran Ulric Cross, a role performed and executed with aplomb by Nickolai Salcedo.

A visual performing artist, Salcedo told Lifestyle that it was important that films like Hero were made as “stories like this highlight the ways in which black people have come together, set with the intention of rising above themselves and their differences to serve a common purpose”.

H e r o features a host of celebrated British actors including Joseph Marcell The Fresh Prince (The ), playing of Bel-Air), the role of writer CLR James; Fraser James, playing the role of George Padmore and British-Nigerian actor Jimmy Akingbola (Holby City), playing Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah.

But not a lot is known about Salcedo (inset)… until now.

Lifestyle: For those who aren’t au fait with who you are, how did you become an actor and what road led you to Hero?

Nickolai Salcedo: I started a minor in Theatre Arts while pursuing my Bachelors Degree in Visual Art at the University of the West Indies in 2000. I didn’t stick with the minor as I wanted to get into other areas of study, such as music.

This scholastic foray, however, gave me an introduction to a few key players in Trinidad’s theatre world. In the years following I became a

school art teacher, occasionally dabbling with a theatre production or two. That lasted until 2010 when I left the job to focus on my music.

Then in 2012, my friend Timmia Hearn asked me to join the Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW) as an in-house actor. That was when I became an actor in the professional sense, diving into the deep with the company’s productions of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Samuel Shepard’s Fool For Love.

At this point, Hero was having au auditions but I didn’t qualify at the time as my hair was in long dreadl o c k s .

One crisis of identity later and the locks were cut.

Then in 2013, while I was still working for TTW, Hero was having a second round of auditions and someone told me I should go for it.

My expectations weren’t high but I thought I’d give it a shot. A couple readings later I got the call. I had no idea what to expect but pretty soon I was being trained to eat, sleep, walk and talk like Ulric.

L: You are Trini to the bone – how did your early years help to define the person that is Nickolai Salcedo today?

NS: I was always very quiet and reserved. I have always been a loner. I was heavily bullied during my school years in Trinidad and I constantly struggled with thoughts of suicide and implosion.

Art was the only thing that kept me going. It was a drug to me. I couldn’t stop drawing.

I lived through my work. Comic

books, heavy metal music and the fantasy worlds in my head were all at that time coming out in a jumbled mess every time I drew or wrote something.

During those years I was obsessed with identity a lot. A big question from that time till now has remained: what does it mean to be a Trinidadian or even Caribbean person other than just simply belonging to a geographical group?

Even as a child, I couldn’t buy into many of the things that those around me wanted me to accept. Most of my peers were into dancehall music and trying to emulate the gangsters on television. Meanwhile I was trying to make sense of my life as a child of divorced parents and a sibling of two rather rambunctious brothers.

I never understood “bad man” culture. I’ve watched how it slowly eroded a lot of the positives in Trinidadian society. Similarly, I never really understood religion. I gave up on that at 15 and politics followed not too long after.

The world outside could think what it wanted, but as someone growing up in the economic and social rollercoaster of Trinidad in the 80s and 90s, I knew it wasn’t the paradise that people spoke of.

After a brief period of study under the mentorship of Master Artist and Orisha Chief Leroy Clarke, I found someone who validated (probably unbeknownst to him) my increasing disenchantment with sweet, sweet T&T. My art became my response. Through it, I channelled all the hurt and confusion and disenchantment of my youth and found my voice.

When I eventually started my band in 2007, I found a way to disseminate my thoughts using the stage and theatricality.

Owing to my passively turbulent youth, from a relatively early stage of my career I made the decision to be an artist who avoids frivolity in his

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TRULY AMAZING: In a scene from Hero, Nickolai Salcedo plays Trinidadian war veteran Ulric Cross

work. Now here I stand today, still fulfilling the mandate.

L: With Hero, you really got stuck into it – what was it about the movie that made it work for you?

NS: I really fell in love with Hero’s story. As an actor and storyteller myself, that’s always

to remove the shackles imposed upon them by using the very systems put in place to oppress them.

There was a clear ambition in the film that I felt had been sorely lacking for a long time; at least in the films I had been seeing. It was all too exciting.

How could one say no to that?

We need to see the good in ourselves. Young people need to see the value in what they choose to do the first thing I’m looking for.

The story which the characters in a film are living is where I find the lessons and morals and resolutions for my own life.

From inception with Hero, I really appreciated the film’s bold stance of representing the Caribbean contributions to recent geopolitical history.

History is written by the victors, who of course portray themselves as natural conquerors. This story, however, is the voice of those who worked

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L: From your perspective how important is it to be telling these stories?

NS: Stories like this are extremely important.

For starters, they show us that the negative stereotypes that continue to flood our screens about African people are ignorant and one-sided at best and, perhaps, dangerously intentional at their worst.

After all, colonialism never really ended, did it?

The players may have

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changed or shifted their positions of importance on the field, but the game is still in play without any end in sight.

But even more important is the fact that stories like this highlight the ways in which black peoples have come together, set with the intention of rising above themselves and their differences to serve a common purpose.

This is something which I believe African peoples especially need now more than ever.

We need to see the good in ourselves. Our young people need to see the good in themselves. They need to see the value in what they choose to do and who they choose to become.

I mean, let’s face it, Ulric could have chosen to live a dead-end existence like so many around him and like so many around us now. But his bold decision to pursue a path of service to worthy causes took him to places he could have only dreamed of had he remained small-minded.

What he and his companions aimed for was a noble enterprise; and despite their

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OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 57

Film

FOR THIS HERO Hero is going on a national tour for Black History Month. Here’s where to watch it:

efforts having in many ways been thwarted, they nevertheless stand as giants in my book.

L: Was it easy to deliver on the vision of director Frances-Anne Solomon?

NS: Over the course of this film, I’d like to think that Frances-Anne Solomon and I grew to have a friendly respect for one another. I am a firm believer in listening to the director. Their very title commands adherence to vision.

Although her style was new to me at the time that I started the project, I very soon came to trust and I would even say like it. Her approach is one that allowed me to sit in the character’s skin and just channel Ulric’s life and thoughts.

In many ways, FrancesAnne encouraged a rather collaborative experience. It was as though she wanted me to just be myself in a different era, which brought me face-toface with the infinite universality of time, if that makes any sense. All the same issues that plagued humanity then, still plague us today – and Frances-Anne was highlighting them

all and in the process, re-presenting solutions to us today.

