Academic, former BBC radio presenter, discovers historically important archive in his garage.
3.2.1. The count down seemed to hang for eternity. When the dimmed square box light turned a crimson red shouting “Live!” our exec producer whispered, “Good Luck!”, through the talk back.
Hello everyone, welcome to a brand new show for London…
And that’s how two young presenters, a humanities and Chemistry grad, kicked off their chemistry with one of the most unique radio shows in London, you’ve likely never heard off.
For the next almost two years we interviewed leading stars, emerging talent, covered the news of the time, the arts, and literary figures shaping London and the world.
Novelist Alice Walker, Spike Lee, Melvin Van Peebles, Songstress Anita Baker, Actor Norman Beaton, Bernie Grant MP, Darkus Howe, Trix Worrell, a young vivacious woman remortgaging her house to set up something called the Mobo Awards, a young designer undertaking a photoshoot in Ukraine of his clothes struggling to break into the UK’s monopolised fashion industry. That was Ozwald Boateng. Afro beat Superstar Fela Kuti who dissed his own invention Afro beat.
Actress Eartha Kitt revealed her own internal struggles against racism. The CRE would have its first appointment of a CEO who was Black. That was Herman Ouseley, now Lord Ouseley.
George Floyd would happen thirty years into the future. We covered the brutal beating of Rodney King, the ensuing Riots in LA, and the court case of the policemen.
And what of the treatment of Black people by the police? Peter Herbert from the Black Law Society, now Judge Herbert would vigorously explain police wrong doings and the Suss laws.
The show devised on the heady heels of post Thatcherism was the only BBC radio show in London geared to listeners interested in issues that affected Black people. That’s everything then. Sheryl and I, became that bridge between our parents of the Windrush generation and a new Gen 3B (Black British born) who wrestled with changing dynamics.
Even then the term “Black” noticeably loaded was a content juggling act between African and Caribbean, and a wider non-Black audience. The Voice newspaper praised it and one of the most notable rap artists at that time MefiMe invited onto the show called it “excellent”. And then it all fell silent.
It’s November 2022. This is Professor David Hendy, who’s written one of the most remarkable books about the BBC. He’s speaking at an event: The BBC 1922–2022 Navigating the Waves of Change which brings together radio enthusiasts and scholars, existing as well as many former radio producers and presenters.
David and I know each other. We were at the same university, Westminster. I’ve been invited to speak about the importance of archive, memories and the art of representation. I’d recently completed working as an advisor and writer for the British Library’s epic exhibition Breaking the News — 500 years of news, and Google as one of their externals for their £6M news innovation fund.
You get the feeling now I like storytelling. When I tell the gathering at the conference, “And then it all fell silent!” And why it did, there’s audible gasps in the room. I let it hang in the air for a moment.
One day, thirty years back, we walked into the studio to be told the show’s format was being changed and that we would no longer be required. Fair dos, I thought as I was about to land a job with Janet Street Porter’s BBC Reportage, before emigrating to South Africa where I would eventually become a freelance correspondent reporting on stories like President Mandela’s inauguration.
Our show paid us £25 a week. As freelancers we did it because of the thrill and the excitement. The thrill of talking to historical figures, musical geniuses, entertainers and cover important issues. Recordings of those shows nestled in the production office. But on the day I walked in to gather them for posterity, I was told they’d all been dumped in a skip to make space in the office. Gone! The lot! Gasp!
I ask the gathering as I ask you: Why does history tends to repeat itself? Or if we’re poorer about understanding events in the past, how does that shape our comprehension of related events in the present or future, particularly when we have no memory?
Some programme makers solve that via archive. Radio shows like The Reunion bring back guests to reflect on an important issue of that time like Live Aid. Rewind on BBC Radio 4 actively delves back into the archives to craft stories from listeners’ interests.
I study stories, alongside innovation and memory. Stories from the past aren’t just for entertainment value. They shape our understanding of the world. Figures like Richard Hakluyt (16th) Cotton Mather (17th) Locke (17th) Hume (17th) Kant (18th) John Stuart Mill, Carlyle (19th) Madison Grant ( 20th) Woodrow Wilson (20th), were renowned as brilliant writers, statesmen, philosophers and thinkers.
Their views on liberalism, social contract rights and Standard of Civilisation underpin Europe and American political thought. Yet they were vehicles for a belief of white supremacy and the myth of black inferiority as documented in Amitav Acharya’s Race and Racism in founding of the modern world.
In the absence of counter stories to the status quo, the vacuum is dominated by one side that inherently shapes this Euclidean world of storytelling and Art.
The media’s blind spot is uncontested and if you’re keeping score, consider the government’s proposals to strip down local radio. Look hard enough through contemporary history and you’ll find isolated stories.
Una Marson, a radio producer and presenter during World War II on Calling the West Indies who was feted by George Orwell, and regularly worked with him and TS Eliot.
In the 70s Alex Pascal, a force behind the Nottingham Carnival pioneered a daily show Black Londoners on the BBC followed by Syd Burke who produced the deliciously called show Rice and Peas with a velvety lilted voice made for radio.
And then came lockdown. I finally got to clear out the garage and then I found something. In between my boxes of vinyl LPs, usual garage debris of frankesteined bikes and old copies of The Face magazine, was a box of strewn tape and Sony cassettes.
Could it be and how on earth? Did I actually retrieve anything from the skip? My memory fails me but there appeared to be copies of our show.
I spoke to a friend, an Archivist, Documentarian José Velázquez of DOKUMENTA.VIDEO. He had an idea. Each year a global body FIAT/ IFTA (the group that restored the famous Nelson Mandela ANC Rivonia Trials) presents a competition to digitise archive they deem historically important. Would I be interested and we’d be up against state radio and TV, such as Albania Media, Zimbabwe and RTI (Radio et Télévision Ivoirienne) [video]
Our collection was fittingly named Black Lives. It wasn’ t just radio, but TV programmes I’d made across Africa and in London in the early 90s.
Remarkably we won. From digitising the tapes, the full impact of its content is yet to realised. Take this. The story of how a British reverend became good friends with the King of the Ashantis which led to building one of Ghana’s most esteemed schools, Prempeh College. For the last two years it’s beaten schools in the UK, Korea and China at the World Robotic Championships.
Or how about Oxford University setting up a scheme in the 90s to encourage more diverse applicants. Sheryl and I spoke to the first student on the scheme, and the University’s representatives. Stormzy has since launched his initiative and deserves all the accolades, but why did the 90s one fail, if that’s the right word, and where are the people we interviewed now?
Ghanaians, where my folk are from and where I was sent to school, have a proverb, Sankofa. Whilst it literally means go and fetch, culturally it infuses the importance of the past in understanding the present.
2023 for me will be the year of Sankofa and a storytelling that adds to the increasing voices that necessarily counter the orthodox narrative, while enriching the present. If you’re interested in working with, alongside, please drop me a line, Gyimahd@cardiff.ac.uk
About David
Dr David Dunkley Gyimah is a reader, associate professor in Innovation and Journalism at Cardiff University. He’s the co-producer behind The Leaders’ List — a project that digitally recast the famous US photo A Great Day in Harlem which featured 57 of the best Jazz Musicians. The Leaders’ List featured 57 of the UK’s leading, and up and coming, Black and brown TV producers. More here
