Ghanaian-born Dame Betty Asafu-Adjaye was a tireless community worker, who engaged particularly with the elderly and vulnerable, through her Harlesden-based Mission Dine Club (MDC) charity. Whilst Kwaku has not put in anywhere near as much work as Dame Betty, after some twenty years of self-organised events across London, particularly in the north-west London locale of Harlesden, he ended such work by organising the Big Up Harlesden: The One Love, Last Hurrah Community Event on Saturday October 19 2024 at Tavistock Hall by the Harlesden Methodist Church.
The event was used as a fundraiser for the Harlesden Salvation Army in memory of Dame Betty. In late 2019 BTWSC also used an event at Tavistock Hall to raise funds for the local Salvation Army in memory of Dame Betty.
Sadly, the MDC centre was demolished in 2011 to make way for the expansion of a neighbouring school. Dame Betty continued her charity work nevertheless, and in her last years, developed a relationship with the Salvation Army in Harlesden, by mainly giving them access to receive the close of day unsold items from the Hampstead Heath-based Euphorium high end bakery.
By organising this last hurrah event, Brent-based independent history researcher and historical musicologist Kwaku says it’s time to close one door, in order to enter new pastures.
Either through the Brent-based community groups BTWSC and/or BBM/BMC (BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress), he began organising projects in the early 2000s in Harlesden. Initially drawn into the area by funding, at a time when the area had a bad reputation for gun and knife crime, the projects there continued even when there was no public funding support.
BTWSC organised fundraiser for Haiti at Mission Dine Club
Over the years the two groups’ projects, which covered the environment, after-school programmes for young people, courses across music business, African history and event planning, fairs, youth award shows, concerts, fundraisers, plus discussion and networking forums, took place mainly at Tavistock Hall. It then moved to the now defunct Mission Dine Club’s centre on Fry Road. Additionally, the MDC centre’s outdoor space allowed for organising inter-generational summer fairs and fun days with bouncy castles, face-painting and drumming for children.
Dame Betty gives Mr & Mrs KB Asante an award
Interestingly, Dame Betty did not only receive numerous awards and accolades for her charity work, she was also fond of giving awards to others.
In 2011, she presented an award to BTWSC co-founder Ms Awula Serwah’s parents Mr & Mrs KB Asante at a BTWSC event organised at the Ghana consulate in Highgate. Mr Asante was a former Ghana High Commissioner to the UK, and Mrs Asante, who is still alive, was a student nurse at Central Middlesex Hospital in Harlesden in 1947 – before the Empire Windrush arrived from the Caribbean and the launch of the National Health Service (Click Dzagbele Matilda Asante – I Was Nursing In The UK Before Windrush And The NHS)!
In 2016, Dame Betty gave awards to a number of deserving community workers. This included Ms Serwah and her BTWSC helpers. Ms Serwah, who’s currently caring for her 97 year old mother in Ghana, left a thriving legal career in Accra, Ghana as a barrister to relocate to Brent, where her community work included environmental work, particularly the It’s Cool To… youth project.
Having started the East La Environment Group in her local area in Accra before relocating, she now leads one of the most high profile environmental activist groups in Ghana – Eco-Conscious Citizens.
In 2022, she was a recipient of the MIPAD (Most Influential People of African Descent) Heroes of Climate Change Award. On July 1 2024, she organised the joint BBM/BMC and Eco-Conscious Citizens planting of The Reggae Tree Accra at the KB Asante Memorial Park in Accra. This is the sister to the BBM/BMC organised The Reggae Tree, planted in front of the Hawkeye record shop in Harlesden in 2018, as part of the International Reggae Day environmental remit.
Before then, in 2008, Ms Serwah was a recipient of the Brent Community Champions Award for her voluntary work.
Cllr James Allie holding a copy KB Asante’s ‘Voice from Afar: a Ghanaian Experience’ book with Kwaku.
Coming back to her partner Kwaku, 2024 was supposed to be his sabbatical year, in order to make time to write a couple of books after years of researching British African history. At the start of 2024, he proudly posted on his social media his break from organising events.
Though he knew at the back of my mind, he’d organise a few events to cover British Black Music Month and International Reggae Day (IRD), he didn’t realise he suffered from severe “eventisis”. That’s a chronic desire to put on events, which are not driven by a profit motive, but a passion to impart knowledge or empower people.
However, having invested not just one’s time but also money over the last twenty or so years in organising a myriad of events, from fairs and courses, to discussion and networking forums, he made a painful decision to cure his eventisis.
In making that decision, he piled on a number of events in October to mark African History Month. Whilst he’s happy to do paid, commission work, such as his presentation on Reclaiming Narratives, which he delivered jointly with the Music4Causes Ft Kimba edu-tainment strand, for Brent Council on October 23, it’s the self-organised community events that he’s stopping.
