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The Powerlist: Britain’s most influential black people

70 | THE VOICE NOVEMBER 2019

£500,000 community fund to celebrate Windrush Day 2020

Revealed inside: The Football Black List 2019

Get ready to celebrate black football’s best... to scoop awards, while Ahead of this year’s FBL celebration, we let you know who’s up at the nominees Ashanti George-Faure and Andrew Bontiff provide an in-depth look A word from Leon Mann and Rodney Hinds

TEAM: FBL co-founders Leon, left, and Rodney IT’S THAT time again! We reveal the nominations for this year’s Football Black List on these pages and there’s no doubt that the quality of nominations just gets better. This year, for the first time, we have a category dominated by women. In administration we have a quintet of women that are leading the way. A look at all the names reveals that women make up some 50 per cent which indicates that football is not the exclusive bastion of men. The judges had a real struggle on their hands. Creating the shortlist was demanding, but well worth it – so congratulations to our judges. But a bigger well done goes to those named on the Football Black List. If you didn’t make it, your time will come. All that’s left now is to deliver the FBL Celebration on Thursday, November 21. We can’t wait – it’s going to be another special night!

The judges are... Leon Mann, FBL Rodney Hinds, FBL Funke Awoderu, The FA Al Bennett, The Premier League Nick Roberts, The EFL Wayne Allison, The LMA Simone Pound, The PFA Troy Townsend, Kick It Out Lianne Sanderson, professional footballer Jordan Jarrett Bryan, broadcaster Michelle Moore, sports consultant Jeanette Kwakye, broadcaster Lincoln Moses MBE, community leader Rayan Wilson, Elite Sports Performance expert

Coaching and management Chris Ramsey MBE, technical director – Queens Park Rangers Chris is the technical director of Queens Park Rangers and most qualified football coach in England. He has a clear passion and commitment to mentoring young coaches from grassroots level to elite level, assisting in their development. Chris uses his tactical nous to assist the QPR first team in their planning throughout the league season and is responsible for the club’s academy. Colin Omogbehin, Under-23 academy head coach –

Fulham FC the is Colin founder of Junior Elite and an academy coach at Fulham. He first took up coaching with

CHAMPIONS OF NEW TALENT: Justin Cochrane, left and Michael Johnson are both up for gongs in the coaching and management category

Crystal Palace in the community, with an impressive resume, nurturing the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Nathaniel Clyne and Victor Moses. He has an exceptional understanding of recruitment in London, heavily involved in trying to find the next generation of talent at Fulham. Coreen Brown, academy coach Coreen formerly worked closely Arsenal’s with for leadership girls development. She also oversaw the cohort of coaches that work alongside her at the club. She holds an UEFA ‘A’ license, her dedication to coaching has been acknowledged far and wide, working with England’s national teams as part of the FA’s BAME coach bursary scheme, an essential commitment to develop greater equality of opportunities.

Justin Cochrane, head coach – England under-15 team Justin has gained a reputation for his excellence as a coach, currently working with the England U15 development team. The former Tottenham youth coach is a role model for aspiring coaches, holding a Masters in Leadership and Management, most recently

completing his Pro License. Justin is recognised for his innovative approach, boasting exceptional knowledge and understanding of youth football and the England player pathway. Michael Johnson, national team manager – Guyana National Team Michael enjoyed immense success during his tenure with the

Guyana National side, recently guiding the Golden Jaguars to the finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time. Michael is now involved in the England U21 set-up as part of the FA’s Elite Coach Placement Programme, making waves as a board member of the Sports People’s Think Tank and graduating from the UEFA MIP Master’s course.

Administration Amanda Hudson, director of education – WADA Amanda Hudson is the director of education of the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA), tasked with overseeing anti-doping policies and testing across the world of sport. A pioneer in her in sport involvement field, her and education spans over 30 years. Amanda’s focus has always been to harness the power of education, currently managing the WADA’s social science grant scheme and education committee.

Joanie Evans, co-president – Federation of Gay Games Joanie has been a long standing contributor to the LGBT community, championing inclusivity in sport, through her work with Hackney Women FC. Having tasted gold at the Sydney 2002 Gay Games, Joanie works tirelessly towards encouraging more people of colour to get involved with the Gay Games. She received a nomination at the British LGBT Awards in the ‘Outstanding Contribution to LGBT Life’ category.

