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Despite many years in jail, Nelson Mandela emerged to become the country's first black president, playing a leading role in the drive for peace and is revered worldwide as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. His lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Nelson Mandela led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy; he joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943, first as an activist, then as the founder and president of the ANC Youth League. Eventually, after years in prison, he also served as its president. Mr Mandela qualified as a lawyer and played a pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC. He campaigned against apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of coercion ever devised by the all-white National Party that oppressed the black majority. After growing resistance to the apartheid laws, the government outlawed the ANC in 1960 and Nelson Mandela went into hiding as an underground leader. Tension with the apartheid regime grew, and soared to new heights in 1960 when 69 black people were shot dead by police in the Sharpeville massacre. It was the end of peaceful resistance and Mr Mandela, already National Vice-President of the ANC, launched a campaign to disrupt the country's economy. He was eventually arrested and charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the government. Conducting his own defence, Mr Mandela used the stand to convey his beliefs about democracy, freedom and equality. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," he said. "It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." In the winter of 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison. He remained in prison on Robben Island for 18 years before being transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland in 1982. In 1980, Nelson Mandela’s partner in law, Mr Tambo, who was in exile, launched an international campaign to release Mr Mandela. The world community tightened the sanctions first imposed on South Africa in 1967 against the apartheid regime. The pressure produced results, and in 1990, President F.W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, and Mr Mandela was released from prison. Released on 11 February 1990, Mandela plunged wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first National Conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, Nelson Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson. Nelson Mandela has never waivered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite extreme provocation, he has never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration, in South Africa, and throughout the world, to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation. In a life that symbolises the triumph of the human spirit over man’s inhumanity, Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace their land. In 1994, for the first time in South Africa's history, all races voted in democratic elections and Mr Mandela was elected president. The ANC won 252 of the 400 seats in the national assembly. On 23 July 2004, the city of Johannesburg bestowed its highest honour on Mandela by granting him the freedom of the city at a ceremony in Orlando, Soweto. Nelson Mandela handed over the Presidency in 1997. Mr Mandela divorced his wife of over thirty years, Winnie Madikizela, in 1996. Two years later, on Mandela's 80th birthday, he wed his 52-year-old companion, Graca Machel, the widow of the former president of Mozambique, in a private ceremony at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since his retirement in 1999, Mandela turned his attention to international diplomacy, travelling the world, meeting leaders, attending conferences and acting as an ambassador for peace and equality. He convinced Libya to hand over two suspects for trial in the Lockerbie airplane bombing, and he played a role in the Burundi peace process. Sadly, in 2005 Mandela's son, Makgatho Mandela, 54, died of an AIDS-related illness. South Africa has about five million HIV/AIDS patients -- more than any other country. Mr Mandela has continually argued that whatever global issues demand attention, HIV and AIDS is an overriding priority to be tackled, a message he reaffirmed at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok in July 2004. Mandela was the driving force behind a worldwide music-led campaign to raise global awareness about HIV/AIDS. Pulling in major international celebrities and corporations, the 46664 (Mandela’s former prison number) Campaign kicked off in October 2003 with a ground-breaking music launch on the Internet and phone networks around the world, followed by an all-star concert in South Africa in November 2003. Mr Mandela, though 86 and increasingly frail, continues to mount a highly public crusade against the AIDS epidemic devastating South Africa. Through the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, set up in 1995, the iconic anti-apartheid leader is on the front line, fighting the disease with AIDS education, health care and support programmes. These are supported by community-based organizations and government; providing a care model for children affected by AIDS deaths, and now reaches over 150,000 of these children.