L: Lastly, there are a plethora of positive contributions from Mr Ulric Cross (his life was truly amazing) – what though, for you was the most pertinent part?

NS: Ulric’s years in Africa stand out to me. As those countries were becoming independent, the constitutional framework that he helped to provide was crucial. His years in the war was him fighting as just another “coloured pawn” in someone else’s battle. But the work he did on the constitution for the United States of Africa under the guidance of Padmore and Nkrumah is where he truly allowed himself to be swept up in the winds of change.

I think it’s also because through the Pan African Movement he was finally given the chance to practice what he loved most... law. I think being finally given that opportunity pushed him to greater heights.

It’s amazing the kind of things people can achieve when they are granted the chance to operate in their field of expertise.

SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

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OCTOBER 2019

THE VOICE | 59

Entertainment

Books

Decade of dating summed up in a handy book

Winsome Duncan’s had disasters and delights in romance – and now she reveals all her tips

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

L

ET’S BE honest, online dating can be a minefield – but like it or not, it’s become a serious option for the singletons who have exhausted every other avenue to find ‘the one’.

Winsome Duncan, inset right, is no exception to the dating game and it’s been an eventful decade trying to lure Mr Right into her clutches.

While there have been some close calls, near misses and efforts totally wide of the mark, the south London-based author tells Lifestyle that she ain’t giving up the ghost yet.

Lifestyle: With 10 years of online dating, few people are as experienced as you – was that the motivation for your latest book, He Loves Me Not? Winsome Duncan: Online

dating started in 1994. I was motivated by my tears of frustration and continual disappointment of meeting dates who were somehow broken in their form.

I was accused of being a serial dater and I was left depressed and crying for a week and it prompted me to think about why I left this impression.

I have always desired a healthy, loving and stable relationship, yet what I was attracting was toxic, harmful and emotionally dwarfed communications with men.

I had to lift up the bonnet of my heart and do the internal work and dig deeper.

I wanted to discover the reason why, when it hurts so bad, why does it feel so good?

Writing this book was cathar-

tic and a journey about selfdiscovery.

It is important for me to highlight safety issues for those who are new to online dating and to provide tools for people who have been unsuccessful in communicating online.

Lifestyle: You detail some sketchy dalliances, even one with a gun, what was that like?

WD: Yes, I was staring down the barrel of a gun – he said: “I bet you’re scared now.”

I froze to the spot, my heart pounded and my body went cold. His job was a sniper.

We spoke for one year prior to meeting up and I thought he was safe. I talk about this in the chapter called ‘Boy Meets Girl’.

Lifestyle: There’s a lot of humour in this book, was that on

purpose because the subject of finding love can be so, well, not funny?

WD: I have to laugh at my pain, it keeps me sane.

I am a joker by nature and when I wrote this book, I wanted to show readers the light and shade of the dating culture.

I think my descriptions are so decorative that one would have to share some chuckles over a glass of red wine.

Lifestyle: Who has a harder time, men or women, and who would benefit most from your book?

WD: Women have the hardest time because we are lifegivers.

Being a mother means that date nights are few and far between if you’re in a relationship – so imagine what it is like for a lone parent.

Men have feelings too, they are better at hiding it, that is why the suicide rate for men

is higher. Since the book’s release, men have spoken to me more than females about heartaches or player ways in online dating.

This book is medicine for a heartbreak and benefits both sexes as it has universal appeal, men and women can use the 65 rules that are listed.

Lifestyle: What’s next for you on the literary front?

WD: I am expanding the book series, as huge volumes of men have requested to enter their stories and there will be a part two called She Loves Me Not. In the interim, I am working with media partner H2R Inc Ltd to develop the vis-

uals for the book in YouTube spoofs and our dating chat show LoveNet.

He Loves Me Not is available now on all good book-selling platforms.

| THE 2019 6060 OCTOBER 2019 | THEVOICE VOICE OCTOBER

Entertainment

FILM

Black talent shines on screen This year’s BFI Film Festival set to showcase the latest cohort of black film stars

BY LYDIA SHAW

B

FI LONDON Film Festival returns to the Southbank this October, as it prepares to show the best cinema offerings across the capital.

The annual festival, which runs from October 2 to 13 and is open to the public, features a plethora of feature films across various genres, offering viewers a chance to see some of the most highly anticipated flicks to be released in the coming months – and to see some rising stars on the brink of success and worldwide acclaim.

Beyond the glitz and glamour, the festival also offers a range of industry talks and events that explore what goes on behind the camera and has made a conscious effort to embrace diversity on and off the screen.

Ahead of its launch, we’ve highlighted some of the must-

MUST-SEE MOVIES: Harriet stars Cynthia Erivo as the iconic American freedom figher; inset below left, Just Mercy stars Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx as a lawyer and his client facing execution

see films which include black talent, from the social justice drama Just Mercy to the ground-breaking Atlantics.

ROCKS Directed by Sarah Gavron (Suffragette), Rocks is a vibrant and hugely engaging portrait of female friendship and growing up in London.

The film features young non-actors who were found through work-shopping in London schools.

As well as focusing on females in front of the camera, the crew was made up of 75 per cent women, showcasing the beauty of diverse filmmaking and what can come from it.

JUST MERCY A powerful and thought-provoking true story, Just Mercy follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice.

After graduating from Harvard, Bryan has his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson).

One of his first, and most

incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence.

In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political manoeuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds – and the system – stacked against them.

It has already received rave reviews after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and is sure to make a splash this award season.

THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO Directed by Joe Talbot,

The Last Black Man In San Francisco tells the story of Jimmie (Jimmie Fails), who dreams of reclaiming the

“Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of Harriet Tubman, it tells of her escape from slavery” beautiful late 19th century home his grandfather built in the heart of the city, before harder times and changing demographics forced his family out. The film creates a

Something for the next generation

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

THE BFI London Film Festival (LFF), in partnership with American Express, announced a new education programme this month, which gives children and young people UK-wide the chance to enjoy brilliant films from this year’s festival.

School students, with their teachers, can access free screenings of major new films,

such as Abominable (Jill Culton, 2019) and The Aeronauts (Tom Harper, 2019) in venues in Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Sheffield with special guests Q&As. Audiences aged 16-25 can get a sneak peak of Sarah Gavron’s LFF Special Presentation Rocks (2019), followed by London based workshops with the film’s crew.