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MAKING THINGS HAPPEN: Lungi Macebo

Lungi Macebo, chief operating officer – Birmingham City FC Lungi’s role as COO sees her support the board of directors and senior management. Her efficiency in planning, organising and working collaboratively to influence, design and deliver initiatives, are essential to the accomplishment

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of success for Birmingham City. Lungi, who sits on the board for Women in Football was also named as a NextGen Leader for 2019. Sarah Ebanja, CEO, Tottenham Hotspur Foundation Sarah is currently the CEO of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, a role culminating over 20 years working at a senior level in both local and regional governmental roles. She has previously worked in the London boroughs of Hackney, Islington and Lew-

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isham and also as a deputy chief executive of the London Development agency. Vivienne Aiyela, non-executive director – London FA Vivienne is the first black woman to be named as a non-executive director in football in the long and storied history of the FA. Commended for her great contributions to administration, in addition to her passion for gender equality, Vivienne is viewed upon as a pioneer, leading the way for many BAME women striving to work at boardroom level.

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MEN OF EXCELLENCE

“The power of the black vote could easily decide 100 seats at a general election.”

Lord Woolley of Woodford

“Being in a white society, I felt I had to wear different masks otherwise I would not survive.”

Sir Lenny Henry

“My parents said, ‘We have no money to bequeath, so make something of your life’.”

Sir Trevor McDonald

SEE INSIDE FOR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

6 | THE VOICE NOVEMBER 2019

Exclusive Voice interview

Our hero, Sir Trevor He’s been on the frontline and met some of the world’s most controversial figures – but Sir Trevor McDonald’s long and distinguished career in news has not come without its share of hardship By Vic Motune

E HAS conducted some of the most compelling and highprofile television interviews in recent memory. The list of people who have faced broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald’s forensic questioning over the course of his long and distinguished career reads like a crash course in modern world history – Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Saddam Hussein, George Bush and Tony Blair, to name just a few. So it’s no surprise that McDonald, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, has been described as “the epitome of a national treasure”. He is arguably Britain’s most recognisable newsreader, and has won more awards than any other news broadcaster. A natural storyteller and communicator who became the first sole presenter of ITN’s News at Ten in 1992, he is revered and trusted by millions of television viewers for his ability to combine the gravitas of current affairs with a light touch. After anchoring ITV News’ live coverage of the 2008 US elections and the historic inauguration as president of Barack Obama, he stepped down from his role at News at Ten. His career has since taken a new turn, presenting documentaries for ITV such as The Mafia and Babes in the Wood.

DISTINGUISHED CAREER: Sir Trevor McDonald as seen in 1970 at the BBC

It’s a career that he reflects on in his new autobiography, An Improbable Life. But, as the title suggests, it’s one he never imagined he would go on to achieve while growing up in the south of Trinidad. Born in 1939, the son of Lawson and Geraldine McDonald, he was the bookish one of four children in a poor but happy home. Despite the family’s lack of wealth, he was brought up to believe in the importance of hard work as a means of achieving social mobility.

I had to produce a 10-minute report every night “My parents used to say ‘we have no money to bequeath to you so you have to make something of your life,” he recalls when I meet with him in south west London. “There were these constant admonitions to work hard, aim high, because it’s the only way you succeed. I believed that. I drank the Kool Aid, as it were.” He continues: “You didn’t always know how to describe in any kind of poetic terms what success was, but there was a

smell of failure which was inescapable. My mother in particular also used to point out to me those who hadn’t worked hard and how they had ended up in prison or something.”

INFLUENTIAL

For many of McDonald’s young contemporaries in Trinidad and Tobago, a successful career meant becoming a doctor, lawyer or an engineer. But as he says in his autobiography, “not for a moment did I contemplate any of those professions”. In the days before television came to Trinidad, radio was a powerful medium and the role it played in informing and entertaining islanders was hugely influential. McDonald’s family, like many others in the country, were avid listeners, especially to the BBC World Service. He knew early on in his life that he wanted to be a radio journalist. However, this was not an easy proposition. The island’s most popular station, Radio Trinidad, was inundated with applications from people wanting to become presenters or announcers. But as well as the fierce competition, another hurdle was that the best broadcasting jobs went to expatriates from the UK, Canada and Australia. However, the young McDonald was undaunted in his determination to pursue a profession he was passionate about and his resilience, encouraged by his parents, paid off when he was hired by the station. He says that the job provided the foundations for his later distinguished career. “I was at a radio station where I was made to do everything. I did some DJing, but I reported on news and sport, including horseracing, of all things, water polo, cricket and football.” One reporting assignment made him a household name in his homeland.

