BY MKUU AMANI

A new Caribbean-infused take on short story-telling is here in the form of a series of audiobooks produced by Rapper and record producer Mark Anthony aka Blak Prophetz.

Launched on December 24th, 2020, ‘No Competition’ is the first of the Pickney Dem series and an exciting new venture for the renowned artist, also known in the rap game as Sure Shot and for his works as an artist/producer under his Blak Prophetz moniker.

The audio-story, which offers a humorous take on a classic tale about an over-confident, fast-running hare, aims to encourage more youngsters to read books and enjoy audio stories. The episode enlists Anthony’s vocal talents, the versatile artist performing all of the character voice overs, including the hare’s role, a character with a distinctly Caribbean personality.

“The Jamaican patois is very funny, and I have a very strong dislike for how they speak it on British TV.” he told the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper.

“It seems like another dialect or an extremely watered-down version of something that was so originally pure. The nicest of phrases can be said in Jamaican patois, yet sound incredibly harsh, and it is this edge that makes the language so interesting to play with.”

This is how we spoke at school and is a clear reflection of my upbringing. I’m very proud of the way we speak and would not stop speaking it for anything. It is our culture.”

“Furthermore, there’s not enough of it,” he added.

“I’m not saying that it’s a reason why black kids may have such a disinterest in books, but the western educational system is very biased and does not cater for black children enough.”

West Midlands based Mark Anthony is an original member of the booming 80s rap group Audio Kings and the even more successful band The Blak Prophetz which released tunes on the Kold Sweat and Fatt Jointz record labels.

His forty years experience in the music industry includes a passion for creating cutting edge joints like his 2005 ‘The Second Coming,’ (also the name of the album), and a penchant for the ambience of the soul and funk flavours so solidly acquainted by his funk and soul-jazz outfit Funk Division.

He’s also worked with a wealth of recording artists including Joyce Simms, Justin Timberlake and reggae artist Dawn Penn to name a few.

Speaking about the colourful new audio story series, he said, “There are two reasons why I felt this was necessary. The first is that when I was about 11 years old, I discovered that I could record my voice on my father’s portable tape device.

Being young, energetic and creative was a great opportunity for me to experiment. I would come home from school and re-enact situations that had occurred from that day onto tapes. You could call it my very own diary, only that it was in audio.”

It wasn’t long before he began to experiment with sound effects. He would use slippers and shoes to make punching and slapping sounds and started including the atmospheric sounds of old records in his recordings. Like his father Levi Duffus, a soundman, DJ and vinyl collector, Mark Anthony also enjoyed buying music.

“I would buy records that contained drums, percussion and or vocal speech, which helped build my stories on tape.”

Pursuing his passion, he eventually went to college to complete a Radio Studio and Broadcasting course and learned new skills like reel-to-reel editing. He gained technical knowledge, learning about signals, recording and compression.

“After the course, life and work took priority, and for many years my tapes sat in the loft.”

His return to creating and editing audio stories seemed almost accidental.

He was already heavily involved with the music industry, and he’d signed a publishing deal with BBC Worldwide, after providing voice overs for Hasbro kids’ games. Then;

“On the 4th birthday of my niece’s child, she asked all his Godparents (which included me) to record a story and send it to him.”

What began as simple recording, soon developed into more as Mark Anthony’s old recording habits were reignited and re-surfaced.

“Before I knew it, I was back doing what I did when I was ten years old, only more full-on. When they heard it, my friends and family went crazy for it and demanded more. So as owner of a record label and having a direct distribution deal with Sony Music, it was clear what had to happen.”

What to expect from future episodes currently remains a closely guarded secret so listeners will have to await the surprises to arrive.

The talented artist and producer would only say that; “They are absolutely entertaining and even funnier. We have an entire series ready which shall be released approximately every 90 days.”

His daughter Alicia Duffus is also very involved in writing the new stories and part of the Pickney Dem production set-up, which her father describes as “growing to a full-on team of professional voice over actors and actresses.”

“We have a whole series already,” he said, “And as we have our own fully digital recording facilities these will all be released via Sony’s distribution, which means that it will now reach a wider global audience.”