The festival also introduces #GenerationNow, a selection of short films available online for free at bfi.org.uk/ lffeducation.

gorgeous, inventive meditation on art, architecture, black culture and gentrification in California’s Bay Area and has received acclaim since its Sundance Film Festival debut in January.

ATLANTICS Director and actor Mati Diop (35 Shots of Rum) delivers a hypnotic, genre-shifting portrait of a girl’s awakening in Atlantics.

The film, which won the top prize at Cannes Film Festival – making Diop the first black woman to win it – tells the story of lovebirds Ada and Souleiman.

Souleiman is tired of labouring without pay on the gleaming towers of Dakar and decides to set out across the sea with friends, leaving Ada to face impending marriage to another man.

The film is a cinematic masterpiece filled with mystical symbolism and an evocative synth score by Fatima Al Qadiri.

BURNING CANE Winner of the top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, contemporary southern gothic Burning Cane heralds 19-year-old director Phillip Youmans as a serious new talent.

The film follows a Louisiana family and their pastor, as they deal with unemployment, alcohol addiction, family dynamics and much more.

LITTLE MONSTERS Lupita Nyong’o shines in a delirious zom-com that you

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definitely do not want to miss, as a washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids’ show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies.

HARRIET Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, Harriet, which stars British actress Cynthia Erivo, tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes.

LUCE Luce is a gripping psychological thriller, starring Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth, Naomi Watts, Julius Onah and Kelvin Harrison Jr, set around a former refugee and child soldier from a war-torn African country.

Seemingly recovered from his childhood trauma, he now lives in his adoptive country as the son of white, liberal, middle-class parents.

This is deeply satisfying filmmaking: disciplined, canny, provocative and complex, like Luce himself.

The 63rd BFI London Film Festival is taking place from October 2 - 13.

Tickets are available now can be bought online (bfi.org.uk/lff), via phone 02079283232 (10am to 8.30pm daily) or in person at BFI Southbank.

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OCTOBER 2019 2019 THE THE VOICE| OCTOBER VOICE | 6161

by Rodney Hinds @thevoicenews

voicenewspaper

8

Motoring Exercise

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Taking on the Italian job It sounds like a pizza but it drives like a dream – the Stelvio Quadrifoglio is a dose of sunshine

L

ET ME tell you a story!

During the summer, I went to meeting deep in west London and things got a bit frosty.

It was one of those situations whereby you were glad when discussions were over and you could just go about your business.

So, when discussions were over, the participants made their way to the car park… and that’s when frost turned to sunshine, as my stunning Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio turned the heads of those that had previously been less welcoming.

This Alfa has a sporty, muscular design that’s on a par with the very best in the class.

If you want a family car that

Car: Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Price range: £37,745 – £89,501

 

creates attention, you can’t do much better than the Stelvio.

“The Stelvio’s an exciting addition to the compact SUV market” There’s the high driving position you’d expect from an SUV, as well as plenty of space for five people. Standard equipment is generous.

The Stelvio also feels calm and composed on the road.

It has the largest alloy wheels available and a firmer suspension setup to aid performance.

On the safety front, you will have no worries whatsoever should you acquire this Italian job. In Euro NCAP crash testing, the Stelvio achieved the full five stars, with a “near-perfect” 97 per cent score for adult occupant protection.

It carries all the latest musthave safety features, including autonomous emergency braking.

Overall, the Stelvio makes an exciting addition to the massed ranks of premium compact SUVs out there.

It’s close to the default German choices for quality and efficiency and treats buyers to a dose of Italian passion, too.

The sporty, muscular design is on a par with the very best in the class It does everything nearly as well as its top rivals – but fussy drivers may find another option more alluring

Built for long runs but fine in the city

Vauxhall’s Insignia Grand Sport is stable, controllable and secure – even if it’s not really that sporty

M

Y ONE regret after a week’s evaluation of the Insignia was that I was unable to take this grand tourer on a motorway trip.

This huge vehicle is built for a long run but, that said, it also handled itself with aplomb around the streets of London.

The handling precision, body control and cornering balance are all creditable, and although none is convincing enough to make the car feel like much of a sporting option, the Insignia remains stable, controllable and secure with its electronic stability and traction controls disabled.

Despite having shed quite a lot of weight compared to the previous-generation car, the

 

Insignia Grand Sport still feels relatively heavy in bends. The steering is reasonably accurate but, as you turn in to a corner, there’s a moment’s hesi-

“Vauxhall were left behind but this gains some parity” tation as the body leans over and only when it has settled does the car show eagerness to change direction.

There is plenty of grip and balance, though, so you can carry speed with confidence.

There’s a lot of choice should you decide to purchase.

There’s a wide range of petrol and diesel engines that produce between 109bhp and 256bhp and, depending on the engine you choose, you can opt for front-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, a six-speed manual, six-speed automatic or an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

A lot of choice, then.

What I love about this Insignia is the potential flexibility; company car drivers, families or singletons can all embrace this Vauxhall offering.

The manufacturer has been left behind by some rivals but this huge car, and the way it does its thing, is a good attempt to gain some parity.

Car: Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport SRI Vx-Line Nav 1.6 auto Price range: £20,045 - £38,520

With plenty of engine choices, Vauxhall can help families, individuals and companies find a model for them Some hesitation on the corners makes it feel heavy on the bends, despite having shed quite a lot of weight

THEVOICE VOICE OCTOBER OCTOBER 2019 62 || THE 2019 62

What’s on & where

MUSIC

them will be the supremely talented Ruby Turner, with An Evening with Whitney her breath-taking gospel, soul and rhythm & blues BASE Hologram, the leading live event producer vocals; Louise Marshall, of cutting edge holographic with her beautiful soul and jazz tones; as well as live entertainment tours and attractions worldwide, original Squeeze member and powerhouse Gilson has announced – in partnership with the estate Lavis on drums.

Kicks off on October 16, of renowned songstress with UK dates ending on and legendary performer December 22 Whitney Houston – the Venues all across the UK dates of the upcoming UK, check the website for hologram touring details production. This is the joolsholland.com/ only production authorised tourdates.htm by the Whitney Houston estate, and features Various, up to £62 the chance to hear her renditions of classic hits FESTIVALS I Will Always Love You, I Wanna Dance With Birmingham Arts and Somebody (Who Loves Mental Health Festival Me) and Higher Love.

