African Survival and Creativity

Emmanuel Amevor, Director of Centerprise, speaks of the new Wordpower Black literary festival, and his vision of economic empowerment for Black businesses. 

I’ve been aware of slavery since I was in secondary school, back in Ghana. 

 

It was not the type of thing that was discussed in public.  Slavery is not a thing that is discussed in African families.  .  I remember my grandmother telling us stories, but nothing to do with slavery at all.  It is not high on the agenda of African people, as it should be. 

 

The present generation would not say that it directly affects them.  They have their culture, unlike people in the Caribbean who were taken away and who have lost their culture through slavery. 

 

Z – We didn’t lose our culture, it was stolen from us. 

 

EA – Yes, that is true.  I stand corrected.  In Caribbean communities, it is something which is taken very, very seriously.   Whereas, with African communities, it is like something which has been forgotten, which shouldn’t be. 

 

It’s very difficult to explain why it is not discussed.  It is discussed more in Britain, Europe and the Caribbean than in Africa.  It is not topical in Africa at all. 

 

When I left Ghana, 30-odd years ago, we did not have the awareness of slavery as there is today.  I visited Ghana eight years ago and there was this Cape Coast Castle Museum, which was a new thing.  This should have been done years and years ago, decades ago.  But it wasn’t.  During my time, there was nothing like that. 

 

In school, all they taught was a bit of history – the white man came and took people away, and that sort of thing.  But now, I think there is greater awareness.  Because of technology, there is more interaction between Africans and Caribbean people.  I don’t remember seeing one Caribbean person in Ghana when I was growing up.  But if you go to Ghana now, it is very different.  It is a policy now – this is one of the good things the former President of Ghana (Jerry Rawlings) did, to introduce the celebration of Emancipation Day in Ghana.  That was after he visited the Caribbean.  Just as people in the Caribbean celebrate Emancipation Day, it is very much celebrated in Ghana now. 

 

There is obviously also more awareness around slavery in the States than back home.  There is a lot of ignorance in the States, but those who are conscious and aware of issues, they are very much more aware of the history of slavery.  Most of the books we stock here (at Centerprise) on African and Caribbean culture are from the States.  There isn’t much writing on those types of issues from African writers. 

 

Z - Do you remember how you felt when you first heard that the Europeans had taken people away? 

 

EA – To be honest with, it was like nothing, because I didn’t understand it.  Unfortunately, the perception – and this is a flippant remark, but it is very, very serious.  My mother-in-law, for instance, tells you when you are going to church and you see a white man, you’d better go home, because you’ve seen God. 

 

Most people in this country and in the Caribbean have no idea about some of the backwardness of African people.  A lot of people have more respect for white people than for their own.  I can take a down-and-out person from here to Ghana –

 

Z – They’d be a king, wouldn’t they? 

 

EA – Exactly.  There’s a lot of ignorance.  And so, the perception was that anything that the white man did was good.  Even if he took someone from your family, you didn’t know what was going to happen to that person.  You would think he was going to be educated, turned into a Christian, converted to be a Muslim, or whatever.  So, growing up, everything we heard about the white man was the best.  And unfortunately,  there weren’t that many books written by Black people.  Even now as we speak, the problem is still there.  We have a lot of schools, colleges and universities using history books which were written by white people.  So naturally, they present it from a white European point of view. 

 

There are ways of presenting every story.  But I remember very well, when I was in Year Two, between the ages of 10 and 13, I had a teacher who tried as much as possible to present the history.  Although the books were saying something else, he could see through it.  For instance, he took us through the Yaa Asantewa war of 1800.  Although the history books were saying something else, he was able to inculcate in my mind that the Ashantes defeated the British.  And from that time, he sowed a seed in my mind. 

 

When I came to this country and I started reading a lot of books, I remembered that this man, all those years ago, had told us what really happened.  He gave us a different picture of everything – that the white man was not all that great. 

 

I think it’s still the same.  We have this MTV culture now that bombards them with all sorts of nonsense.  Everyone wants to travel to the U.S. or to London because they see the white man as a king.  So it’s not any different.  It’s even worse now.  Because we who are aware of what is happening are not doing enough to educate our own people. 

 

There are not that many discussion forums.  So those of us who are here, who are in the struggle, I don’t think we are doing enough. 

 

Z - What would you like us to be doing that we are not doing now?

 

EA  - write more books, hold more discussions.  At Centerprise this year, as part of the Bicentenary, we are holding an international conference – Wordpower. 

 

Z - When you came to this country, you started reading? 

