Liz Johnson Artur: Black Balloon Archive

WOMAN’S VOICE: Working with women. You see, women are practical. They're the ones that have to get on and do things. They're the mothers. If the children want something, they go to mum. If kids start crying and mum's in the house and dad's in the house, he can often put his jacket on and walk out the door. You don't even know if he's going to come back. But mum always has to come back, so mothers get on and do things. If you look at any community, there are women. There's always a woman in the community that you go and knock on their door if something happens. Those are the women I try and target. Those are the women I try and reach out to say, 'Let's look at developing'. Because by developing the key woman in the village, whatever that village is or wherever the village is, the key woman in that village is a conduit to support all the other women. So if you equip them with the skills and the knowledge, they will then be able to support the next woman that comes knocking on their door. They're linked up to a system where they can support that woman. And that says to me that's how our politics or my politics should be. 

So I'm saying, 'OK, we can start looking at the next level'. And then get the young people to run it and they can organise it. They can do it all on Facebook, YouTube. They do it through the net. And then we'll arrange one big sort of visitor exchange. And hell, I'll take them to Brussels, let them go make a presentation on what it's like being young, black and European. If it's not being done, I can get one of the MEPs to sponsor it. 

WOMAN’S VOICE: OK, right. I mean, I was always…, I suppose, essentially, from the time I was conscious of issues… as a teenager and younger, I was always interested in issues of equality, issues of racial equality, gender. It was just something that I naturally felt, being the eldest girl in a family of five with three brothers, I noticed the difference in the way that my brothers were treated. And I remember one particularly being absolutely incensed because we, at one stage, I was a teenager, had a rota for washing up. And I remember my brother, who kind of followed me in the sort of hierarchy, started paying my sister to wash up for him. He kind of opted out. And I kind of complained to my mum. And I remember her saying, 'Oh, what does it matter? He doesn't need to wash up. He'll have a wife to do it one day.'

People are a lot more complacent. Because in the 70s and 80s, it was about kicking doors down. And you literally did have to kick the doors down. The doors have been kicked open now, but people are a lot more complacent because we had to fight a lot harder. To get things changed. Some people think now that, oh, things are okay, really. Okay, they might not be perfect, but, you know, if I rock the boat too much, you know what I mean… Whereas sometimes people then just have to say, 'Okay, this isn't right. We have to change it.' And if there are enough of us, and we're vocal enough, we can effect that change. But yeah, that's what it was. 

WOMAN’S VOICE: I realised that I was not... I was more that colour than any other colour. When you're the only one, it's not actually... There's a limit to how many times you can be called names. You know, there's no point. You've got no reference point in yourself except for your own family. So I don't remember... in those infant years, I don't remember any sense of... I remember being different because I knew we were black. We knew we were black. And we had family. We had an extended family in London. I knew we were West Indians, as we were called then. 

MAN ON SCREEN: My enemies will be satisfied. But in death, I shall serve you even as I did before. 

WOMAN’S VOICE (cont.): When I went to secondary school… we were still... When I went to secondary school, I can remember the other black families in the school. The Williams and the McKenleys. My cousin was in my secondary school as well. And the Williams had... You know, there was... Somebody was in my class, Joe, and his brother was in my cousin's class. And we were literally the two black families that went to that school at that point. Once it became comprehensive, it had a more diverse intake. But not at the time it was a grammar school, no. 

In the 1960s, there were only two channels on the telly. We had a television, I can remember us getting that in the... when we moved to Manchester, we were able to afford a television. And we very much watched those sorts of programmes on the telly. There was lots of news. We always watched the news. We always knew about civil rights issues coming up. I had an afro. In a funny sort of way, I don't know how all these things came to me, but they did. I've got pictures of myself with an afro. And so that was in my early teens, you know, 11, 12, 13, 14. And that was a very powerful sense of Black is Beautiful, Black Consciousness, Black Power. Those were very much… And that was all added to a kind of a sense of change happening to you as you got through your teenage years and wanting to be different and seeing difference. And we had interesting role models. Lots of interesting black American singers were on the Top of the Pops. There was a lot of… Your reference point was very much you were aware of influences coming from black America. And that was the civil rights image. I was aware later of my father having a hard time at work. But he was very careful not to bring that home, that bitterness, if there was. And he wasn't a naturally bitter person. He was always a nothing was too small to share kind of person. But I was very aware of us being a black family in the north. But we were a young family. So my mother, at the same time as being a black family, we were a young family. So lots of things that she learned, she had to learn a lot about how things went in England. And we had a woman next door we all called Auntie Mavis, and she told us how to do things and where to go and get things. And I was very conscious of being the oldest one and having to understand that for my parents as well, with my parents, too. 

How did you become aware that your father was having a hard time at work? 

It's hard for me to remember. I just remember that work was hard, he worked shifts when we came back to London. He worked for London Transport. He was a conductor and he did shifts. I can remember feeling… a general conversation in the family that he should have done that straight away. He'd have done quite well, career-wise, but he joined London Transport later in his working life. 

My mother, she didn't work. She stayed at home. She worked at home for us. And that was quite a conscious choice on his part. I can remember him being very careful about... She wasn't allowed to wear trousers, my mother. He was very... In those days, women didn't wear trousers, actually. Slacks were a big thing in the 60s, that came in in the 60s. And she didn't wear trousers. And he was very much... he wanted his pride. He was very much the kind of... he wanted to be the provider and the breadwinner. And he was all that all our lives. 

