Darcus Howe

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Darcus Howe (born 1943) is British based broadcaster and columnist, who lives in Brixton, South London

1 Biography
- 1.1 Broadcasting career
2 Personal life
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Howe was born in London, England, the son of a white 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 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. 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:

"Im stand up in the court like a mighty lion, Im stand up in the court like man of iron, Darcus out of jail"

Howe organised the 20,000 strong Black People's March of 1981 claiming official neglect and inefficient policing of the investigation of New Cross Fire in which 14 black teenagers died.

[edit] 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 Anglo-Saxon Britain. 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.^[2]

Howe appeared on the discussion programme, Midweek (09:05 on BBC Radio 4), to promote the documentary on October 19, 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.^[3]

Howe was one of several who fell foul of perennial prankster Chris Morris on Morris' show Brass Eye, in the final episode called 'Decline'. Expecting a legitimate interview, Howe was introduced by Morris sitting at the desk in front of him in his current affairs interviewer guise in the following way:

I’m sitting opposite a man, he knows nothing, he talks all the time, the result is he’s a trenchant buffoon, he has no idea how to present television shows, he looks ridiculous in that fashion wear. He swans around all the time hoping that people will recognise him, when in fact nobody’s even remotely interested. He’s taken up enough time on this show already and he hasn’t even opened his mouth. God knows why he’s here, I’ve nothing to ask the guy. And for all I know he may be a bit of a coco-shunter too. Darcus Howe.

Morris then retracts this, explaining that he has accidentally read out the introduction for Robert Elms.

[edit] Personal life

Howe has been married three times, and has seven children. His daughter, Tamara Howe, was a director of production for London Weekend Television (LWT)