 

EA – I came here to study accountancy.  So I trained as an accountant.  And instead of going back home to help my people, I was caught up in this coup d’etat in Ghana, so I didn’t go back home.  And after nearly 30 years, I’m still here.  I hesitate to criticise what my government is doing.  When it comes to managing the economy, I don’t think I have any right to criticise them, because I should be there. 

 

Z – So you are culpable as well. 

 

EA – Absolutely!  Why should I criticise when I could also go there and do my bit, and I’m not doing it? 

 

Z – So what made you decide to start reading about slavery, Black history, etc.?

 

EA – You need to know your past before you can move forward.  It is a very emotive subject – taking people away from their communities.  Coming here was an eye-opener.  I never thought I could be discriminated against purely on the basis of the colour of my skin.  And the Black male is under pressure left, right and centre, from the home, from the family, from the workplace, you name it.  Because the white ones see us as the greatest threat. 

 

And when you talk of racism, it’s all about economics.  Because when you are allowed to sit at the same table with them, then you know how they take the greatest share.  Even liberal whites.  They protect their own. 

 

People talk about issues like what happened to the Jews in Germany.  There were Jews who didn’t speak out or fight against racism. 

 

There is the issue of reparations as well.  when Tony Blair was launching this Bicentenary in March, the President of Ghana, President Kufour, came out with the greatest nonsense I have ever heard – that we should forget about reparations because it’s too complicated.  This guy is the Chair of the African Union.  And I just wondered, what is complicated about that? 

 

And he’s not alone.  The President of Senegal, President Wabe, has the same viewpoint.  It hasn’t directly affected them, so they have no good knowledge of what people have been through.  If you had, or if you even understood the subject of slavery, you would not come out with such nonsense. 

 

 Z – It affected Africa as well. 

 

EA – Absolutely.  So for a President of Ghana who is the Chair of the OAU to come out with such a nonsense statement is quite bleak.  President Kufour came to London as part of the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Ghana’s independence.  I was listening to his speech at Mansion House, where he had been invited by the Lord Mayor of London, and I could not believe what I heard.  This man was saying he shares a common culture with his hosts.  And the culture was the English language.  I thought, oh my goodness!  When did the English language become our culture? 

 

So these are the sort of issues that confront us.  As I said, this guy has not studied slavery, it has not directly affected him.  So he thinks it’s all rosy.  I ask myself, what is complicated about reparations?  You have stolen my property, give it back!  If he is talking abut the mechanics of working it out, if he hasn’t got a computer, I can lend him one. 

 

I have always had a thirst for knowledge.  When you are among your own people, you see the white man when he comes to your country, he treats you very well.  And you think that’s how the white man is.  Not knowing that, when he is in his own country, he won’t even sit in the same room with you. 

 

So naturally, I wanted to learn more about the subject of slavery.  It’s something that still affects me.  Most of the problems of Black people – the ones we have today, for instance the mistrust between Africans from the Continent and those from the Caribbean – come from slavery.  At the end of the day, one sold the other.  The Kings and Queens could have done more to stop it.  It’s not something I feel comfortable with, because I believe my ancestors were culpable.  If we had had leaders like Yaa Asantewa and a few more, we would not be where we are. 

 

The Asante tribe is a very warlike tribe, so they were conquering left, right and centre.  But the one good thing they did was to resist the force of the white man.  If the Asantes had been in the coastal belt, I think the story would have been very, very different. 

 

I am still discovering the truth. You read books like The Black Jacobins [by C.L.R. James] and it gives you so much inspiration.  You look at the suffering that the Haitians went through and somebody was telling me on a recent visit to the States – I can’t vouch for this statement, but he said that, as we speak, Haitians are still paying a debt to the French government relating to slavery and independence, because of treaties signed by leaders at that time to gain their freedom.  It’s similar to what is happening in Iraq at the moment. 

 

Z - It reminds me of the debt in Africa. 

 

EA – It’s a complete mess.  When you start to learn about slavery, you realise how little you know.  There is so much to know.  It’s unbelievable.  And we are not writing enough.  We are not doing enough to help redress the balance.  We are not doing enough to get the young people really interested.  This generation needs to do a bit more. 

 

Z - How did you get involved in Centerprise? 

 

EA – I was fortunate enough to get a job here as Finance Officer in 1990 and eventually, I become a director.  And literature is what we do here.  Storytelling and writing are very African.  That is our tradition.  It’s something I enjoy, and I read a lot. 