But he left Jamaica because he was in the countryside in Jamaica. And there was no work. So he came, you know, as a brave adventure to England. And I think he was proud of himself for doing that and to being able to provide for… to have a family and to provide for them. And to have a house. And eventually, once we found our feet in London, to have a house again. So I think I've understood his very generous spirit. He was… he was never bitter. 

WOMAN’S VOICE: But in our role as mothers and our role as sisters, we... we were experiencing our brothers, our sons, our fathers… be brutalised by the police. And it was very hard, and I feel, I chose not to put my political energies where Mabel put hers, but we were sisters and struggling against the same issues, and I know I certainly raised the issues of discrimination against black men whilst I was in the women's liberation movement, the white women's liberation movement. Because when some women were advocating, and there was a particular slogan, I recall, about more police on the streets, and I remember arguing it very strongly. It might be easy for a white woman to say that, but if you're a black woman, the police on the streets are going to be arresting and hassling your son, your father, your brother. So the impact of more police on the streets wasn't equal for men… for all men, because some of our men were, I mean… In those days the Sus laws still existed, and a black man could be walking down the street and arrested by a police officer under the Vagrancy Act, because they were suspected of having committed an offence. And in those days, again, we have to remember how the police were highly esteemed, and you go to a court, you go to a county court or whatever, or a Crown Court, who is going to be believed? The police officer? Almost always a white man. Or a black man who is alleged to have committed some kind of offence, or about to commit some kind of offence? And there were a lot of, in those days, in the 60s and 70s and 80s, there were a lot of men who were criminalised by racism. 

WOMAN’S VOICE: I remember going to this meeting at the West Indian Cultural Community Centre here. And I was late because I'd come from some women's meeting. And I remember going in and saying, 'I'm really sorry I'm late, I was in a women's meeting.' And this guy said to me, 'You know what? Sooner or later you're going to have to decide whether you're black or whether you're a woman.' And I thought, 'Well, that's not going to be easy.'

MAN’S VOICE: You, pleased with yourself for freeing yourself after seeing yourself in a world by yourself, not knowing yourself to question yourself about yourself that enslaved you. 

RADIO (singing): In this world of trouble a station come to me speaking words of wisdom: Galaxy, Galaxy, Galaxy... Galaxy Radio! Afiwe Station! One love. One Spirit up. Mojo. Dignity. You know… 

MAN’S VOICE: You ask me if I have ever been to prison. Been to prison? Your world of murderers and thieves of hatred and jealousy of death. And you ask me if I have ever been to prison. I answer, 'Yes. I am still there trying to escape.' 

MAN’S VOICE: Greetings, greetings, greetings. Yes, blessed, beloved. And give thanks and rise up to the whole Galaxy family. 

MAN’S VOICE: I don't know. Have we got that love? Have we got that love? I don't think we've got that love among us. We talk about love but we haven't got it. We don't know how to really share love as brothers and sisters. Sometimes I want to say this. I want to say this to you. Be careful of what you wish for. Be careful of what you wish for. Because what you wish for it may not actually happen to who you want it to happen to. So be careful. You know exactly who I'm talking about. 

HERU KHUTI: Yes, beloved brothers and sisters, we're coming back into the planet Earth now. And one of the things we need to look at is to check out ourselves from within and stop giving up our will, to know who we are, what we are, and stop just hanging around like really and truly we are just some loafers. I want us to understand that life is what you make of it. But a lot of you try to confuse your mind. And you try to confuse your mind in the sense that you are not coming from the centre of your being outwards. But you are coming from somebody else's interpretation of what somebody said that somebody said that the bishop said, that the Archbishop said, that the Pope said, that somebody said, that Peter said, that J. Christ said, that God said. Be careful of these Chinese whispers. God is not outside of you. Neither is the Christ outside of you. It is time for us to look within ourselves and be at one with ourselves and stop wasting time, foolishly, chasing after fantasies and dreams and illusions, things that cannot be. Look inside of yourself and find the truth in yourself. All of us need to do that. And it is time for us to start to get real. Once again, I say, when I look at the world, and I look at all the brothers and sisters outside there rising up, they are people who have long time has been supporting regimes and things that was not beneficial to humanity, nature, the earth, the universe, you know what I mean, and to the supreme master of all masters. No, they have been following the Tom said that Dick said that Harry said, and because of this situation, they find themselves in a situation that they have to try now, and overturn that, and start to get some action for themselves. So all of you who are living in your own little private world, I want you to come out of it and realize that everything is everything, and everything is connected to everything. You've got a right to feel like, if you want to feel like... A is A, or B is C, or D is D, of course you've got a right to do that, but check it out, and quantify it, put it in context, and make sure that it's not just how you feel, but it's how it is. Beloved, I am Heru Khuti, this is your final judgement, and I am coming in now to your planet Earth, and there's a whole heap of things happening outside there, but don't forget, don't forget. I cry no quarrels, and I ask for none, and I have no enemies, because I wish no harm unto no one. If you check for what I'm saying, so it is. But check it out for yourself also. And don't get too involved with things that you have been forced to believe because you are conquered people. The whole earth has been conquered, and it's been conquered. And it's for us to look and realize what is happening, and start to look about our interests. Look about nature. Look about what is happening outside there. Because what affects nature, trust me, it's going to affect you. And maybe when it starts to affect you, you're going to say, 'I thought so-and-so was going to come and do this. I thought so-and-so was going to let that happen or do that.' No, no, no, no. The Creator says he helped those who helped themselves. Beloved, I am Heru Khuti. This is the final judgement.