UK's First Black Cabinet Minister

Civil Rights Activist and Lawyer, UK's First Black Cabinet Minister, Chief Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury in the UK.

DH: You are still dealing directly with the bread-and-butter problems of your poorest constituents, as I observed myself when I came to your advice surgery unannounced. Where does a Cabinet Minister find the time?

PB: My roots lie in my constituency, first and foremost, in my role as an elected representative. My base, the heart of my role as a politician is within my constituency, although I am privileged to also be a Cabinet Minister. One role informs the other, and being close to the ground as a constituency MP makes me a better Cabinet Minister.
Dealing with my constituents' basic concerns such as unemployment, immigration, housing, crime, etc. makes me a Minister grounded in the experiences and realities of the people. I always make time for it. You have to be disciplined to keep that close link with your constituents.

DH: Twenty years ago you inspired Black Britain with your famous "Brent South today, Soweto tomorrow" speech. You were also at the forefront of the fight against injustice as a Civil Rights lawyer. Relive those days for our readers.

PB: My experiences were those of an activist and community lawyer. Although I joined the Labour Party at 15, I never looked for elected office until I was into my thirties. I was elected a Councillor in north-east London in 1983 and stood unsuccessfully for parliament in 1983, but succeed in 1987 when the people of Brent South elected me as their MP. For me politics is an extension of that calling to serve the people: a vocation. I have as a lawyer, seen the law as an instrument of social change, to be used to address day to day problems of poverty, bigotry, injustice and racism, which affect us in whatever part of the world we live. We have a duty to work for a world which is free from the curse of poverty and bigotry. I took the opportunity of my election victory speech in Brent to highlight that fact. As long as South Africa remained an Apartheid State we were all the poorer. The blatant and institutionalised racism in South Africa diminished as all, particularly as African people, if people are discriminated against on the basis of their skin colour. "Brent South today, Soweto tomorrow" was my way of underlining the fact that there was unfinished business in South Africa. Also in the hall that night was Adelaide Tambo, the wife of Oliver Tambo who was a family friend from way back in Ghana. I wanted to make our support clear to her.

DH: Paul, tell me something about your early years - your childhood, your family and the environment in which you grew up.

PB: My father was African, from Ghana and my mother was English, from London. During the formative years of my life, from age 3-15, I lived in Ghana (or the Gold Coast as it was known then). I went to Ghana International School and then to Achimota, one of the oldest schools in Africa. I got ill with serious malaria and after I recovered I attended Accra Academy, an excellent day school. At Achimota I attended the funeral of the great pan-Africanist WB Dubois in the school hall and I sang in the school choir.
Ghana was a special place to be at the time, we were at the birth of a nation, and living in the country were great Diaspora Africans such as WEB Dubois and George Padmore who was a friend of my father's. My father was thrown into jail without any trial when Kwame Nkrumah was deposed by a military coup in 1966 and my mother, my sister and I fled to the UK with only a couple of suitcases.

DH: Many influential Black Britons had primary and secondary education in Africa or the Caribbean and University education in UK. What about you?

PB: Well, as I said, my formative years were spent in Africa and I had the benefit of an excellent education. I had good early groundings in the '3Rs'. In Britain I went to the local grammar school and then on to study law at Bristol University.

DH: Who were your role models while you were growing up?

PB: Many of the people mentioned already, and the likes of Paul Robeson and Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Oliver Tambo. There was a great sense of what was possible at that time. "The wind of change" was blowing across Africa, led by Ghana which became independent in 1957, at the very moment that Martin Luther King was leading the campaign for Civil Rights in the USA. This was a time of broad horizons and a clear blue sky; we believed we could achieve anything we set our minds to. Our leaders and role models made us believe that all was possible. Young people today are in some ways not as fortunate, but in other ways benefit from the fact that others have cleared a path for them.

DH: How and when did you decide to become a lawyer and a politician? How influential were leaders in Africa and the Diaspora on your social and political views?

PB: My father was a lawyer as well as a Cabinet Minister back in Ghana and I saw law as an instrument of social change. I joined the Young Socialists in Hemel Hempstead at 15, at a time of global change. After leaving school I studied law at Bristol University and then became a community lawyer at Paddington Law Centre in London at a time when there was great concern in the black community about the police use of vagrancy laws that harassed the black community (SUS laws). I became a lawyer because I wanted a career that I knew would have some meaning and that would have a capacity to make a difference. I entered politics, because my background was one that had taught me the value of political action to influence policy and improve the conditions of those whose lives were adversely affected by disadvantage and discrimination.

