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The launch today of the second edition of the Powerlist, profiling Britain's 100 most influential people of African or African-Caribbean heritage, is important to me most of all because it proves that with the right application and dedication, a person can get anywhere they want to in this world, regardless of where they come from or the colour of their skin.
How many times — especially when the debate about juvenile delinquency in black communities hits the headlines — have we heard that one of the causes is a lack of black role models? And how often has the response been to wheel out a famous footballer or singer, only for people to ask: “But what about the lawyers, architects, authors, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs?”
Now at last we can say: here they are, 100 of them. Each at the top of their respective field.
The power of this list is that it showcases what I call real role models — people who are doing the sorts of things that most could if they followed the right path.
While it is undoubtedly the case that one person can influence another as a role model regardless of whether or not they are of the same race, it is equally true that if they do happen to look like them and come from a similar background, it makes the job that much easier.
I can personally attest to this. As a youngster who had been born and bred in south London, I was beginning to go off the rails. My mother passed away when I was 14 and my three sisters, my brother and I went to live in Nigeria with my aunt.
When I first got there, my ambitions in life, if I can call them that, stretched to possibly being a mechanic or going into a trade of some sort. Certainly I would be leaving school at 16. It was what I knew; it was what you did in 1970s south London if you were from a working-class, single-parent family.
In Africa all that changed. None of the people around me — cousins, aunts, uncles — had not attended university. They were all professionals with good jobs, lived in nice houses, drove flash cars and seemed generally pleased with life. I decided that I could do similar, so I knuckled down and eventually qualified as a lawyer, before becoming a journalist.
My hope is that the Powerlist can do for some of our young people out there what going to Nigeria did for me. It is full of examples of people who have proved you can be successful if you set about it in the right way.
People such as the lawyer Trevor Faure, who grew up on a council estate in Luton in a single-parent family. Today, Trevor is the global head of legal at the top financial services firm Ernst & Young. People such as the composer Shirley Thompson, who grew up in east London and has gone on to become the only woman in Europe in the past 35 years to write a symphony. People such as space scientist Maggie-Aderin Pocock, who was dyslexic and who attended 13 different schools while she was growing up. She went on to get a PhD and in addition to designing parts of very complex telescopes, she runs a business teaching children about science.
Every London school has a sizeable number of black pupils who need to read the Powerlist. The poet TS Eliot once said that “people exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced”. I simply want to ensure that when they are thinking about their future careers, their subconscious is guided in the right direction.
The Powerlist is available online at www.powerful-media.com or on 020 7868 1470.
Reader views (10)
Black people are embedded into the workforce across the job sectors in all major British cities. Yet apart from Trevor Phillips, (a poor role model), no black person is part and parcel of national life and national debate in Britain. The times when black drama, comedies and serious debate, were normal on TV has gone. Moira Stuart, an icon and national treasure in her own right, saw almost the last black person on serious TV programming depart.
The BBC, as the premier broadcaster in this country, train and groom broadcasters through their Asian Network programming on to 5Live, who then go onto TV careers. Sonia Deol, Anita Anand, Nihal, Anita Rani, (currently on the One Show). No such routes, equivalent training and bringing-on happens with the BBC black specialist station, 1Xtra. Why do the BBC favour one minority group to the almost total expense of nurturing talent in another group? It seems stupidly wasteful and shortsighted for their commissioners and schedulers to under-develop talent in this way.
Given that there is so little visible representation of black people in British life, I think that it's important to bring to prominence black people who do achieve in whatever sphere. Whether from workingclass backgrounds or whatever, we all know the more someone sees someone like themselves publicly acknowledged for what they do, and getting on, the more it fuels youngsters coming up to feel, "I can/want to do that".
- M Randall, London, 12/10/2009 09:50
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As an organisation that promotes positive role models of every type I find the fact that I, nor the students we represent, can actually read the names on this list deeply irritating and immensly counterproductive.
How do you inspire people from behind closed doors?
This list can only be helpful if it is published, for free, on an available platform.
archaos - the national architecture student society.
- Archaos, london, 02/10/2009 13:38
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Any kind of 'powerlist' is nauseating, ones that focus on skin colour are even worse. They just give people like nolan something to suck up to.
- Rob, Rochester, 29/09/2009 13:51
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Michael, is there any way this list can be made freely available to the young people who need it most and might not be aware of it under it's present distribution arrangement?
It saddens me immensley when you read about a young person (of whatever race or colour) who commits a crime or other antisocial act, but whose true talent and ambition is not realised beacause they haven't had a positive role model who could show them a better way.
We're wasting too many young lives in this country as it is.
- Terry, Pimlico, 28/09/2009 18:34
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About time such lists of achievers and eminent black professionals and successful people emerged.
Since 9/11 we don't see so many black people on our TV screens as we used to. Since that time it's as if there's beena rushed PC initiative to put Asian people in highly visible positions on TV. Apart from sport and music, all the black people disappeared from British television.
- Jvs, London, 28/09/2009 17:04
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Helen - you get a "power list" full of white people coming out it seems like every fortnight, but when there is a list of successful young black people produced AT LAST, why have you got to make it about white people AGAIN? Can't your mind stretch to think about anyone else's experience?
- Nolan, Londonist, 28/09/2009 16:27
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How fabulous to have a similar thing for white kids.
- Helen, norwich, 28/09/2009 14:32
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I went to a Grammar school with a fella, who like me came from the slums of the Elephant & Castle. When he was about thirteen his parents returned to Nigeria taking him with him and now he is a Doctor working for the NHS.
Given that he was one of the least least cleverest in our year and had no common sense whatsoever the transformation was remarkable so there must be something to a Nigerian education.
Still pound to a penny that the majority of the people on this list come from a stable family background, which makes a hell of of difference irrespective of your colour!
- Mark, South-East London, 28/09/2009 13:54
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I'm neither young nor black but was interested in seeing who was on the list. Sadly the list isn't freely available. The fact that the list isn't published here by the Evening Standard and is seemingly only available in a book published by a Media company and sponsored by the financial services company, J.P. Morgan, (it is a commercial venture charging £6.95 for the pleasure) probably means that the kids that Michael Eboda hopes will be inspired by these black role models will probably never find out who the people listed are.
- Richard, LONDON, 28/09/2009 13:23
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Mr Eboda, I absolutely agree with you about being sent back to Nigeria! I too was born in south London, going nowhere and sent back to Nigeria at the age of eight to begin boarding school. To say I grew up fast is putting it mildly!
It was absolutely brutal! I thought I had done something horrible and my parents hated me but my father insisted that all 4 of us go back to get the kind of education he knew we couldn't get here, living in New Cross in south London.
He kept saying education was everything and I always wanted to throttle him but he was right. Now, everyday I say a silent 'thank you' to him for forcing what I thought was horrendous bullying on us.
Instead of living in a council estate, on benefits, with 4 children from different fathers that I can't care for, I'm a banker (yes, I know we are not very popular at the moment!). Point is, black kids must be thought the value of education and sent where necessary.
- Selenezino, Canary Wharf, London, 28/09/2009 12:37
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