Darcus Howe
Darcus Howe | |
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| Born | 1943 (age 81–82) |
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Darcus Howe (born 1943) is a broadcaster and columnist, who lives in Brixton, South London, England.
Biography
Howe was born in Trinidad and Tobago, the son of an Anglican priest. He left Trinidad for London aged 18[1] to enter the legal profession at Middle Temple, but he swapped the law for journalism. He returned to Trinidad, where his uncle and mentor, radical intellectual CLR James, inspired Howe to combine writing with political activism. A brief spell as assistant editor on the Trinidad trade union paper The Vanguard was followed by return to Britain as editor of British magazine Race Today.
He became a member of the British Black Panther Movement, and in August 1970, following a protest, Howe was arrested and tried for riot, affray and assault.[2] He was acquitted after a trial at the Old Bailey. Later, he was the editor of the magazine Race Today and was imprisoned for three months for assaulting a police officer. The celebration following his release was recalled in the song Man Free by poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. The central lines of the song describe Howe's legal fight: "I stand up in the court like a mighty lion, I stand up in the court like man of iron, Darcus out of jail, Shabba!".
Howe organised the 20,000 strong Black People's March 1981 claiming official neglect and inefficient policing of the investigation of New Cross Fire in which 13 black teenagers died.
Broadcasting career
In 1982, Howe began his broadcasting career on Channel 4's television series Black on Black, later co-editor with Tariq Ali of Bandung File and more recently White Tribe, a look at modern day Britain and its loss of 'Englishness'. Howe has continued to write in the New Statesman and fronted the Channel 4 current affairs programme Devil's Advocate. He was a keynote speaker at the 2005 Belfast Film Festival's "Film and Racism" seminar and presented his documentary Who You Callin' a Nigger? at the festival.
In October 2005 Howe presented a Channel 4 documentary Son of Mine, about his troubled relationship with his 20-year-old son Amiri, who had been caught handling stolen passports, shoplifting, and accused of attempted rape.[3][4]
Howe appeared on the discussion programme, Midweek (on BBC Radio 4), to promote the documentary on 19 October 2005 and, live on air, became involved in an angry debate with American comedienne Joan Rivers. The dispute began when Howe suggested that Rivers was offended by the use of the term "black" and Rivers objected strongly to the suggestion that she was racist and forced Howe into an apology.[5]
Howe was one of several who fell foul of perennial satirist and prankster Chris Morris on Morris' show Brass Eye, in the final episode, 'Decline'.
August 9, 2011 BBC Interview
On 9 August 2011 at the time of the 2011 London riots, Howe was interviewed live on BBC television. The interview[6] sparked controversy on youtube where it was repeatedly posted, with the BBC presenter (Fiona Armstrong) facing criticism. While Howe was lamenting that the message coming from disaffected youth in the country was not being listened to, he was ironically interrupted by the interviewer and asked if he therefore "condoned" the violence taking place in London. Although he denied condoning violence, the presenter again interrupted Howe's explanation of the causes for the unrest, stating to Howe that "you are not a stranger to riots yourself, are you? You have taken part in them yourself." This unsubstantiated accusation immediately followed Howe's declaration:
- "I don't call it rioting, I call it an insurrection of the masses of the people. It is happening in Syria, it is happening in Clapham, it's happening in Liverpool, it's happening in Port-au-Spain, Trinidad, and that is the nature of the historical moment."
When he accused the police of killing Mark Duggan (widely seen as the spark for the unrest) the presenter stopped Howe, saying "we have to wait for the official inquiry..... We don't know what happened to Mr. Duggan." Later that same day the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed that Duggan had not fired at police as had originally been claimed[7].
Personal life
Howe has been married three times. He has seven children by four different women.[citation needed] He had little contact with many of his children during their childhoods.[citation needed] His son Amiri was threatened with jail for a stolen passport scam, though his other six children have largely been successful.[8] His daughter Tamara was a director of production for London Weekend Television (LWT). He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2007 and has since campaigned for more black men to get tested.[9]
See also
References
- ^ Howe, Darcus, The heroic struggle of black parenthood, New Statesman, 12 March 2007.
- ^ Racists in Setback - International Times, 28 January 1970
- ^ Son of Mine, Channel4.com.
- ^ Darcus vs Joan, Midweek Interview Audio November 28, 2009
- ^ Race row disrupts Radio 4 debate, BBC website, 19 October 2005.
- ^ Darcus Howe, BBC News 09 August 2011
- ^ No evidence man shot by UK police fired gun-IPCC, Reuters 9 August 2011, [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/17/darcus-howe-surviving-prostate-cancer