Pickney Dem is available on Itunes, Amazon, EMusic, and Worldwide.

BY MKUU AMANI

“When I got the letter, I thought, ‘Am I British? What am I?’ and I couldn’t even answer that in my head.” Paulette Wilson.

The funeral of the woman who became known to many as ‘The Windrush Champion,’ took place in Wolverhampton on September 4th.

Paulette sadly passed away in late July at just 64 years of age.

Much befitting of her status was the horse-drawn carriage, African drumming, national media coverage and many mourners that accompanied her to her final resting place.

Just weeks before, she had delivered a petition containing 130,000 signatures to Downing Street, calling on the government to resolve the outstanding issues and compensate victims of the Windrush Scandal.

But what is the Windrush Scandal?

The ‘Windrush Lessons Learned Review’ points out that operational and organizational failings by the Home Office ‘had a causative impact on the detrimental treatment recieved by the Windrush generation as a result of them being caught up in measures designed for people who have no right to be in the UK.’

The independent assessment organized by the Home Secretary makes the case that the plight for the victims of the scandal arose because their ‘history was institutionally forgetten.’

‘Accurate records were not kept,’ the review states, ‘both in relation to individual cases and the development of relevant policy and legislation as a whole.’

Paulette Wilson had been one of the victims. For three years, she lived under the threat of deportation. And had the government gone ahead with plans to deport her, what is clear today is that they would have been making a mistake.

She was ten years old when she arrived in England during the mid-sixties. In 2015, she was wrongly classified by the Home Office as an illegal immigrant.

Deprived of essential services, Paulette experienced extreme hardship, including homelessness. She was subject to further harsh treatment in the form of arrest and detention in an Immigration Centre.

Only after a three-year battle was her status corrected, and her ‘Leave to Remain’ confirmed.

On the back of the terrible hardships she survived ‘The Windrush Champion’ was born. She became a campaigner for other victims of the scandal.

Once the scandal became public, it soon became apparent that it had hit a raw nerve both at home and abroad.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Timothy Harris were among the twelve Caribbean leaders that attended a meeting with the UK Prime Minister Teresa May in 2018.

May spoke to “reiterate how much value the contribution that’s been made by commonwealth citizens who’ve made their mark here in the UK, to the United Kingdon.”

The UK prime minister made particular reference to the Windrush generation, who she said, “helped to build the country that we are today.”

Teresa May is no longer in the PM role, replaced by Boris Johnson, but the government’s attempts to resolve matters continues.

According to the government’s Home Office, the government had paid £360,000 in compensation by May 2020. It has also established a Windrush Commemoration Committee chaired by Dame Floella Benjamin and introduced a national Windrush Day.

Each June 22nd, the country is invited to ‘recognise and honour the enormous contribution of those who stepped ashore at Tilbury Docks 70 years ago.’

On that date in 1948, the Empire Windrush arrived at the docks in Essex, with 492 passengers from the Caribbean aboard.

There but for the Grace of God go I.

This question of Britishness – ‘Am I British? What am I?’ the query that Paulette Wilson asked herself and was unable to find an answer for, is a dilemma many have faced.

I was born in the UK.

My parents were born in Jamaica. Had they not come to England when they did, I may have been born there too.

My father came from the northwestern parish of Hanover. The more southernly parish of St Elizabeth is where my mother grew and lived before moving to Kingston to help her father run his store.

I’ve had limited success tracing my ancestry on my father’s side, but I’ve managed to trace back to my great-grandfather on my mother’s.

It’s a faint trace. I have names and very little more.

My loose grasp of Jamaican history equips me with some idea of what life may have been like when my great-grandparents were alive.

Viewing a rare selection of old photographs from the 1800s caused me to wonder where my relatives of those past years resided. And how they lived their day-to-day.

If I was able to travel back in time, where might I find them?

Perhaps deep amidst the forest’s flora working alongside the cane cutters? Or at the country market where, in their numbers and brightly dressed in their wide-brimmed hats and flush, long dresses, the women would sell their goods?

And my great-great-grandparents. Where might I find them? The journey back through my generations holds some fascination for me but comes with no small degree of pain.