Lord Richard Attenborough was the first person to inform the world in large about apartheid and the problems it had caused in South Africa with his film, Cry Freedom (1987). Having devoted his life to fighting racism and prejudice, Attenborough's career as an actor, director, producer and human rights campaigner has spanned some 60 years. He is one of the world's great communicators, and has used his films to educate and move audiences with his compassionate and beautiful storytelling whilst tackling important issues. This is particularly evident in his film Cry Freedom. The film tells the story of South African journalist, Donald Woods, who is forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the murder of his friend, black activist Steve Biko. It is now widely accepted that the film encouraged the introduction of economic sanctions that eventually contributed to a change in the South African government. Attenborough directed the cinematic classic Gandhi (1982). In 1984 Lord Richard Attenborough was awarded the Martin Luther King Peace Prize for his work in combating racism. He has also received India's Padma Bhusan award. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. With films like Ghandi and Cry Freedom, he has shown he has no fear in tackling big issues and his determination to do so has had enormous impact on the world. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the regimental Sergeant Major in Guns at Batasi (1964). One of Attenborough's most notable film roles was as Squadron Leader, Roger Bartlett ("Big X"), the head of the escape committee, in The Great Escape (1963). As of September 2006, he is one of only three surviving major stars of the film, the others being James Garner and David McCallum. In 1967 and 1968, he won back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in the category of Best Supporting Actor. The first time for The Sand Pebbles, starring Steve McQueen, and the second time for Doctor Dolittle starring Rex Harrison. He would win another Golden Globe for Best Director, for Gandhi, in 1983. He is also known for his role as the eccentric developer, John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993), Steven Spielberg's screen version of Michael Crichton's bestseller. This was his first acting role in nearly 14 years. He also had memorable roles in the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street, as Kris Kringle, and the 1998 historical drama Elizabeth, as Sir William Cecil. Early in his stage career, Attenborough starred in the London West End production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which went on to become one of the world's longest running stage productions. Both he and his wife were among the original cast members of the production, which opened in 1952 and as of 2006 is still running. In 1967, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1976 and in 1993 he was made a life peer as Baron Attenborough, of Richmond upon Thames. On 13 July 2006, Attenborough, along with his brother David, were awarded the titles of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University." Passionate about people and helping others, through Richard’s commitment, energy, passion and determination he has brought serious human rights issues to the global conscience in an entertaining and enlightening way.
Poet, best-selling author, singer
, dancer, producer, director, actress, playwright, civil rights activist, journalist, teacher and mother, Dr Maya Angelou is one of the few people we could all learn something from. In her own words, there is nothing Maya Angelou cannot do. This ‘Phenomenal Woman’ has touched the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As she tells her friend Dolly McPherson, “The minute someone says I can’t, all of my energy goes up and I say, ‘Yes I can.’ I believe all things are possible for a human being, and I don’t think there is anything in the world I can’t do.” And she’s right, there probably isn’t. She was 41 when the first of her autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published. The book, which is widely read and taught in schools and universities, was among the first works of literature by an African-American woman to hit the bestsellers lists and was later aired as a television movie. It remains a favourite of Oprah Winfrey’s who has always said she sees Maya as her mentor, mother, sister and friend. Oprah said, “Maya Angelou’s autobiography was the first book I ever read that made me feel my life as a coloured girl growing up in Mississippi deserved validation. I loved it from the opening lines.” Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on 4 April 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was raised by her grandmother from the age of three in Stamps, Arkansas. After five years of being apart from her mother, Maya and her brother were sent back to live with her in St. Louis. Although things started out well, they took a turn for the worse when Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. This devastating act of violence caused her to withdraw from normal life and she was sent back to live with her grandmother. In Brian Lanker’s book on black women who changed America, Maya writes, “I was a mute for five years. I wasn’t cute and I didn’t speak. I don’t know what would have happened to me had I been in an integrated school. In another society, I’m sure I would have been ruled out. But my grandma told me all the time, ‘Sister, Mama don’t care what these people say about you being a moron, being a[n] idiot. Mama don’t care. Mama know, Sister, when you and the good Lord get ready, you’re gonna be a preacher.”’ Perhaps Annie Henderson had foreseen what her granddaughter would become. Maya Angelou was honoured with the EMMAs Lifetime Achievement Award 2002 because she has been a groundbreaker for black women. Her work goes well beyond her award-winning poetry and books. She has written and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including Afro-Americans in the Arts, for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her acting in Roots and also for her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia, which was the first documentary to be filmed by a black woman. In theatre she produced, directed and starred in Cabaret for Freedom in collaboration with Godfrey Cambridge at New York’s Village Gate. She starred in Genet’s The Blacks and adapted Sophocles’ Ajax, which premiered in Los Angeles in 1974. She also wrote and produced a ten-part TV series on African traditions in American life. Although she began her career in dance and drama, she later married a South African freedom fighter and lived in Cairo where she was Associate Editor of The Arab Observer. In Ghana she taught at the University of