The Bring Back Bonsu Campaign

On Sunday 29 February 2004, Presenter Henry Bonsu’s topical and popular radio debate show was brought to an end. The big questions that desperately needs an answer is why? Henry inherited the ‘black Londoners magazine’ show from comedian Eddie Nestor, and turned the horrendously scheduled four hour slot into a compelling forum activism and awareness highlighting issues affecting all Londoners. Together with his silent producer Helen Bart, they pro-actively engaged all those who were interested in challenging the continuing socio-economic deprivation facing the African British community. Far from simply profiling the usual faces, they conducted extensive research and located many individuals and organisations who would been otherwise excluded from having the opportunity to be heard on the wide-reaching BBC station. A typical show would include guests from mentoring agencies, anti-racist organisations, independent publishers, culturally aware community organisations, historians, politicians and poetians, journalists, television and radio presenters, the list goes on. Henry’s show gave them all an equal platform from which to share their opinions, experience, solutions and visions of hope and empowerment to London and digital listeners world-wide.

Despite the obviously positive and proactive content of Henry’s show, a few disgruntled listeners complained that he was ‘racist’, ‘that there was no outlet Asian concerns’, and even that listening to ‘black’ concerns was ‘boring’. Inevitably, the needs of the African British community were once again sidelined and the BBC Radio London management decided to oust Henry from his show, leaving the disgruntled and selfish racists content and an entire community without one of the best BBC programmes in years. No warning, no previous announcement and as always, no consultation.

And now the facts.

The BBC Asian Network was launched on October 28th 2002 in a blaze of publicity with Sonia Deol as it's flagship presenter. With its total listeners across the country reaching almost half a million, this means that 1 in 5 Asian Britons now listen to the station. In comparison, the multicultural mono genre BBC 1Xtra launched in August 2003. It was originally marketed as the home of ‘Black’ music but has failed abysmally in attracting significant audiences from the diverse African British community. Its official figures of 331,000 listeners a week are a result of its narrow remit consisting mainly of African American pop music. This BBC radio clone of MTV Base has similarly marginalised African British artists, its minimalist phone in and debate show means that the young in our community are once again without a public forum.

Ironically, the BBC had to defend 1Xtra after a top reggae producer accused them of encouraging gun crime in the UK and again when some listeners accused the tagline ‘the home of black music’ as being racist… a word that is often banded around by people who resent anything being associated with the African people.

When asked about the Asian Network, Jenny Abramsky, the BBC’s Director of Radio and Music said ‘I’m very pleased that the Asian Network appears to be reaching sections of the community who have previously felt under-served by the BBC.’

We in the African British community ask when will the British Broadcasting Corporation acknowledge that we too have been under-served, misrepresented and caricatured as a community with no interests outside music for far too long? Henry Bonsu has been axed from the only BBC programme that focuses uncompromisingly on a section of the British population consistently underserved by the BBC. Consequently, we request that Henry be reinstated with immediate effect.

Bring Back Bonsu.

Click here to register your vote in support of our campaign on the BBC iCan website

Click here to listen to excerpts from Henry's final show