Revellers are gearing up February 27, 2020 to for the fourth edition of March 10, 2020 Birmingham’s Bedlam Arts M&S Bank Arena 2 and Mental Health Festival, Arena – Liverpool; one of the largest festivals Apollo – Manchester; of its kind in the UK. First Direct Arena – Leeds; The spectacular SEC Armadillo – Glasgow; event, which runs for a P&J Arena – Aberdeen; phenomenal 12 days, will Bord Gais Theatre – Dublin; present more than 25 Arena – Birmingham; events in a range of venues Bournemouth International across the city to raise Centre – Bournemouth; awareness of mental health Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff; and wellbeing through the Brighton Centre – Brighton; importance of the arts.

Royal Concert Hall – October 1- 12 Nottingham; Multiple venues across Hammersmith Apollo – the city London bedlamfestival.co.uk ticketline.co.uk From £5 From £45 - £65, up to £70 in London Jools Holland Autumn/ Winter Tour Piano superstar and Hootenanny host Jools Holland, below, is touring once again with the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra on an annual excursion around the UK. Joining

DAYS OUT

Celebrate Black History Month at the Belgrade Theatre Discover films, photography, comedy, music and more in Coventry this October to explore Black History Month. On October 2, there’s a screening of Sorry to Bother You. On October 5, there’s the exhibition Britain Needs You. A Comedy Of Black Origin Comedy Shutdown takes place on October 18.

Youth theatre groups get in on the action on October 23 with handson, interactive exploring elements of black history through drama.

And finally, on October 25, the Coventry Diversity Forum will be held.

See above Various Belgrade Theatre, Belgrade Square, Coventry, CV1 1GS belgrade.co.uk Check website

enquiries@gresham.ac. uk Free, but reservations are required

INTERACTIVE EXPLORATION: Youth theatre will explore Black History Month in Coventry

R’n’Brunch w/ Bottomless Prosecco Rock The Belles Present…

R’n’Brunch. A brunch party from London’s flyest ladies of R’n’B & Hiphop…

The event includes two courses, bottomless Prosecco between 1pm2pm, or just £8 entry only for RnB Quiz & Party.

Featuring DJs Emily Rawson (1Xtra), Ellie Prohan, Fearney and Sandra Omari.

October 5 12pm - 5pm Red Rooster Shoreditch, 45 Curtain Rd, Hackney, London, EC2A 3PT supadupaflylove.com £42

EVENINGS OUT Black History Month screening of The Stuart Hall Project October is Black History Month, a time when the achievements, culture and struggles of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people are recognised and celebrated throughout the country.

The Stuart Hall Project is a 2013 British film written and directed by John Akomfrah, centred on Jamaican cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who is regarded as one of the founding figures of the New Left, New Left Review and a key architect of Cultural Studies in Britain.

Witness a life lived

through the 20th century’s defining political moments.

October 11 7pm - 10.30pm Effraspace, 21 Effra Parade, London, SW2 1PX Free

in Europe. In Africa, debates about the origins of exclusion in stratified post-slavery societies have been challenging the mechanisms of marginalisation of people of slave descent.

October 14 6pm - 7pm Museum of London, Human Traffic: Race and Post-War Migration 150 London Wall, London, Policy EC2Y 5HN Professor David Olusoga enquiries@gresham.ac. explores the years after uk 1945 when successive Free, but reservations British governments set out are required to weaponise the nation’s immigration policy.

Black Tudors: Three To maintain historic ties to the Old Commonwealth, Untold Stories Dr Miranda Kaufmann (of and shore-up Britain’s position as a ‘world power’ the University of London) they encouraged and even tells the intriguing tales of three Africans living in subsidised the emigration Tudor England – Jacques of over a million Britons Francis, a diver employed while simultaneously

by Henry VIII to recover recruiting thousands of guns from the wreck of the East Europeans for new Mary Rose; Mary Fillis, a lives in Britain.

Moroccan woman baptized October 1 in Elizabethan London; and 6pm - 7pm Edward Swarthye, a porter Museum of London, who whipped a fellow 150 London Wall, servant at their master’s London, Gloucestershire manor EC2Y 5HN house. enquiries@gresham.ac.

Their stories illuminate uk key issues: – how did they Free, but reservations come to England? What are required were their lives like? How were they treated by the Slavery, Memory and church and the law? Most Reparations Using memory scholarship, importantly: were they free? this talk by Professor October 17 Olivette Otele (of Bath Spa 6pm - 7pm University) will examine Museum of London, how the history and 150 London Wall, memory of enslavement London, shaped questions of EC2Y 5HN identity and citizenship

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Freedom Song: The Fisk Jubilee Singers Story A choir of ex-slaves, raising funds to build their university, toured America from 1871, suffering discrimination and hardship. They came to England, were treated with respect and sang to Queen Victoria and Gladstone.

Spiritual songs are folk music and belong to us all, but because they came out of such horrific suffering it’s hard to know how to sing them.

This lecture, by Professor Harvey Brough (University of Southampton) tells the tale of the singers whose courage and enterprise brought them to the world.

The songs they sang include Steal Away to Jesus, Go Down Moses and Deep River.

October 24 6pm - 7pm Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN enquiries@gresham.ac. uk Free, but reservations are required Slavery and the City of London by Professor Richard Drayton, King’s College London Another lecture in Gresham College’s Black History Month series, this talk by Professor Richard Drayton (King’s College London) looks at London.

Freedom has been central to the identity of the City of London for centuries. But from the 17th to the 19th centuries, the African slave trade and plantation slavery in the Americas were key to London’s banking, insurance, shipping, manufacturing, commodity trades with Europe, gold and silver supply in London, and later merchant banks like Barings, Schroeder and Kleinwort.

The City also benefited from the end of slavery, as compensated emancipation liberated a flood of liquid capital and provided a £500,000 per annum income stream to its funders.

October 28 6pm - 7pm Museum of London,

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 63 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 63

T O CH P

NEWSP APER

OICE

PLAYLAND By Athol Fugard

Directed by multi-award winning director and Elysium Theatre co-founder, Jake Murray, Playland was South African playwright Athol Fugard’s last work written under Apartheid.