Whilst he lives in the relatively quiet Brent neighbourhood known as Neasden, he’s fairly well known in the more downtown Harlesden ends. As mentioned, he first started work in the area in the early 2000s, when there was funding for community work there. At the time Harlesden had a bad reputation.
The reputation was so bad, a local rapper called Slim Dutty released a record called ‘Blood Puddles’. And at one of the BTWSC fairs in Tavistock Hall, where the main hall is now called Windrush Hall, the wife of one of the stall holders informed us that her husband was worried about coming into Harlesden from nearby Wembley!
Of course things have since turned around for the better. For Kwaku, he has only experienced good vibes, apart from the sometimes very noisy sound systems blaring music from parked cars and vans, and he’s not talking about Carnival time!
He grew to love Harlesden, where we run a number of projects with or without funding. Incidentally, as highlighted in his BTWSC-produced Brent Black Music History Project (BBMHP) video, which had a rare full-length public screening early in October at Willesden Green Library, Tavistock Hall was where many of the local groups either rehearsed or performed.
Indeed, Cimarons, who attended the screening, and currently have a biopic showing in cinemas, have a plaque on the building attesting to the fact that they were formed in that Hall in 1969.
Having organised numerous events across London either under the BBM/BMC (BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress) banner, BTWSC/African Histories Revisited or jointly under the both community organisations, the October 19 community event will be his last self-organised physical event.
Last year he organised Big Up Harlesden as a community event at Tavistock Hall. Whilst the footfall wasn’t great, the vibe from the attendees, artists and especially the stall holders, was so great, which is why he repeated it this year.
Big Up Harlesden… 2024 flyer
This time, the Big Up Harlesden: The One Love, Last Hurrah Community Event was from 5pm to 10pm, and whilst singers Ciyo and IQ Michael couldn’t make it because of clashing gigs, Vincent Nap and Music4Causes Ft Kimba returned for another well received performance. Plus DJ Brookie Nightflife was back once more on the ones and twos duty.
Health and wellness were covered. Vasco Stephenson made a presentation entitled ’10 Steps To Healthy Ageing + Prostate-Busting Foods’, and Diane Clement covered ‘Nutritious Foods & Cooking + Healthy Water’.
There was an open mic for stall holders, individuals and organisations to update the community, plus free food from our African Caribbean caterer Andrea Manning, which intentionally included jollof rice. Respect goes out to our head volunteer Ras, and David, who also volunteered on the day.
Brent Council’s Love Where You Live grant of £500 was a welcome contribution towards the cost of organising the event. But this only partially covered the costs, even though this time, the Methodist Church waived its hall hire in view of the business BTWSC and BBM/BMC has brought in hall hire over the years.And some of the local stations Beat FM, Chalkhill, Flava, Omega, Roots and Unique, and the Weekly Gleaner, supported the Big Up Harlesden event without payment. We were also informed that Fresh FM Radio London also supported by running the event’s ad gratis for free.
Kwaku on the cover of Brent Council’s Your Brent Autumn 2024 magazine
Interestingly, at a time that he was winding down, he did not only get a feature in Brent Council’s Your Brent magazine, but he was also featured on the cover of the Autumn 2024 edition. The feature article was about The Brent Reggae Album Covers Exhibition, which covered album covers shot around Brent. The exhibition, which he curated, and was supported by BBM/BMC, BTWSC and Brent Museum, was on display at Harlesden library from International Reggae Day July 1 until the end of African History Month October 31.
It was unveiled on July 1 to mark International Reggae Day UK in the presence of the Mayor of Brent Cllr Tariq Dar and Big Zeeks. The latter’s ‘Fresh Prince Of Harlesden’ was the only album cover which represented the 21st century.
BBC Radio London also aired an interview with Kwaku talking about the exhibition and Brent and Harlesden’s unique role in black music, and reggae in particular, in Britain.
As the reggae broadcaster and writer Mandingo said at the BBMHP screening: Harlesden, Willesden, or Brent is the capital of reggae music not just in Britain, but also in Europe. And that without Harlesden, the global reggae landscape would not be what it is today.
Some people who’ve engaged with Kwaku’s organisations, projects or events, trekked down to Harlesden to join the thank you community event.
Kwaku is easing into his sabbatical and out of his eventisis with the no stress Monday 6.30-8.30pm weekly 2024: End Of The Decade Zoom Sessions, which cover various history topics, as we mark the end of the UN’s IDPAD (International Decade for People Of African Descent) 2015-24.
Of course he be willing to break my sabbatical, which starts in earnest from January 2025 occasionally. Provided he’s handsomely paid.
Kwaku’s events are posted at https://bit.ly/BBMM2024.