Ghana, and was Feature Editor of The African Review. When she returned to the US she was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. During this time, Maya Angelou continued to produce masterpieces including Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1971. In 1975, she received the Ladies Home Journal Woman of the Year Award in communications. She is on the board of the American Film Institute and one of the few female members of the Director’s Guild. In 1993, at the request of President Clinton, she wrote and read her poem On the Pulse of Morning for his inauguration, becoming only the second poet in US history to do so. She also recited her poem, A Brave and Startling Truth, at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations celebration. More recently, Maya has been touring the US and abroad, spreading her ‘universal message of hope’. The culmination of her life story, which she began writing more than thirty years ago, comes in the publishing of her sixth autobiography, A Song Flung Up to Heaven. The book is currently on The New York Times Best-Seller List. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opened as Maya Angelou returned from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she had to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner had she arrived than she learned Malcolm X had been assassinated. Devastated, she tried to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theatres. Subsequently, on a trip to New York, she mes Martin Luther King who asked her to become his coordinator in the North, and she visited black churches all over America to help support King’s Poor Peoples March. But once again tragedy struck. King was assassinated, and this time Angelou completely withdrew from the world, unable to deal with this event. Finally, author James Baldwin forced her out of isolation and insisted she accompany him to a dinner party, where the idea for writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was born, In fact, A Song Flung Up to Heaven ends as Maya began to write the now famous first sentences of Caged Bird, “What you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay…” Maya insists that A Song Flung Up to Heaven is the last of her autobiographical works but she will continue to write. She once told a Sunday Times Magazine journalist: “Writing really is my life. Thinking about it when I’m not doing it is terribly painful…” An avid Maya Angelou fan says the thing he admires most about her is how ‘consistently excellent’ she is when she writes. Most authors, even Shakespeare, have their really good books and one or two bad ones. But I’ve yet to read anything of hers I have not liked.” Angelou won a Grammy for the narration of the audio book in 2003.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a theorist and a charismatic mass movement leader, who brought the cause of independence for British colonial India to world attention. His ideas of non-violent protest have influenced both nationalist and internal movements throughout the world. The word “mahatma”, while widely mistaken for Gandhi’s given name, is a Sanskrit term of reverence that literally means “great soul”. By means of hunger strike, Gandhi helped bring about India’s independence from British rule. Inspiring other colonial peoples to work for their own independence to ultimately dismantle the British Empire and replace it with the Commonwealth, Gandhi motivated generations of democratic and anti-racist activists, including fellow EMMA award winners Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, India. At the age of 19, he went to University College in the University of London to train as a barrister. He returned to India after being admitted to the British bar. In India he tried very hard to establish a law practice in Mumbai, though he had diminutive success. Two years later an Indian firm sent Gandhi to South Africa. Gandhi was dismayed to see the prevalent denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants and began protesting and lobbying against legal and racial discrimination against Indians in South Africa. One of the most cited incidents of his initial days in South Africa was the one in which he was physically thrown off a train in Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move to the third class coach, while travelling on a first class ticket. Gandhi was arrested on 6 November 1913 while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa. After World War I, Gandhi became involved with the Indian National Congress and the movement for independence. He gained worldwide publicity through his policy of non-cooperation and the use of fasting as a form of protest, and was repeatedly imprisoned by the British authorities. Gandhi’s other successful strategies for the independence movement included ‘swadeshi’ policy – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that all Indians should wear ‘khadi’ – homespun cloth, instead of relying on British-made textiles. One of Gandhi’s most striking actions was the salt march known as the Dandi March that started on 12 March 1930 and ended on 5 April; leading thousands of people to the sea to collect their own salt rather than pay the salt tax. On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a fast that would last 21 days to protest British oppression in India. In Bombay, on 3 March 1939, Gandhi fasted again in protest of the autocratic rule in India. Gandhi became even more vocal in his demand for independence during World War II, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This soon sparked the largest movement for Indian independence ever, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Gandhi and his supporters made clear that they would not support the war effort unless India was granted immediate independence. Gandhi was assassinated in Birla House, New Delhi on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical who held him responsible for weakening the new government by insisting on a payment to Pakistan. Before shooting Gandhi, Godse bowed before him three times. Gandhi’s dying words were a popular two-word mantra to the Hindu conception of God as Rama: “Hai Ram!” It is seen as an inspiring signal of his spirituality as well as his idealism regarding the possibility of unificatory peace. While there are some who are sceptical about this, the vast majority of evidence and witnesses, as well as popular opinion, support this utterance as truly having occurred. Mahatma Gandhi’s work is not forgotten by his future generations. His grandsons, Arun Gandhi and Rajmohan Gandhi and even his great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, are also socio-political activists, who are continuously promoting non-violence to the world.
