Conversely, Harry sees Barack Obama as one of the most intellectually gifted people ever to occupy the office but believes he’s endured eight years of the worst animosity of any president in history – a fact that Harry puts down to ‘one thing and one thing only. Because he’s a man of colour.’
These two phenomena – Trump’s popularity and Obama’s received animosity – support his assertion that racism and inequality are alive and rampant in modern-day America and the wider world. And Harry shows no sign of resting while that is still the case. His work extends from fighting AIDS in Africa and serving on the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation to educating American students on the importance of non-violent protest.
Harry Belafonte wasn’t born into the worlds of social activism or stardom. Raised in Harlem to working-class parents, his path to a life in the spotlight was precipitated while working as a janitor’s assistant in New York. A tenant of his building, short on cash, tipped him with two tickets to the American Negro Theater. Watching the play ignited within Harry a love of the art form and he decided at that moment to become an actor. He signed up for acting lessons and, to pay for them, started singing at night in a New York jazz club. But unexpected success there gave him the opportunity to launch a pop career, popularising Caribbean music through his ‘Banana Boat Song (Day-O)’, releasing many successful albums of different musical styles and then forging an equally successful film career. All in all, not a bad outcome from a couple of free tickets.
Like many remarkable people he claims his life has been shaped by such moments of happenstance, those chance events none of us have control over. He advises making the most of them. ‘The greatest force in my life has been coincidence, and having an openness to receiving whatever the people I met offered and wanted. Due to this my life opened up into a whole set of challenges and joys that I would not have had otherwise.’ He summarises this into one of his main philosophies for living: ‘It pays to always answer the knock at the door.’
With his subsequent fame came considerably more of those knocks, including one that turned out to be the most significant of all. From a young pastor by the name of Martin Luther King, asking for Harry’s help at one of his events. And at that first meeting ‘Dr King called me to help him with his mission, and there I was caught up in a social movement that changed the American political landscape and the global family.’ He became Dr King’s mentor and provider, supporting Dr King’s family, bailing him out when he got arrested, financing the Freedom Rides, and organising the March on Washington, and he has been carrying the torch for the Civil Rights Movement and other social injustices ever since. ‘Those guys left me with my hands full.’
So, given all that he has stood for, fought for, and seen his friends die for, it makes sense that his greatest piece of advice is this:
‘Discover the joy of embracing diversity. When people become more open to the strange, to the unusual, to the radical, to the “other”, we become more nourished as a species. Currently our ability to do that is being manipulated, diversity is being looked upon as a source of evil rather than as a source of joy and development. We must recapture the profound benefits of seeing the joy in our collective diversity, not the fear.’
The most important advice I ever heard.
‘DISCOVER THE JOY OF EMBRACING DIVERSITY. WHEN PEOPLE BECOME MORE OPEN TO THE STRANGE, TO THE UNUSUAL, TO THE RADICAL, TO THE “OTHER”, WE BECOME MORE NOURISHED AS A SPECIES. CURRENTLY OUR ABILITY TO DO THAT IS BEING MANIPULATED, DIVERSITY IS BEING LOOKED UPON AS A SOURCE OF EVIL RATHER THAN AS A SOURCE OF JOY AND DEVELOPMENT. WE MUST RECAPTURE THE PROFOUND BENEFITS OF SEEING THE JOY IN OUR COLLECTIVE DIVERSITY, NOT THE FEAR.’
– Harry Belafonte
SANDI TOKSVIG, SERIOUSLY FUNNY
THERE’S A RAINBOW FLAG KNOTTED around the large brass door handle of the Soho-based club I’m about to enter – a show of solidarity for the victims of the Orlando massacre at a gay nightclub just twelve hours before. It’s a terrible event that has horrified everyone and has a deep, personal relevance to Sandi Toksvig, the much-loved writer, actress, producer and comedian. She came out as the first openly gay woman in UK public life in the 1990s and was subject to extreme homophobia. ‘I had death threats and stalkers and people sectioned. But you don’t have to be in the public eye to be afraid. Blind hatred is scary for anybody.’
In her case, the biggest outpouring of vitriol was reserved for the fact that (thanks to a sperm-donating friend) Sandi and her partner were mothers to three children. The Daily Mail ran the headline ‘If God Meant Lesbians to Have Children He Would Have Made It Possible’. Members of the religious right wrote and said they were going to kill her on God’s behalf. ‘Because apparently God was busy and needed them to help pick up the slack.’ Fortunately, she says, things are much better these days: ‘People are very nice to me, I get hugged in the street a lot. I don’t know why. I think it’s because I’m small.’
This is part of what makes Sandi unique: she can be simultaneously funny and extremely serious. She loves comedy – ‘it’s a nice thing, people can forget about their mortgage and marital troubles and come and laugh’ – but she is driven by a more serious motivation than just providing entertainment: ‘I have no drive for fame, no drive for money, I couldn’t give a damn about either of those things, I’m not in the least bit religious, but I do have a drive to make a difference. I’m only here this one time and I intend to make it count.’
Her most recent manifestation of this credo was co-founding the newest political party in the UK, the Women’s Equality Party, an organisation with the specific aim of bringing gender equality to education, employment, social welfare, culture and every other aspect of society. Sandi says it started as an idea on stage at a women’s rights festival, but once they’d thought up the concept she couldn’t leave it alone. ‘You have to get off your arse and do something, don’t you? I will not go to my grave thinking I didn’t try.’
There’s no fear of that. The party already has more than 20,000 members, has fielded two candidates in the recent London mayor campaign and will be putting forward representatives at the next general election.
It leads me to a more pragmatic question: given all the presenting, writing and acting jobs she already has, how does she balance it all? Her answer is equally pragmatic: ‘I work very hard and I get up very early. People say how do you get everything done? The answer is you just have to spend lots of hours.’
And this appetite for work relates to her most valuable piece of advice:
‘Just work hard and be passionate. If I’ve taught my kids one thing, it’s to be passionate. I’m passionate about food, my friends, my wife, passionate about our house, our dog. I’m passionate. I get up and I’m passionate – my father believed in it and that’s the one thing he taught me, that life is amazing and it’s full of people you haven’t met yet, music you haven’t heard, books you haven’t read. And if you start each day looking for something to be passionate about, mostly you won’t be disappointed because every day you’ll find something that’ll make you say, look at that, that’s so cool.’
On that manifesto for life, we want Sandi Toksvig for prime minister.
‘Get off your arse and do something.’
– SANDI TOKSVIG
THE LESSER SPOTTED SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
ALL I CAN HEAR ARE the sounds of nature. The air is filled with mysterious chirpings and squawks, exotic whistles,