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TREASURE: Sir Trevor McDonald has been described as a national institution (photo: Nick Gregan) In 1962 he was sent to London to report on Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence Conference. A delegation from Trinidad and Tobago met with officials from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office at London’s Marlborough House to clear the way for the country to move officially towards full independence from Britain. The actual date was not set at the conference, but would be determined later. McDonald was chosen to cover the story over a former politician-turned-journalist and commentator, a decision that was met with some criticism at the station. It was his first major assignment – but the criticism left him worried that he might not do a

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good job. “I was nervous as hell, I was terrified,” he recalls. “I was very young and it was my first big journey to anywhere outside Trinidad and I was preferred for the job ahead of people who were much more experienced than me.” Arriving at the conference, he was determined to do his best. But little information was forthcoming. Conference delegates would go into meetings saying very little and then emerge revealing not much more. The official press statements about the conference also shone little light on how the conference was progressing. But as McDonald alludes to, success in getting the big stories as a journalist requires not only

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persistence but, sometimes, a little luck. His stroke of fortune was in meeting Sir Learie (later Lord) Constantine, the renowned West Indies test cricketer turned lawyer and politician. Constantine, willing to help the fledging young reporter, agreed to share, on a non-attributable basis some details about what was being discussed at the conference. “I had to produce a 10-minute report every night and there was no possibility of doing that from the official comminiqués from Marlborough House which said the same thing every day – which was that the Trinidad and Tobago delegation met the delegation from the Foreign Office, they had discussions about Trinidad and Tobago moving

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NOVEMBER 2019 THE VOICE | 7

Exclusive Voice interview Feature towards independence and they will meet again tomorrow.” He recalls: “I had to lean on Sir Learie’s good mercy and he was very helpful. Through his help I managed to keep some interest in the audiences back home. But they listened because it was a great moment in the country’s history.” That is something of an understatement. His evening reports gave Radio Trinidad record audiences and were closely followed by Trinidadians keen to understand how the future of their island was being shaped. The impact of McDonald’s work was such that, at a postconference party, Dr Eric Williams, the future prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, quizzed him on where he had got his information from, adding that he’d been told the whole nation had been glued to his reports. Ever the good journalist, McDonald did not reveal his sources. His success in London sealed his reputation as a reporter back home and he went on to also work in newspapers and television.

AMBITIOUS

But the ambitious young McDonald wanted more. A longheld desire to leave Trinidad and Tobago and head for new horizons remained undimmed. And it was a desire that was shared by many of his contemporaries. In An Improbable Life he tells of how young men in his village, faced with limited opportunities, would sit around and plan their escape to oil-rich Venezuela in search of a fresh start, something he notes that has “stirred the hearts of aspiring migrants in their millions throughout the ages”. But, for McDonald, who as a schoolboy had loved the works of Dickens, Shakespeare and poets such as Milton, Byron and Tennyson, Britain was the destination he had set his heart on. For him, as for thousands of TAKING RISKS: Among the famous interviews that Sir Trevor conducted was one with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein; centre, with Nelson Mandela; right, on the set of News At Ten

I didn’t want to get a job because I was a black West Indian members of the Windrush Generation who embarked on the journey to Britain in the 1950s and ‘60s, it was the Mother Country. In Trinidad, to have a relative working in London, regardless of what they did, was a mark of distinction. However, it was his love of BBC World Service broadcasts that sealed his determination to come to Britain.

ECSTATIC

As a 10-year-old he had been fixated by its reports from all over the world after his father bought the first family radio. So when he received a job offer with the World Service as a producer in one its current affairs departments, he was ecstatic. “I wanted to be in a bigger pond,” he says. “In the book, I make the point that when you live on a small island like Trinidad you tend to look outwards because there is such a lot out there. I wanted to do broadcasting and the BBC was not a bad place to start! I’d grown up listening to the World Service, hearing the experiences of people who were in places like Moscow, Bombay and Beijing and I thought, ‘this is the life’.” After coming to London and joining the BBC in 1969, he proved a success. A job offer with BBC Television soon followed. However, when he learned the reason for the job offer he was disappointed. The Corporation was under pressure from the newly formed Race Relations Board to hire more black reporters and presenters. McDonald politely turned the offer down.

“I didn’t want to get a job because I was a black West Indian,” he says. “I wanted to get a job because somebody felt I was reasonably good at what I could do. “I’ve always felt there was a limit to positive discrimination. It’s good idea. For example, when South Africa moved from being an apartheid state to a free democracy it was very necessary for them to employ some form of positive discrimination to change what had been systemic for so long. But, generally speaking, I wanted to be seen as someone who was just a good journalist. I didn’t want to be put in a position because I was a black West Indian.” In 1973, he began his long association with Independent Television News, first as a general reporter, later as a sports correspondent. But again he refused any attempts to be deployed as ITN’s ‘black reporter’, even though he was certainly the network’s first. “It was never something I was obsessed about,” he reveals. “It’s impossible for people not to see me as who I am. I’m a black and West Indian, so why make a fuss about it?