I think I can quite safely assume that many of my enslaved ancestors lived impoverished lives, deprived of human rights and equal opportunities.

And that if I were to ask, there would be no shortage of them able to share their torrid experiences of affliction by the hot brand, the whip, the rope and the gun.

Ours is a tarnished history. An account bedevilled by the exploits of a ruling empire that put profits before people.

Sad to say that with our history in mind, there is a point at which most everything that I know, or think I know, merges into darkness. A black shadow that renders me blind to who we were before we landed on Jamaican soil. My African history – the dialect, my country of origin – all knowledge of these things – to the most part, was lost at sea. And in some instances, far too often history suggests, callously thrown overboard.

So, when the issue of nationality or identity arises, and there is a challenge to our Britishness, it provokes a dilemma that few outside the Brit-African Caribbean community can imagine nor appreciate.

Strictly speaking, we are not Jamaican, although, for around £140, we can apply for Jamaican citizenship as descendants of Jamaican born parents.

Nor are we African, although initiatives exist which encourage our return to the continent. An example of this is Ghana’s Right of Abode, which any person of African descent in the diaspora can seek.

The growth of neo-Nazi extremism in the UK in the form of extreme rightwing groups like National Action and Sonnenkrieg Division with their ‘white Jihad’ ideology reminds us that according to some quarters of society, we will never be ‘British.’

Faced with the threat of deportation after residing in a country for 50 years is a catastrophic turn of events.

Few would argue against fighting to achieve ‘Leave to Remain,’ as Paulette Wilson did. Eventually, she was victorious in her battle to prove how British she was.

But the cost, the hardship, the pain and frustration experienced, the isolation and homelessness – all were circumstances she should not have had to endure.

Campaigners are raising funds to have a memorial of Paulette erected.

BY MKUU AMANI

If you are anywhere near my age, live in the UK and watched The Muppet Show during the 1970s, you may recall the two, grey-haired, grumpy men who sat in an upper balcony box. From their seats, they would continuously heckle the show.

Waldorf and Statler, as they were named, were perhaps most famous for giving the endearing stand-up comedian Fozzie Bear a hard time, and particularly for one hilarious conversation they had that went something like this;

Waldorf: “That was wonderful!”

Statler: “Bravo!”

Waldorf: “I loved it!”

Statler: “Ah, it was great!”

Waldorf: “Well, it was pretty good.”

Statler: “Well, it wasn’t bad…”

Waldorf: “Uh, there were parts of it that weren’t very good though.”

Statler: “It could have been a lot better.”

Waldorf: “I didn’t really like it.”

Statler: “It was pretty terrible.”

Waldorf: “It was bad.”

Statler: “It was awful!”

Waldorf: “It was terrible!”

Statler: “Take ’em away!”

Waldorf: “Bah, boo!”

Statler: “Boo!”

I wonder what they would make of 2020. I imagine if asked to look back at the year, the pair would offer a similar response. The dialogue makes a good case for being a running commentary of the year so far.

It was the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 that began the UK tradition of treating January 1^st as the beginning of the New Year. Before that, in case you’re wondering, it had been March 25^th.

With each New Year has grown the tradition of celebration. So, as is typical, last December 31^st, many of the thousands gathered in London’s city centre, joined in with the countdown as Big Ben – the renowned timepiece chimed aloud to mark the start of the New Year. Thousands were there and will have witnessed the spectacular explosions of colour that decorated the London skies.

Muted is not a word you can ever use to describe London’s New Year’s Eve firework display. Its centrepiece, standing at over 400 feet high, is the country’s most visited tourist attraction, the London Eye.

Few cities in the world can match the dazzling, even enthralling display.

The sound of cheers, screams of appreciation, whistles and clapping, rippled along the River Thames banks as the display unfolded. It was once again a very bright start to the year.

Fast forward – September is now upon us. Three quarters of the year is behind us. With just three months of the year left, one thing is sure as we head into winter, 2020 has been a year that will live long in the memory.

Around the globe, we see change: some welcomed and some not. Some organic and some enforced. We find ourselves in a strange place, struggling to understand how best to cope with the here and now as we also prepare for the ‘new normal.’ Whatever that is.