Set on New Year’s Eve 1989, only a month or so prior to Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, the Cold War is over, the world is changing, and two men encounter one another in a remote corner of Playland – a run-down funfair somewhere in the vast wilderness known as the Karoo.

The two men – Gideon Le Roux, a white ex-soldier fresh from the Border War in Namibia and who is suffering from PTSD, and Martinus Zoeloe, a black night-watchman who murdered his white boss a decade before for raping his wife – confront each other, both fleeing from the demons of their past. As night draws in, neither can escape from what they have done, and must work out their own redemption as they beat against the limits of forgiveness.

October 24-26 7.30pm The Empty Space, Footlights House, 48 Kansas Avenue Media City UK, M50 2G ticketsource.co.uk/elysium-theatre-company £10.50 / £8.50

150 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN enquiries@gresham.ac. uk Free, but reservations are required

First show October 17 Various, including matinees Theatre Peckham, 221 Havil St, Camberwell, London, SE5 7SD info@lovethyfro.com £12 for adults, £6 for concessions

THEATRE Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘Crystal’ Cirque du Soleil is gliding into the UK with its coolest arena show yet – Crystal.

This one-of-a-kind arena show blends circus arts and the world of ice skating in a stunning new production that will take the audience on a journey into a whimsical frozen playground where stunning skating combined with jaw dropping acrobatic feats defy the imagination.

March 6-8, 2020 TBC FlyDSA Arena, Broughton Ln, Sheffield, S9 2DF cirquedusoleil.com/ crystal £33 to £156 Love Thy Fro: The Musical Following a sold-out debut in 2018, this children’s musical – an adaptation of

Casey Elisha’s children’s book Love Thy Fro – will play nine shows at Theatre Peckham.

School photo day is coming up and Kemi has a crisis – her hair isn’t right.

After many failed attempts to try and tame it, Kemi goes on an unexpected journey to the 1970s where she meets a familiar face and discovers there is something deeply special about taking pride in her big, beautiful afro hair. The question is – will she get it right in time for photo day?

Love Thy Fro: The Musical, pictured above, teaches that there pride to be had in loving the skin you’re in.

Our Lady Of Kibeho In 1981 at Kibeho College in Rwanda, a young girl claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary who warned her of the unimaginable: Rwanda becoming hell on Earth.

She was ignored by her friends and scolded by her school but then another student saw the vision, and another, and the impossible appeared to be true...

Giving a haunting insight into the extraordinary true events that captured the world’s attention, this vibrantly theatrical meditation on faith, doubt and miracles was hailed as ‘the most important play of the year’ by The Wall Street Journal when it premiered in New York in 2014. It is the latest work from Olivier Award-winning writer Katori Hall, whose previous plays include Tina:

The Tina Turner Musical and The Mountaintop.

Marking 25 years since the Rwandan genocide, this striking drama now has its London premiere at Stratford East in a remount of James Dacre’s criticallyacclaimed production.

Throughout October 7.30pm (unless otherwise stated) Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, London, E15 1BN stratfordeast.com/ whats-on/all-shows/ our-lady-of-kibeho £10 to £35 Ballet Black: Triple Bill Celebrating their 18th year, there’s always excitement when Ballet Black take to the stage.

Their popular programme contrasts dramatic and inventive storytelling in a lively showcase of modern ballets.

Led by artistic director Cassa Pancho, recent recipient of the Freedom of the City of London for her contribution to diversity in ballet, the company celebrates dancers of black and Asian descent.

November 6 - 9 7.45pm

Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, London, E15 1BN stratfordeast.com/ whats-on/all-shows/ ballet-black-triple-bill £10 - £39 ‘Master Harold’… and the boys Tony Award-winning playwright Athol Fugard’s semi-autobiographical and blistering masterwork explores the nature of friendship, and the ways

people are capable of hurting even those they love. Roy Alexander Weise (Nine Night) directs Lucian Msamati (Amadeus) and Hammed Animashaun (Barber Shop Chronicles) as Sam and Willie.

September 21 – December 17 Various The National Theatre, Upper Ground, Lambeth, London, SE1 9PX nationaltheatre.org.uk Various – check the venue

64 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Recruitment

Tel: 020 7510 0340

JOBS

Director of Library Services and University Librarian Cardiff University is seeking to appoint an experienced and capable leader with a proven track record of information management and the credibility and experience to motivate and lead a dispersed team of over 230 staff to deliver excellent library services that support the ambition of the institution.

It’s an exciting period of change for Cardiff University Library Services. With a Professional Service Transformation programme in its first year of activity, the Library Service is leading the transformation of three library sites to provide increase student study space, the management of special collections and archives and library store facilities.

Following reviews and substantial investment, the team are implementing a revised service delivery model focussed on maintaining high levels of student satisfaction. This is underpinned by strong ethos of customer service excellence, continuous improvement and a digital first policy. Current serviced priorities include the implementation of a new online reading list system, the consolidation of legacy print content and development of key strategic partnerships to extend access to research resources.

IFIED

Company (UK) Ltd

To apply you must be a credible and experienced information management professional. You must also be able to able to demonstrate substantial experience in creating strategies for service excellence and innovation within a Russell Group University.

The ability to effectively manage a budget of over £11 million will be critical as is the ability to work in partnership with colleagues, both across the University and in external organisations.

Reporting to and working closely with the Academic Registrar, you will play a key role in delivering learning, research and civic mission services throughout the University. You will also embrace the opportunity to represent the University at a national and international level.

Last but not least, it is essential that you engage and uphold our University Library Service’s values and behaviours.

SEPTEMBER 26 - 2 OCTOBER, 2019 | pages 25 - 26

PleaseFax: email020 seniorrecruitment@cardiff.ac.uk for further information and a recruitment pack.

0 7510 0340 7510 0341 Salary: competitive salarySE1 based GV Media Group Ltd, Unit 1, A Mandela Way, London, 5SR on experience on a point on the Senior Staff Salary Scale Closing date for applications: 14 October 2019 ation ❖ rent/sale ❖ education ❖ employment ❖ health ❖ travel, and more...

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Reviewing Officer

Core Tasks • To carry out statutory annual reviews of Foster Carers.

• To satisfy Fostering London that the foster carers continue to be suitable to be professional foster carers and that all safeguarding issues are ad dressed.