OBVIOUS

“It’s pretty obvious if you see me that that’s what I am – so why do I have to spell it out?” Nevertheless, during the 1970s and 80s, when there were few black faces on British TV screens, he was regarded as an on-screen trailblazer by Britain’s black community. He was popular enough to find himself mimicked by comedian Lenny Henry, calling himself ‘Trevor McDoughnut’ and wearing giant glasses while reading spoof bulletins on the children’s programme Tiswas. Was he aware that he was such a revered figure in the black community? “I didn’t get very much of a sense of that until now,” he says, smiling. “I went to a dinner the other evening, which was for cricketer

HONOUR: Sir Trevor McDonald shares a joke with The Queen during a reception at Buckingham Palace in London to mark the work of The Queen’s Trust in October

Sir Clive Lloyd’s 75th birthday. He told me a story about when I appeared on the screen in his house his kids would kiss the screen because it was the face of someone with whom they identified. Now we don’t look dissimilar, Clive and I, and he once introduced me as his bother. But I feel great about being recognised. “There were no other black reporters at ITN at the time and I felt proud about doing the job. I’d always felt it was one I could excel at and that was my desire.” Although no longer travelling all over the world to report on major stories, his passion for news and current affairs is undiminished. And one recent story he has followed has resonated with him on a personal level. As he notes, his life journey shares similarities with many members of the Windrush Generation. So he was shocked to learn about the recent Windrush Scandal. “I write about the men and women who came on the Windrush in the book because I wanted to convey how much we were geared for life in England,” he says.

“It was the Mother Country, the centre of the metropolitan world. People had gone from the West Indies to fight for Britain in the Second World War and they felt they knew the country.” He continues: “The historian CLR James makes this point very well. We were almost educated for a life outside the West Indies and that meant London because we were made to study Dickens, Shakespeare, Byron and so on. We were clothed in this Englishness of life.

IMAGE

“So my take on the Windrush Generation is that they came to this country with great, great expectations. They had been given an image of English life which was that this was a country of fairness, of humanity and decency and above all, it was a great parliamentary democracy. “It was a way of life which was sold to other parts of the world that must be followed. So to have been treated as they were in the Windrush Scandal was more than a shock to the system. “Many of us knew more about

English history than we did about West Indian history. So to be dismissed in this way as they were in the Windrush Scandal, the repercussions of which are still going on, has been a great shock and a great scandal.” McDonald adds: “Quite frankly, I couldn’t understand the reason why it was necessary for the immigration authorities to have behaved in this way. And I question, in a very straightforward way, the use of the term ‘hostile’ in immigration policy. I couldn’t understand why that word was chosen. Every country has to have an immigration policy, no country can just open its borders. But what about terms such as ‘robust’, ‘thorough’, ‘effective’. Why ‘hostile’? I found that word particularly difficult.” See the December edition of The Voice for part two of our exclusive interview with Sir Trevor McDonald, in which he reveals his experiences as a correspondent in apartheid South Africa and conducting the first British television interview with Nelson Mandela. An Improbable Life by Sir Trevor McDonald is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and is out now.

60 | THE VOICE NOVEMBER 2019

Lifestyle

Leaving the mask behind

As he looks back on a stellar career, Lenny Henry says he can finally embrace who he is BY JOEL CAMPBELL

“

REALLY felt my mum’s story when I was writing this book and I really wanted to honour that – her story is important, our story is important and we need an outlet for that, we need a platform for telling our stories.” There’s no doubt that the aforementioned quote from Sir Lenny Henry comes from the heart, it’s one line from our 47-minute chat which resonated with this journalist the most. The interview had a habit of returning to Henry’s mum. Her influence is stamped all over the development of his career in ways many won’t have grasped but will be enlightened by in his autobiography Who Am I, Again?

CHAMELEON

From “code-switching”, the art of blending language and flitting from Black Country ‘spake’ to quintessential Jamaican patois, to his love of Caribbean dishes the likes of which he never did manage to master, it’s clear that Violet Henry was the matriarchal architect responsible for the hard-wiring that has served to propel her son on to a stellar career. “So the book is me going, ‘Here’s my mum’s story, I’ll write about it as carefully and as sensitively as I can’,” Henry said. “I sought out my families’ help with telling the story properly, and there was some discomfort, because they call it ‘chatting your business outa door’. Nobody wants to do that. “But in the end, I’m 61 and if I don’t tell it now, I am going to be dead soon and I haven’t told the story. And stories need to be told, because stories are what teach us how to move forward in life.” One of the more interesting examples of Henry moving his life forward is his decision to no longer play the role of chameleon, blending in and making himself palatable for whichever crowd he was around at the time. In his autobiography, he says: “The one phantom thread running through the forest of my story is, ‘Who am I?’ or, ‘Who should I be for the people around

