THE EXCELLENCE of Africa and its diverse diaspora was honoured at this year’s glittering GUBA (Grow, Unite, Build Africa) Awards. The Voice also picked up an award for media impact.
Held at the prestigious Grosvenor Hotel, pioneers and trailblazers came together in the UK for the first time in four years following the success of the awards going global with MPs Dawn Butler and Bell Riberio-Addy and Top Boy actor Michael Ward in attendance.
This year’s theme was dubbed “Honouring Beacons of Excellence and Inspiration” and winners were welcomed to the stage by relationship expert Paul Brunson and Ghanaian media personality Anita Erskine.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland, TV presenter, author and ex-BBC diversity lead June Sarpong and Afrobeats pioneer DJ Abrantee were just a few of the honourable gongs received on the night.
The Voice, Britain’s only Black newspaper, was the first award recipient of the night, having told the stories of the African and Caribbean diaspora in the UK since 1982. They were bestowed with the Media Impact Award for its dedication in chronicling the often untold or misrepresented stories from the diaspora and celebrated their triumphant 40th anniversary last year.
Speaking about The Voice’s win, editor Lester Holloway said: “We are honoured to receive this award, which is testament to four decades of campaigning for racial justice. Special thanks go to the journalists and editorial team – past and present – who strive to make things better for our community. And to other staff, including advertising, who work hard in the background to allow us to do what we do.”
The Media Excellence Awards was given to June Sarpong who has remained a recognisable face on our TV screens for over a decade. Sarpong is the Former Director of Creative Diversity at the BBC, TV Presenter and former panellist on daytime TV hit Loose Women.
Sarpong told The Voice: “It’s an absolute pleasure and an honour. To be recognised by the GUBA Awards, it’s really about celebrating talent of colour particularly Black talent across the diaspora – it really does mean so much to me.”
Margaret Bushby, Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer, and broadcaster, was Britain’s first young and first black female book publisher when she and Clive Allison co-founded the London-based publishing house Allison and Busby in the 1960s.
She took home the Woman of Spirit Award and described it as a “great honour” following her years in publishing.
“It’s always a great honour to be awarded with anything and particularly anything to do with Ghana and Africa, so I’m really happy to be here,” she said.
“There’s still some way to go in terms of Black publications and publishing and the involvement of Black people in publishing, because for a long time it’s been a question of us and them. We’re happy to be the writers but the publishers have always been British, it’s time to claim that space as our own, I’ve been in the industry for many decades so I know it’s possible if we really try and be on both sides.”
Former NBA player and founder of sportswear company Actively Black, Lanny Smith, took home the Innovator of the Year gong, Exemplary Woman in Leadership Award went to Baroness Patricia Scotland; Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and Afua Kyei Chief, Financial Officer and Executive Director, Bank of England was honoured with the Exceptional Leadership in Finance Award.
They join former lauded winners grime artist Stormzy and politician Lord Paul Boateng.
Paul Brunson, dating expert on Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating and current relationship guru on Married at First Sight, co-presented this year’s awards.
He told The Voice he was honoured to be supporting the awards because of the growth that Black people have experienced since making the UK home.
“When I got to the UK five years ago, people would whisper about the ‘Black community,’ people weren’t even bold enough to say it. The fact that we’re talking about celebrating the Black icons, the Black community, saying it proudly, means everything especially coming from the US,” he said.
He added: “This is very important because it’s all about Black excellence.”
Lady Dentaa Amoateng MBE, the founder of the GUBA Awards, said: “Over the past thirteen years, the GUBA Awards has grown immensely, expanding across three continents. It was fantastic to be back in London honouring these incredible winners who are truly inspirational individuals and role models.”
“Initially established to acknowledge the remarkable contributions of British Ghanaians, the event has now been hosted in various international locations, including the United States in 2019, Ghana in 2021, and Rwanda in 2022.”
She added: “We seek to reward and celebrate the excellence and innovation of African individuals and organisations throughout the diaspora that work towards the advancement, empowerment and progression of the African community.