The emergence and spread of COVID-19 have had catastrophic effects. With over 800,000 deaths caused globally, the pandemic’s most devastating impacts on our homes and lives are clear for all to see.

According to World Health Organization data, there have been 23,491,520 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, and 809,970 people have died (at the time of writing).

By now, many communities will know the feeling that comes with being subject to government enforced curfew or lockdown. So alongside experiencing the tragic, deathly destruction caused by the virus, they will also have had their: schools, shops, sports centres, restaurants, cinemas, pubs, and other venues previously open to the public, closed.

By May 2019, when online market research portal Statista published its report on online grocery shopping in the UK, grocery shopping online had become the fastest-growing purchase channel.

The UK lockdown that began late March 2020 saw people practically confined to their homes. Online grocery shopping became a critical facility for many, and an inevitable surge in online grocery shopping pushed leading retailers such as: Tesco, Asda and Ocado to their limits.

Despite lockdown now easing, the demand for home delivery slots remains high. However, this compares favourably to times earlier in the year. During March, April and May, finding an available home delivery slot was like finding gold.

At the height of the ‘first wave’ (presuming there will be a second), when the lockdown was in full effect, even getting on to a store’s website became problematic.

A consumer friend of mine sent me a screenshot he’d captured late March, taken from a website where he was attempting to purchase groceries for his elderly mother. It showed his estimated wait time was 35 minutes. There were 55,569 people in the queue ahead of him, and that was to access the website.

The year 2020 could be remembered for years to come simply for the impact of COVID-19, but other events have also made their mark.

January saw some well-known personalities honoured by the Queen in the New Years Honours List.

Amongst them was former TV presenter The Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE. The longstanding patron of Bowel Cancer UK became a Dame for her services to charity.

Actor Giles Terera received an MBE for services to theatre.

Terera won ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ at the 2018 Olivier Awards. During his acceptance speech, he said, “It’s been the joy of my life, my career – to be part of the most diverse company that I’ve ever known, [and] I’ve ever seen. You saw them at the start of the show. Our company is made up of as many different people as you can think of. Why? That’s the best way to tell the story. It’s not a box ticking exercise, it’s the best way to tell the story.”

He continued. “It is an honour and a blessing for me to be involved in a production which says so wholeheartedly that diversity is not a policy, it is life. Diversity is life.”

Further honours made included: actor Rudolph Walker (awarded a CBE), singer Billy Ocean (awarded an MBE), composer Errollyn Wallen (awarded a CBE), chef Ainsley Harriot (awarded an MBE), and film-maker/director Steve McQueen (awarded a knighthood).

In April, Labour Party politician David Lammy became the first Brit-African Caribbean Shadow Secretary of State for Justice. Lammy became Member of Parliament for Tottenham in 2000 when he succeeded Bernie Grant, who sadly died in April that year.

Lammy’s appointment coincided with the departure from the Shadow Cabinet of Diane Abbott, whose role as Shadow Home Secretary came to an end after almost four years.

Abbott (alongside Bernie Grant) was the country’s first Brit-African Caribbean MP. She remains the longest-serving Brit-African Caribbean MP in the House of Commons.

Finally, the death of George Floyd in America triggered the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement’s resurgence, and the issue of race relations has been in and out of an intense spotlight since.

The 46-year-old died on May 25^th while in the custody of police officers. His death and the manner of his arrest sparked a wave of protests in and outside of the country.

In the UK, where according to a 2019 Home Office report, the majority of hate crimes recorded in 2018/19 were race hate crimes, accounting for around three-quarters of offences.

Across the country, including Manchester, Hull, London, Norwich, Shrewsbury, Brighton, and Tamworth, BLM events took place. Racism was being called out and challenged.

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, actor John Boyega and Local Equality Commission director Khady Gueye are just a few of the high profiles that have added their voice and action to the cause.

2020, though already akin to the most memorable and dramatic of rollercoaster rides, is far from over.

One wonders, with all that has happened so far, what else does this most peculiar, at times traumatic, and demanding year have in store for us?