• To make recommendation to Fostering London in regard to foster carers terms of approval.

• To give the foster carer, the social worker of any child in placement, birth children and fostered children the opportunity to give feedback about the placement • To be part of Fostering London’s Quality Assurance processes children.

• To ensure foster carers are enabling children to reach their full potential.

• The completion of review reports and presentation to the Fostering Panel.

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Able to apply good understanding of legislation in child protection and Looked after Children statutory requirements and local safeguarding procedures.

Able to chair and review with professionalism and sensitivity and address any potential areas of concern and difficult situations.

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Assessment of potential foster carers; completing the Form F and presenting it to panel.

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Supervising specific foster carer/s Undertaking foster carers’ annual reviews.

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JOBS

Gospel Temple Apostolic Church is delighted to announce it has bagged £1,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.

Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores in Enfield, Ponders End and Lea Valley and it can now be revealed that Gospel Temple Apostolic Church has been awarded £1k to bring to life their Windrush Community Singers project in Enfield and Haringey. To bring this project to life Gospel Temple Apostolic Church is recruiting a choirmaster /musical director. A talented musical director in the vein of Karen Gibson who has an eye for talent and can participate in the auditioning process from Tuesday 17th September.

The choir master will be responsible for selecting the most gifted gospel singers in the recruitment phase, rehearse them on a Sunday evening and direct them in three choir performances on Saturday 26th October at an anniversary service, Saturday 23rd November at a gospel singing fair and Saturday 7th, 14th and/or 21st December doing Christmas carol singing in local supermarkets. The choir master will contribute to the development and practice of gospel singers through rehearsals and performance, as well as holding a singing workshop at the gospel singing fair to share skills with the local community helping them to learn how to sing doing breathing exercises. The Christmas carol singing in local supermarkets will be a showcase to the local community of the gospel bringing the Christian message of love, joy and hope.

To register your interest email your c.v. and showreel to:

gospeltemple@outlook.com or visit www.gospeltemple.org.uk

GOSPEL SINGERS

Gospel Temple Apostolic Church is delighted to announce it has bagged £1,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.

Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores in Enfield, Ponders End and Lea Valley and it can now be revealed that Gospel Temple Apostolic Church has been awarded £1k to bring to life their Windrush Community Singers project in Enfield and Haringey. To bring this project to life Gospel Temple Apostolic Church is recruiting for gospel singers.

Talented gospel singers who can lift the spiritual temperature of a venue with their voice and transport the listeners (and participants) into the heavenly realms. This is an opportunity to present the gospel to the local community through singing in order to lift their spirit and show goodwill towards their neighbour with a message of hope. It is also an opportunity for gospel singers to develop their creative practice and to contribute to skill sharing in the community.

To register your interest email your c.v. and showreel to:

gospeltemple@outlook.com or visit www.gospeltemple.org.uk Fostering London is a small, friendly and professional fostering service. We work with foster families across London and surrounding boroughs particularly Essex, Middlesex and Hertfordshire.

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SHELDON TO SHINE

‘I SALUTE YOU’: Sheldon Cottrell provides his trademark celebration after taking a wicket for the Windies during this summer’s World Cup

Cottrell could hold the key as West Indies prepare for Indian assignment

By Rodney Hinds

W

EST INDIES end their calendar year with a visit to India.

There are much easier tasks, as the team from the sub-continent have for some time now been the ones to beat across all formats of the game.

After an underwhelming World Cup campaign, the Windies will start as strong second favourites.

One cricket expert said of West Indies’ summer efforts: “They fought this World Cup campaign like one of history’s greatest commanders, Julius Caesar – only they did it in reverse – they came, they saw and they were conquered.

“Sandwiched between the good bread of victories in their first and final matches, there was quite a bit of mouldy meat in between.”

The one shining light for the men in maroon has been

left-arm fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell.

Cottrell, popularly recognised for his army salute when he dismisses a batsman, took a dozen wickets during the World Cup.

“His eye-catching action involves a military march and salute to the pavilion” He was also responsible for one of the catches of the tournament, when he spectacularly caught Australia’s Steve Smith on the boundary at Trent Bridge.

Jamaica-born Cottrell was lively in the field during the World Cup and could be clas-

sified as an improving component in a side that did not possess too many heroes.

At 30, the best is surely yet to come. The eye-catching action involves a military march and salute to the pavilion, followed by opening his arms to the heavens (formerly a dab) after every wicket, as he is a Jamaican Defence Force soldier.

IMPROVED

The shorter formats of the game would appear to be his forte. He has 24 one-day internationals and 16 T20s to his name despite making his Test debut six years ago.

But he is an improved performer, no question.

This muscular performer brings an energy and verve to whichever team he represents, as is witnessed in the Caribbean Premier League when he turns out for St Kitts & Nevis Patriots.

When the Windies are in need of new heroes, Cottrell is stepping up to the plate.

Age no barrier to success for current world tennis royalty

By Rodney Hinds

THE QUEEN OF THE COURT: Serena Williams

FOR Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, age remains no barrier.

Nadal, aged 33, clinched a 19th Grand Slam title in New York while Williams, at 37, was only denied a record-equalling 24th major title by Bianca Andreescu.

The pair, along with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, inset, continue to defy history with sustained success at the top of their game well into their 30s – something none of their peers have been able to do in recent years.

Last month’s US Open finals highlighted the amazing success of Nadal over such a long period of time, and of course the continued excellence of Williams – even if she can’t quite get that elusive

24th title. But just how significant are their achievements? Is it normal to be this good for so long?

Website Finishing On A High shows how the average age of a major champion in tennis – both male and female – has been just 25 since 2000, proving that the ‘Big Three’ and Williams really are just a cut above the rest.

Looking across six different sports, Finishing On A High looks at the ages of champions from athletics, F1, cycling, boxing, tennis and golf since 2000 to show the true peak age of elite athletes from each sport, and work out the best age to achieve

success across all six. Results show tennis players and sprinters both tend to peak at around 25, but that figure is on the rise on the tennis courts thanks to the staggering continued successes of the likes of Nadal and Williams this year.

While Williams has lost her last four Slam finals, her levels of excellence and consistency remain remarkable, despite having returned from the difficult birth of her daughter two years ago.