“It is a delight to see this come to life with the worldwide popularity of African exports in entertainment and business, proving Africa to be a cultural and economic powerhouse.”
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The absence of visionary leadership, are the reasons why His Majesty’s African, African-Caribbean, and African-Dual-heritage Subjects are perishing into violent delinquency, whilst Caucasian, and Asians nations continue to marginalise, and ignore us.
Can anybody tell me precisely why GUBA awarded its Exemplary Woman in Leadership Award to Baroness Patricia Scotland; Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, a Treasury supported institution, which did little to advocate on behalf of Caribbean-heritage Subjects: who were illegally exiled to the Caribbean in 2018, by the Home Office?
Our Churches have a reputation for rewarding, and promoting poor performance.
The majority of African-heritage people in public, and political office today, are there because they are compliant.
GUBA is clearly following the Churches’ example.
Baroness Scotland, the Rt Hon Dawn Butler MP, the Rt Hon Bell Riberio-Addy, and the former BBC Diversity Executive Ms June Sarpong are all handsomely publicly paid political, or BBC functionaries.
It is difficult to accept that GUBA 2023, could not honour someone not in receipt of a handsome five figure salary, and expense account, but was deserving of being recognised, and celebrated by the GUBA Award 2023?
Please.
Why do we love being showered with awards, and royal titles; at a time when our youth are without a sense of their historical roots, and drifting into increasing violent delinquency?
We have no parliamentary representation; and we are the Cinderella to feminism, sex-politics, and all other ethnic, and religious minorities; minorities, which are equipped with their self-funded, and Treasury assisted funds, political lobbies, and advocates.
As someone who reached out to the Commonwealth Institute, at the height when African-Caribbean heritage Subjects, were being persecuted, and then illegally exiled to the Caribbean, without receiving any meaningful response or assistance from the Commonwealth Institute, I am at a loss to understand why Baroness Scotland is being recognised, and rewarded with honours.
Moreover, Voice Newspaper readers, if this GUBA Awards 2023, was authentically designed to assist, encourage, and support England’s African, African-Caribbean, and African-dual heritage Subjects, it would not have been held at the prestigious Grosvenor Hotel; a hotel most of England’s African-heritage people could not afford to sleep for one night, or even purchase a pint of larger, without dogging deep unto one’s picket.
I recently read the below mentioned article in the Guyanese Chronicle newspaper and was surprised to know about this part of Black History that was never taught to us in schools in Guyana. I suppose this superlative achievement is too threatening to the authorities in Guyana so they had to ignore it for many years, but you see google is here with us and nothing hides.
“The Guyanese who once headed a foreign government” by Francis Quamina Farrier
“IF you are a youngster, you might be wondering if the headline of my article this week is a mistake. Actually, it is not. The historic fact is that a Guyanese did, indeed, head a foreign government. The individual was Sir Edward Trenton Richards, Kt, CBE, formally of Canje, Berbice, British Guiana.
Growing up in that racially mixed community prepared him for service in a racially mixed country, Bermuda. He created history when he became the very first non-white person to become the government leader of the popular tourist island of Bermuda. This unique story goes back many decades, and is becoming somewhat forgotten, and really should not, especially for Guyanese.
Those who were alive in the era of a Guyanese heading a non-Guyanese government have mostly passed on with the happy knowledge that one of our own made such a great and happy achievement. The establishment of that government which Guyanese-born Sir Edward Trenton Richards headed changed forever. When Edward Richards became the government leader, his party, The United Bermuda Party, which he headed, actually broke the glass ceiling, so to speak. Previously, the non-white section of the population of the island existed in a virtual Apartheid system. There were “Whites Only” and similar signs displayed at many public places. The United Bermuda Party, which was supported mainly by the non-white citizens, finally put that disgraceful behaviour by those who considered themselves as ‘high and mighty’ to an end.