me?’ Who do they expect me to be? Son? Pal? Comedian? And so each time a new Lenny was needed, I jumped.” Asked when he decided to be 100 per cent himself, he said: “You know what it’s like as a black person, I felt being in a predominantly white society, I felt I had to wear different masks at different times, otherwise I would not survive.” He added: “I had to be happy-go-lucky, I had to fix up my face and try and look tough, I had to be jokey guy, I had to be matey. There were lots of differ-

“Stories need to be told, because stories are what teach us how to move forward in life”

ent types of Len, and I had to learn how to switch between them. “It felt like I was trying to please everybody and I think with maturity, that necessity lessens over time because you start to go, ‘Actually, if people don’t take me as I am they’re not my real friend’, and I found that the people I have made proper friendships with when I was 16 or 17, they are still there. “Anybody who was just around [for] the free drinks or me picking up the tab, the laughs and the jokes, all of those guys have fallen by the wayside and my real friends are my real friends, so I don’t have to wear that mask any more. I can be who I am. “It’s recent (since dropping the mask). Probably in my 40s, you just get a sense of some people are just here because they want

to hang out with you, they want to go clubbing or partying with you, and when all of that stuff runs out or when you have a tough time, they are nowhere to be seen. “They say ‘never hang out with anybody that is a negative influence on you’, and I think that’s right. You don’t want to be with those guys that just want to drain you – you want to have people who energise you, so I started to lean towards those people rather than the other people.” Who Am I, Again? centres on the early years of Henry’s ascent: his climb from obscurity, through racism-laden jaunts up and down the country, refining his craft as a stand-up comedian and cementing his legacy as one of this nation’s best to ever do it.

THIS IS ME: Lenny Henry says he no longer changes to suit other people (photos: Jack Lawson McDonald)

ETHIC

He concedes it wasn’t easy ‘dredging’ up the past and in fact, he’d have preferred to leave a lot of what he unearthed right where he found it. He said: “It was really difficult, writing is hard and I live in admiration for those who can write a book a year. Tony Morrison, Terry McMillian, James Baldwin, those people who treat writing as their craft and they really work at it, because to sit and write a book is no mean feat.” He added: “Because I have such a busy schedule, the writing had to become a major part of the schedule, so it would say; ‘Lenny writing from 10 until 4’, or ‘Lenny writing from 12 until 6’. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re not writing all of the time, there is a lot of looking out of the window thinking and making notes and going on Google, calling up family and friends and asking if they remember going to a specific restaurant and so on. There was a lot of that but actually the graft of it was something that I grew to love.” Henry got his work ethic from – you guessed it – his mum. “The elders are really important. If you’re lucky to have your mum and dad, grandparents, talk to them about what they went through to get here,” he said. “Because it’s a prope r tale, it’s

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an epic tale, as epic as Homer, as epic as Helen of Troy. “The way people were working on farm or laying bricks or cooking or making dresses back home and the way they got their act together and came to this country or whatever country they chose to navigate towards and start life anew and raise their family, sending for their family, sending barrels back home full of clothes, radios and shoes, sustaining life forces, that’s no mean feat with hardly any money.” “My mum was the most significant person in my life,” he added. “I love my mum. I pay her tribute and I pay her homage in the book with respect and love because she is why I am here.” Sir Lenny Henry’s autobiography Who Am I, Again? published by Faber, £20, is out now

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Catch Sir Lenny on tour THE LEGENDARY Sir Lenny Henry is embarking on a UK tour this autumn. Following the publication of his memoir, Henry will travel the length, breadth and width of the country with An Evening with Lenny Henry – Who Am I, Again?. In part one of the show, Henry will take the audience through a jam session of stories both funny and sad – triggered when writing his memoir – from growing up in the Black Country, puberty, school, friendship, family secrets and unashamed racism. With his mother’s mantra of “H’integration” echoing in his ears, Henry will recount setting out on his roller coaster

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ride of a career – but at every stage wondering: Am I good enough? Is this what they want? In part two, Henry will be interviewed by author, co-writer and friend Jon Canter, for further insights into his life and career, followed by questions from the audience. Come and enjoy these honest and tender stories, told with a glorious sense of humour and help Henry figure out Who Am I, Again? An Evening With Lenny Henry tours the UK until November 29. For venues and tickets: lennyhenry ontour.net

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