But there remains no player in the last 20 years to have won a major beyond the age of 35.

Williams’ success at such a late stage in her career is made even more remarkable by the

average age of her competition, with female winners over the past three years averaging 24.6.

While Williams is something of an outlier in the women’s game, the men’s game appears to be very different.

Since the turn of the century, the average age of a male Grand Slam winner has been 26, but that is a figure quickly on the rise thanks to the prolonged excellence of the ‘Big Three’, whose achievements are put into perspective by the data.

Most male players tend to peak between the ages of 23 and 28, with 51 out of the 78 champions since 2000 in that age range.

However, recent years have seen a considerable change in that trend.

OCTOBER 2019 THE THEVOICE| VOICE| 6767 SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 24, 2019

68 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019 68 | THE VOICE OCTOBER 2019

Sport I WANT IT ALL: European Player of the Year Virgil Van Dijk is setting his sights on achieving more success with the Anfield club – and winning the Premier League is top of the agenda

VAN DIJK’S ON RED ALERT Being Europe’s top player and a Champions League winner not enough for Liverpool star

By Rodney Hinds

A

FTER just four seasons in the Premier League, Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk is already drawing comparisons with top-flight legends such as Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Sol Campbell.

Van Dijk was pivotal to the Reds as they won the UEFA Champions League and just missed out on the Premier League by one point to Manchester City.

The Dutch international, who plied his early career at Celtic and Southampton, is not taking anything for granted as his team look to add to their silverware.

“I think the main thing is putting your head into the mindset that we all start from the bot-

tom,” he said. “We may have won the Champions League last year but that doesn’t count for anything this year.

“We are all starting from the bottom. That’s the reality. If we all keep that in mind, then we should be fine.”

TARGET

And fine they are, as they pursue the Premier League crown – which has to be their top target this term.

There were no major incomings at Anfield during the summer, which indicates that inspirational manager Jurgen Klopp has total faith and belief in this troops.

Van Dijk concurred: “If you look at our group, we have a pretty good squad. Last year we were unlucky with some injuries

to certain players, so hopefully we can all stay fit, because we need everyone.

“Obviously, the teams around us are trying to improve because they want to get as close as pos-

gen in 2011 and has not looked back since.

And having drawn comparisons with the aforementioned legendary names he has been singled out for individual awards.

“We have a fantastic group and I believe we can go all the way with this squad” sible to Man City and ourselves after last year.

“But I’m looking at our team and what we have right now.

We have a fantastic group and I believe we can go all the way with this squad.”

The 28-year-old began his professional career at Gronin-

@thevoicenewspaper

The Breda-born ace collected the UEFA Player of the Year and defender of the season gongs at the outset of the 2019/20 campaign.

He admitted: “It was a special day but it went pretty quick as I had to focus straight away on the next match.

@thevoicenews

“It felt fantastic to receive those two awards.

“It’s been a great year and to gain recognition for what we did is stunning. But, as I said at the time, it’s down to everyone at Liverpool and everyone that has been helping me along the way as well.”

CONTENDERS

To add to Van Dijk’s currency is a nomination for the Best FIFA men’s player of the year award.

He’s in good company as the best two players of the last decade – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – are also contenders.

“I think the thing I put in my mind is that I don’t have an influence on all those things. The only thing I want to do is focus on my game, because I want to get better and there are still

voicenews

plenty of things to improve, both with the team and with myself.

That’s the only thing I can focus on,” he said.

For all the past and present success, it’s the Premier League that Liverpool truly covet.

Eighteen Leagues titles and six European Cups makes them one of the biggest clubs in the world but until they land the Premier League, Reds supporters will not be content.

“I think if you have it in your mind then anything is possible.

Obviously we have plenty of quality players that can make a difference throughout the whole 90 minutes and we should believe in that all the time,” Van Dijk added. “That’s definitely something we try to get into our heads and keep in our heads, and we need to keep believing in that.”

www.voice-online.co.uk

OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 69 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 69

Sport

‘WHITE IS THE NORM’ Watford striker Troy Deeney criticises lack of diversity within football journalism

LAMENTED: Watford striker and captain Troy Deeney is dismayed by the lack of black journalists who cover football; inset below, Troy with Jeanette Kwakye, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Leon Mann

By Rodney Hinds

W

ATFORD ACE Troy Deeney has lamented the lack of black football journalists within the industry.

Deeney was sharing his views at an event aiming to increase diversity in sports media organised by the Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS) and supported by the Mayor of London’s office.

Mayor Sadiq Khan also addressed the audience.

Asked about the lack of black football journalists by facilitator Jeanette Kwakye,

Deeney said: “Can we be honest, here?

“When you come through a mixed zone [an area where players are interviewed after a match], you don’t see anyone of colour apart from Jaydee Dyer [of Sky Sports] – you don’t see anyone!

“For myself, it’s sad because it’s become the norm [not to see black journalists].

The Watford legend, who captained his team to the FA Cup final last May, had a message for a room of aspiring journalists.

“Be yourself, that’s what’s paying at the moment – and will do in the future and life in general,” he said.

“Be authentic, be who you

are and that will sell. There are 700 Kim Kardashians and Jay-Zs. The world is big enough for us all to be ourselves. Your originality will make you stand out.”

He added: “Originality is key. [Journalists] don’t come with the same questions.

“Don’t go on Wikipedia for a start, that’s one of the biggest mistakes people can make!”

Deeney, 31, is a highly respected figure in the Premier League in general and Vicarage Road in particular.

“If you had more black journalists, you might be able to have a bit of banter that only you two get and understand.

I’m good with everybody,

though. It’s all about trust. If I say something here and it lands on social media or is spun in a different way to what I meant, that’s a problem. You have to build relationships.”

Deeney, who has notched up more than 300 games while scoring 114 times, has earned his reputation courtesy of hard graft and honesty.

With an eye on the future, he added: “I starting my Masters in Business in Football. I also have business interests.

“I go with the flow. I do what I love. I’m always trying to push myself and those around me to be better.

“I don’t know if going into the media is for me, I’ll just keep all my options open.

Weekend of women announced by FA

By Karen Palmer THE FA has announced plans for the first-ever Women’s Football Weekend, with November 16-17 set to be another landmark moment in the growing popularity of the women’s game.