DH: I know you are heading to Africa next week. What you are going to do there?

PB: I am going to Ethiopia, South Africa and Ghana to meet with government colleagues, heads of state, and development workers in the field. I will be attending a conference of field workers from all over Africa in Addis Ababa. I want to also visit projects in the field and I hope to make a case for an "International Financial Facility" to increase the flow of financial aid to Africa and the developing world. The UK Government and the Chancellor Gordon Brown are committed to pushing for increased financial aid for Africa, doubling the current 50 billion dollars to 100 billion dollars by 2015. This is part of the Millennium Goals agreed by the developed world and the developing world. At the moment only half the funds needed for Africa's development are available. For example the 10-12 dollars per head health expenditure in Africa should at the very least double (compare this to the 1,675 dollars per head for health spending in the UK). Water and sanitation are also basic needs and 10 billion dollars is needed there. Both the developed and developing world need to make commitments. Resources made available for aid need to be used effectively. Positive partnerships between donors and donees will result in a long-term financial flow through our International Financial Facility proposal. Required too is long-term commitment from developed countries - something that my government and the Prime Minister are working hard on. The US and President Bush have also recognized the importance of a continued effort to increase aid.

DH: Africa, from Senegal in the West to Somalia in the East, is being kept afloat by financial remittances from Africans in the Diaspora. Are we doing enough to formalise and promote the links and support between Africa and the Diaspora, the aim being to support Africa's interest and development as much as the Jewish Diaspora does for Israel?

PB: As individuals of Africa descent we can do more. We need to build on individual links with the continent, which have real value in themselves. For example I belong to an organisation called Akyem-Tafo Union which is composed of a group of people in England with links to Akyem-Tafo, a village in Ghana. Our activities are based mainly on the development needs of the village, such as raising funds for schools, health centres and water wells. Similarly there are many old boys and old girls organisations, comprised of Africans living in the UK, which raise funds and equipment to support their old schools back home. Many Africans in Britain, Europe and the US make regular financial remittances and I am sure this goes a long way to support people at home. I am confident that these links to and support for people back home will continue to grow.

DH: Give us an insight into Blair the Man.

PB: We have in Tony Blair an outstanding political leader, a man whose commitment to Africa's and global development is real. With his close partnership with the Chancellor on development issues, I see this government as the best thing that has happened to global development in my time. Both are committed to Britain playing a leading role and I see great hope: they are men with a positive vision for a better world. This comes partly as a result of our experiences of growing up in the Sixties, with all the hope and idealism that was about then in the cause of creating a better world. We saw the need for a world free from the curses of poverty, disease, ignorance, bigotry, discrimination and exclusion. We saw the need for a world in which people were able to take control of their lives- a world of possibilities and rights balanced by responsibilities. A world in which communities are built through the exercise of these rights and the assumption of these responsibilities. A great Hebrew man called Hillel said: "If I am not for me, who will be for me? But if I am only for me, what am I? If not now, when?" This is a call for greater recognition of the need to link self reliance with responsibility- one for the other- and the need for urgent action.

DH: Paul, you are the MP for probably the most diverse area in Britain. In this school here I found pupils from 15 national backgrounds in one class when I did a small survey last year. What are your hopes and fears for your people here?

PB: We have more people in work than we have had at any time. We need to do still more and we are - particularly for those most in need of opportunities for work and training, including ethnic minorities. Overall, crime is down, but drug related and gun crime in a constituency like mine remains a cause of concern. Parenting skills and supportive homes for young people, where they can learn to respect themselves and others whilst growing up to become responsible members of our society, are of course important. You would know as a teacher that this government has put tremendous resources into schools over the last seven years. This is beginning to show real results but there is still more to do.

DH: The terror events in Kenya and the economic consequences for Africa of global terror and war must concern you greatly?

PB: We must all work together to promote international peace and global security. International terrorism threatens us all and threatens the weakest and most vulnerable most. We have a duty to work in partnership to strengthen global co-operation whether on the economic, political or security fronts.

DH: Thank you Paul, it was good to talk and you have been an inspiration during my 27 years here in Britain. I am also going home, to The Gambia. Maybe you could be our guest soon?

PB: (Smiles) You have seen how busy I am in my constituency and the lot of a Cabinet Minister is even busier. Although I have never been to The Gambia before, the hospitality and friendliness of its people are well known (I had a meeting with your High Commissioner to London recently). It is my hope that I'll be able to visit someday.

This interview was recorded in Paul Boateng's London constituency on Friday 16th May 2003.