YOUNG, GIFTED & BLACK: DAVID GYIMAH HONOURED
Culled from This is London
Young, gifted and black
by Anna Pursglove
In the normal course of things a drum 'n' bass DJ and a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs probably wouldn't have a great deal to say to one another. In fact, the paths of the 11 people gathered in this North London studio are, by and large, related in only three respects - they are all young, they are all black, and they are all rising to the top of their chosen professions.
In what has vaguely been described as 'post-Stephen Lawrence London' much attention has been paid to 'the black experience' with the conclusion seeming to be that it very much depends - rather as it does if you're white - on expectations. 'My parents brought me up to believe that you can do anything you set your mind to,' says accessory designer Samson Soboye. 'I was expected to take responsibility and do something with my life - so I did.'
Actress Sophie Okonedo is quite clear about what her 'experience' has been. 'There's no point in beating around the bush. The fact is that a black actor has a more limited scope for work than a white actor. I don't walk around thinking about it, I have too many other things to take up my time, but I'm not about to be offered a TV costume drama, am I? You just learn to be less fussy.'
Zadie Smith, her first novel White Teeth will be published next year, and Dotun Adebayo, co-founded Xpress after spending four years as music editor for The Voice
And therein lies a sentiment that unifies this group of otherwise very diverse Londoners. In an ideal world they would prefer their colour not to be an issue, but as, sooner or later, it usually is, they don't intend to spend too much time worrying about it.
For publisher Dotun Adebayo, focusing on the work of black authors has, he says, turned out to be a distinct advantage. When he co-founded publishing company Xpress, with a few hundred pounds borrowed from friends and relatives, he couldn't have foreseen the intense excitement it would cause in London's literary circles. 'We published a few books by black authors and all of a sudden we were credited with all sorts of achievements along the "discovering a world of previously untapped talent" lines. Of course, we weren't the first to publish stuff by young black authors but we were obviously the first to get the profile right. There was a market there, particularly for work by black women. Books by Marcia Williams [who Adebayo confidently bills as the black Jackie Collins] are flying off the shelves.'
Sophie Okonedo is currently playing Cressida in the National's production of Troilus and Cressida, and Peter de Jersey, is also an actor with stage and TV credits to his name
Others in this particular group seem less sure that marketing themselves as a new generation of young black talent is helpful. Adebayo's younger brother Diran (whose first novel Some Kind of Black was longlisted for the Booker Prize) worries that London's black community is still not fully integrated in the capital's cultural life. 'When I look for my book in the shops, I usually find it in the "black authors" section,' he says. 'I don't like to dwell on it, but I do find myself asking what I have to do to be thought of as an author rather than as a black author. I suppose the sad fact is that black people have to try that much harder to impress.'
Guardian journalist Gary Younge understands their dilemma. He too talks about 'the burden of black responsibility' and the pressure on young black people to perform better than their white peers. 'I grew up believing that if you go for a job and the other guy has eight O levels, you have to have nine. As second-generation black Londoners many of us are the first in our families to go to university, the first to reach positions of influence and we feel we have to continually prove ourselves.' Broadcaster David Gyimah agrees: 'I've had to become multi-talented to get where I am,' he says. 'I write, produce and present, but I also know how to direct and edit - nothing short of that would be good enough.'
Bryan Gee, left, musician, Diran Adebayo (brother of Dotun), novelist, and David Gyimah, TV journalist
As Younge sees it, one of the problems facing black people is that, for them, everything is related to race. 'If you succeed people say it's because you're black and if you f*** up it's because you're black. Imagine how the Jill Dando case would have been treated if people believed a black man was responsible - it would have become a race issue.'
Although most of the assembled group are more than happy to discuss race at some length in abstract terms, few of them are comfortable talking about experiences involving overt racism. Many of them take the same line as fashion designer Monisola Abike Omotoso, who says she 'felt the ripples of the Lawrence case' but hasn't found racism a problem herself.
Peter de Jersey (who is currently playing Troilus opposite Okonedo's Cressida at the National Theatre) comments that a lot of people are excessively worried about appearing racist. 'I have a very good friend who calls me "brown fool" and because he's white we sometimes get some strange reactions when people overhear him.' He skips lightly over a recent incident at a bus stop where he was called a 'black bastard'. 'I guess it's just a knee-jerk response. Someone gets angry with you and all they can think to get hold of is the fact that you're black.'
Jumping Jack Frost, left, drum 'n' bass star, Yemi Ipaye-Sowunmi, law lecturer and has her own TV production company, Monisola Abike Omotoso, own fashion label, and Samson Soboye, interior designer
An issue which provokes a heated debate is that of how far being black has affected their approach to work. Turner prize-winning artist Chris Ofili, for example, is reported as being increasingly frustrated with critics seeing his background - including a visit to Africa Đ as the key to his work (so it's not surprising that he refused to take part in this feature). Soboye says his interior designs are imbued with a sensuality which he feels is a characteristically Nigerian trait, but Omotoso says, for her, designs are primarily about function and nothing to do with her Nigerian and Guyanese roots. Dotun Adebayo believes it is mainly 'confidence' which has propelled him this far, but his younger brother Diran says, for him, the experience of being a young black Londoner has definitely influenced his work.
The last word goes to 23-year-old novelist Zadie Smith. Her début novel White Teeth, which is published next year, features a Bengali man and an English man who meet in a tank in the Second World War and is what she describes as 'a past and future history about North London'.
'When I went on a recent trip to America I was really bemused by the fact that I kept getting introduced to other black authors, as though the fact that I'm black has some kind of effect on my work,' she says. 'I don't write representative fiction and as far as I'm concerned my work is written from an English perspective. In a funny way, it'll be a step forward when black people don't feel the need to flock together to make a point - no offence.'
© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 28 May 1999