 

I have come across discrimination, especially from the powers-that-be at Hackney Town Hall.  I make no bones about it and I have written articles about it . It was nearly 10 years ago – when they caught cold at the Town Hall, we caught cold here.  We were wholly reliant on the Council for our revenue.  About 80% of our funding came from them.  And there were a few Councillors who did not like us very much because we tried to speak out about issues.  So they decided to withdraw our funding overnight. 

 

In 1999 or 2000, we were given six weeks’ notice that they were going to close our centre down.  We were able to save a bit of our funding.  So from that, we made up our minds to diversify our funding base.  It was the last time we were going to rely on the Council.  So from the heady days of nearly £200,000, this year, we had less than £10,000 from the Council. 

 

We have become stronger.  We have developed the businesses, we are wholly independent.  And they don’t like that one bit! 

 

The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy was developed by central government for communities and the Councils to work together.  So they created a separate fund, and there is a separate committee to deal with it.  If you go to a committee meeting at Hackney Town Hall, you will be hard put to see any Black faces on the committee.  And this is a borough in inner London. 

 

I was on that committee, along with another colleague of mind, and because of our outspokenness, they removed us. 

 

Centerprise is discriminated against because it is Black-led.  We are always under the cosh.  If this organisation were a white-led institution, it would be awash with funds.  Some people describe the Town Hall as a citadel of racism. 

 

We do get some support from the Arts Council.  We are the leaders of Black literature in London. 

 

Z - Tell me about Wordpower, the festival that is coming up.

 

EA – We are looking at the Bicentenary.  If we don’t take it, what’s going to happen?  A lot of dancing and so forth.  The whole year will go away and nothing of substance will have happened. 

 

So we decided to introduce this festival.  There is not enough material from Black British writers.  Robin Walker’s book, When We Ruled, we need more of those.  We need more people like yourself writing our stories, writing our history. 

 

We hope the festival will become an annual event.  It’s for people of African descent.  We make no apologies.  So that this can become a forum for debate, discussions, and promotion of African history and culture. 

 

People write to me and say that the very idea that we have planned it is a success in itself.   John LaRose of New Beacon Books, of blessed memory, used to run something similar, and after ten years, he gave it up.  But during the time that he was with us, I always asked him to put on one last one, so that it was handed over to another generation to carry it on.  But unfortunately, he was not well enough, and he passed away. 

 

I just thought to myself, there cannot be a more opportune time than this so-called commemoration of the Bicentenary.  And the response has been tremendous.  There has been a lot of interest all over the African diaspora – the U.S., the Caribbean.  We have people coming from Africa.  We are trying to do our bit. 

 

We hope it becomes an annual thing so that it will show that we have people of outstanding academic and literary talent.  And the young ones will have something they can look up to.  It’s not only music.  It’s not only football.  We have serious academics.  By bringing all these people together, we hope something very positive will come out of it for the school children, for the universities, for ordinary people – you don’t have to have a degree to be able to write.  You don’t have to have a PhD to know your history. 

 

So this is what the whole thing is about.  It is a month of activities in London and Manchester.  We are launching it on the 1^st of October.  We have good support from local and international participants who are coming to exhibit and exchange ideas. 

 

It’s got to have an economic impact as well.   A lot of people are not aware of the other Black publishers, in the Caribbean.  Somebody was asking me – you supply all these other bookshops.  If you bring the publishers here, the bookshops won’t buy from you again.  I said yes, that’s what I want.  There will be more readers.  And we’re not even scratching the surface. 

 

The potential is there.  The more publishers that come, the more business we will create.  And if those people that we supply can do more business, we will do more business as well.  So it’s win/win.  The potential is enormous. 

 

So this is what the whole thing is about.  Not only the cultural aspect, but the economic aspect is very, very important.  And it’s about time.  We run the local carnival as well, and this year, we got peanuts from the local authority.  But from our resources, we were able to put on a great show.  And we should be able to stand on our feet. 

 

I am not saying don’t go for funding.  I am saying don’t rely on funding.  You have to be doing things to uplift yourself.  The sky’s the limit. 

 

How many Black bookshops are there in London?  If we can generate the interest – there is this racist saying that, if you want to hide anything from a Black person, put it in a book.  We need to dispel that myth.  And our young people, especially the women, are reading.  We have a problem with the boys, but we’ll get there.  But I take my hat off to the women. 

 

They are coming up on the spoken word scene.  We need to encourage that more.  If they see things like a writers’ festival, book fairs, they are bound to take interest in that.  In doing so, we uplift them the ghettoes or wherever they are.  So that is what Wordpower is about. 

 

Centerprise Literature http://www.centerpriseliterature.com/