Edward Trenton Richards, the son of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Richards, was born at Adelphi, Canje, Berbice, British Guiana (GUYANA) on October 4, 1908. Growing up in that eastern region of the colony, he attended the Leeds Anglican School on the Corentyne Coast. He was also a student at the Mission Chapel and the Wesleyan schools in New Amsterdam, and finally, The Collegiate in Georgetown. At the last-named school, he served as an assistant master for a while before leaving for Bermuda in 1930. That was the time when almost all schools in the colony of British Guiana were
operated by one of the Christian bodies: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Congregational etc.
As such, students who were not Christian or from denominations other than the one their families were practising were greatly influenced by the denomination that managed the school they were attending. For example, as a student of the Agricola Anglican School, which was located on the East Bank of Demerara, just one mile south of the city of Georgetown, I joined with the other students at the commencement of classes every day, saying prayers of the Anglican faith. As a Catholic, that was not in any way difficult for me since the Catholic and the Anglican (Episcopal) ways of worship are pretty similar. History records that King Henry VIII of England established the Anglican denomination in 1534 as a political act rather than for any serious ideological reason.
Prayers such as The Lord’s Prayer are a staple in both the Catholic and Anglican denominations. Those Wednesday morning services (Mass) of my boyhood student years were and continue to be principal ways of worshipping God by both the Anglican and Catholic denominations. English history has recorded the time and reason for the Anglican Church to have been ‘born’ of the Catholic Church. Most of the ways of worship by Catholics and Anglicans are very similar. Here in Guyana, the two denominations work closely on a number of social issues, such as supporting youth activities.
Back in the 1940s, students, myself included, attended a service at the Agricola Anglican Church every Wednesday morning, which was mandatory. As such, students of another faith, or even those not Christian, were all made to attend the service. While most parents cooperated, there were some quiet objectors.
Edward Richards focused on being a good and brilliant student in that educational, social and religious environment. He excelled in mathematics, and became an assistant master before he migrated to Bermuda, a small island located in the Atlantic Ocean some 600 miles off the eastern coast of South Carolina in the United States.
I have visited Bermuda on three occasions and observed first-hand the all-round high standards of life and living on the island, and the many tourists who flock there. I have also seen the Guyanese who live there united as one in their little diasporan paradise out in the Atlantic. The older ones and those who have been residing on the island for many years do speak of the legacies of the former government leader, Guyanese-born Sir Edward Trenton Richards, who, back in the day, was respectfully and endearingly, referred to as “E.T” (Edward Trenton).
Before settling permanently in Bermuda, the ambitious Edward Richards went to England, where he studied Law at the MiddleTemple. In November 1946, he was called to the Bar in London, after which he returned to Bermuda, where he commenced a long and distinguished career in the legal field. Sir Edward was appointed a magistrate in 1958, a post in which he served with dignity and decorum.
Along his life’s journey, he realised that he had a desire for politics, in which he became actively involved in 1948. That led him to serve as the political representative in the Parish of Warwick. By dint of hard work and many political successes in his adopted homeland, the Guyanese-born Bermudian citizen was appointed a member of the Executive Council (Cabinet) in 1963. Continuing his upward mobility in the political activity of the island, in 1968 he was appointed Member (Minister) for Immigration and Deputy Government Leader. His political pinnacle was then just one step away.
It was just a matter of time before the Berbician reached the top of the political mountain of Bermuda. And that he did. In December of that year, with the retirement of the then Leader, Sir Henry Tucher, Sir Edward Trenton Richards, a man from Canje, Berbice, not only became the very first Black person to head the Government of Bermuda, a country which had practised Apartheid for many long years. Edward Richards also became a Guyanese who headed a non-Guyanese government; something extremely unique. It was and remains historically unique. My visits to the island of Bermuda were some years later, but I heard many stories about the era when Black Bermudians and Black visitors to the island used to be treated like “Children of a Lesser god”.
With Sir Edward Richards becoming government leader, and with his strong quest for justice and dignity for all citizens of the island, the Apartheid system came crashing down, and non-white Bermudian citizens found their place in the sun. In ending this article, it is appropriate to mention that Sir Edward Richards was an honoured and special guest at the Independence celebrations of Guyana in 1966”