With the men’s international weekend creating a pause in the English Premier League and EFL calendars, The FA is calling on supporters to capitalise on the opportunity to back Women’s

Football Weekend and to attend a women’s match at any level in the pyramid next month.

Kelly Simmons, The FA’s women’s professional game director, said: “We are excited to announce the first ever Women’s Football Weekend, for what is sure to be another great moment in a year that has seen huge momentum behind the growth in popularity of women’s football.

“Following on from a recordbreaking FIFA Women’s World Cup and opening Barclays FA Women’s

Super League (WSL) weekend, there has never been a better time to visit your local team.”

It comes as The FA has also revealed that the WSL will be broadcast overseas for the first time.

A three-year media rights deal with Sky Mexico and Scandinavian broadcaster NENT will see super league matches screened to viewers across Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

The six-figure revenue from the

MOMENTUM: Check out your local team on November 16 and 17

deals will be reinvested into the further broadcasting of women’s football, including the development of The FA Player and its ingame production.

The new global live-streaming platform, which launched recently, will provide free unprecedented

access to over 150 domestic women’s football fixtures throughout the season.

The FA Player will also stream selected highlights from the Lionesses, the Women’s FA Cup and the FA Women’s Continental League Cup.

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OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE| 71 OCTOBER 2019 THE VOICE | 71

Sport

COMING UP ROSES

EXCITING: England’s Vitality Roses narrowly beat Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls in the World Cup

England’s netballlers to play Jamaica in front of first home crowd since World Cup

By Karen Palmer

T

HE VITALITY Roses England’s elite netball team, will play in front of a home crowd in January for the first time since the World Cup as part of a new international series.

The Vitality Netball Nations Cup will see the Roses battle against Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls, the New Zealand Silver Ferns and the SPAR Proteas from South Af-

rica across four days of action in three cities.

The Nations Cup is set to kick off at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham on January 19 – which, notably, will be the first time since 2011 that an international netball competition has come to the city.

EXCITING

The competition will start with England playing newly crowned world champions New Zealand, and Jamaica

facing South Africa in what promises to be an exciting start to the series.

The action will then move to Arena Birmingham for

of the competition on January 25 and 26.

Jess Thirlby, the Vitality Roses head coach, said: “This is going to be an ex-

“There’s so much to look forward to and we’re really excited to see the fans back out in force” another double header on January 22 and will conclude at the Copper Box Arena in London for the final two days

tremely exciting event; competition is higher than ever and teams are out to prove themselves following the

incredible exposure of the World Cup. “Not only will we be gaining a valuable opportunity to face some of the world’s best teams, we will also be competing in a completely brand new international competition.

“It is also the first time that the Roses will compete on home soil since the Vitality Netball World Cup and the first time we will be taking netball to three different cities in one series.

“There’s so much to look

forward to and we’re really excited to see all the Roses fans back out in force.”

The series is the latest iteration in Vitality’s commitment to inspiring more people to participate in netball.

Earlier this year Vitality England Netball’s title partner, pledged to provide funding for one person to obtain a UKCC Level 1 Assistant Qualification Coaching Certificate through England Netball for every 100 goals scored during the Vitality Netball World Cup.

Achara the ambassador as basketball star hopes to inspire next generation

By Rodney Hinds

CAPTAIN: Kieron Achara on the court (photo: FIBA)

KIERON ACHARA has been appointed as an ambassador for GB basketball.

Achara announced his retirement from both club and international basketball earlier this year following a prestigious career.

He was the youngest player to play for Scotland and spent more than 10 years representing both Scotland and GB at major tournaments across the world.

Earning 105 caps for GB and a further 30 for Scotland, he also captained both sides.

The 2012 London Olympics and

Commonwealth Games 2018 were among two of his finest achievements.

Domestically, Achara began his career with Falkirk Fury and ended his career with British Basketball Federation (BBF) side Radisson Red Glasgow Rocks, where he scored over 2,000 points across 150 appearances.

In addition, Achara played with teams across Europe, as well as spending four years playing basketball at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, USA. Achara said: “I love the sport of basketball. I’m honoured and excited to have the opportunity to help grow the game and inspire a generation within my new role in British basketball.”

Maurice Watkins CBE, chair of the BBF, which runs the GB basketball programmes, said: “Aside from Kieron’s extraordinary on-court achievements, he has also been a wonderful servant of the sport’s development, not least at community level, where he continues to inspire young people to change their lives through the sport of basketball.

“We are delighted that Kieron has agreed to join us as ambassador and we look forward to working with him.

Following on from GB Women’s fourthplace finish at Eurobasket, this is an exciting time for British basketball. I’m looking forward to Kieron being part of the next chapter.”

OCTOBER 2019 | THE VOICE

TOP SPORTS COVERAGE 24/7 VOICE-ONLINE.CO.UK/SPORT

OF SPORT NEWSPAPER

THE HEAT IS ON

DRIVING FORCE: England will be looking to the likes of Maro Itoje, seen here in action against Tonga, to shine in Japan; inset, Jason Robinson was part of the England team that reached the World Cup final in 2003 and 2007

Rugby World Cup hero Robinson says pressure on England to deliver is huge

By Rodney Hinds

W

ORLD Cup winner Jason Robinson has warned of the pressure that could take its toll as England look to replicate their 2003 success.

Robinson, who scored the nation’s only try as they beat

Australia in the final at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney 16 years ago, said the current crop of players need to be able to deal with the microscope that they will be under throughout the tournament in Japan.

England started their campaign with an underwhelming 35 – 3 win against minnows Tonga.

Robinson said: “I can’t tell you how much pressure there is (to win).

“The further you get in the tournament, the more every little thing you do is analysed and scrutinised.

“A missed kick could mean you losing a World Cup. Carrying that weight for a nation – that is pressure.”

England play United

States in their next fixture on September 26. They are among the favourites and can call upon the services of talented quartet Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes, Manu Tuilagi and Owen Farrell.

Robinson, now 45, is of the belief that the Welsh could be the dark horses of the Japanese showcase.

“Wales are looking better

than they have for a long time coming into a World Cup. “They are the number one team in the world right now.

And my wife is Welsh!”

Asked about his involvement in this year’s extravaganza, Robinson added: “I’m working with Mastercard as an ambassador doing lots of different events, bringing

fans together. As someone who has played the game at the highest level, it’s giving that experience to fans.”