EMMA salutes the leader of America’s greatest non-violent movement and ambassador for racial justice and equality. “I have a dream … that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s infamous speech. In 1954, the US Supreme Court outlawed segregation in schools, and what should have been the overdue start of racial tolerance instead ignited another period of violent protest. These events thrust a 26-year-old Reverend with natural charisma and magnetic oratory skills into a battle for racial equality that would ultimately cost him his life. The son of a preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. was born on 15 January 1929. His ideology of peaceful protest in the Civil Rights era couldn’t have differed more from the radical stance taken by Malcolm X, who held his own sway on the path of Black Nationalism. During his infamous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, Dr King said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”. Are we living Dr King’s dream of universal brotherhood and sisterhood in a world of no colour today? Whilst in many cases the glass ceilings of institutional racism remain intact, black people across the world have shattered records of excellence in education, politics, business, media and sport. Dr King’s influence on the African-American Civil Rights movement has been well documented; the impact of his work on Blacks experiencing racial hatred in other parts of the world has also been considerably far-reaching. Paul Stephenson – enamoured with the bus boycott staged in Alabama by Dr King and Edward D. Nixon, a high-profile community leader – organised a boycott in 1963 against the Bristol Bus Company, which refused to hire black workers. Following in the same foot steps, an organisation called The Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), made an appearance in London in 1964. In Windrush, co-authors Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips described its formation: “After King’s tour, a number of Caribbeans, many of whom were show business personalities or already involved in race relations work, together with a group of white liberals and the clergy, created the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination.” This in turn spawned other race-relations organisations, such as the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), established in 1976, and the Anti-Racist Alliance, created in 1991. Although The Parekh Report on ‘The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain’ and the Macpherson Report on institutional racism do not make encouraging readings 40 years on from Dr King’s keynote speech in America’s Capital, we have made progress; although Dr King’s ‘dream’ has not yet been fully realised. Bigotry and fear led to Dr. King’s death by a sniper’s bullet on 4 April 1968. Martin Luther King’s award for the Nobel Peace Prize recognises his work to gain respect and constitutional rights for his people. In Cornel West’s book Breaking Bread, he describes a race transcending prophet as “someone who never forgets about the significance of race but refuses to be confined by race.” Today, his widow, Coretta Scott King, carries on his work through the King Centre for Social Change in Atlanta. One of their schemes, King Papers Project, aims to collate his sermons, speeches, published writings, unpublished work and letters into a definitive fourteen-page volume. They also work with schools to create historically correct material on social change, known as the Liberation Curriculum. Dr Clayborne Carson, who runs the project, says of King: “His life and thought offers hope and inspiration to all people in the world who continue to struggle for peace with justice.” As this year’s recipient of the EMMA Legend Award, Martin Luther King Jr. truly encompasses the spirit of the decoration; achieving social change throughout his professional lifetime and continuing to impact race relations thereafter. His determination to fight for freedom and justice with peace and honour continues to affect the lives of people of colour here and in the U.S. If we do get to the Promised Land, he won’t be with us in body, but his spirit will certainly live on.
Bruce “Jun Fan” Lee was born in the hour of the Dragon, in the year of the Dragon, in San Francisco’s Chinatown on November 27, 1940 while his father was on tour with the Chinese Opera. Lee quickly became obsessed with martial arts and bodybuilding, and at age 13 he began studying the Chinese Gung Fu system of Wing Chun under renowned Grandmaster Yip Man. As a child actor back in Hong Kong, Lee appeared in 20 movies and rarely participated in school. He was part of a small gang that was big enough to cause his mother to ship him to America before his 18th birthday so he could claim his dual-citizenship and avoid winding up in jail. Boarding at a family friend’s Chinese restaurant in Seattle, Lee got a job teaching the Wing Chun style of martial arts that he had learned in Hong Kong. In 1964 at a tournament in Long Beach, California, the first major American demonstration of Kung Fu took place. Lee, an unknown, ripped through black belt Dan Inosanto so quickly that Inosanto asked to be his student. Shortly after, Lee landed his first U.S show-biz role, as Kato in The Green Hornet, a 1966-67 TV superhero drama from the creators of Batman. With this minor celebrity, he attracted students like Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to a martial art he called Jeet Kune Do, “the way of the intercepting fist.” Living in L.A, Bruce became the vanguard on all things ’70s. He was a physical-fitness enthusiast; running, lifting weights and experimenting with isometrics and electrical impulses meant to stimulate his muscles while he slept. A rebel, he flouted the Boxer-era tradition of not teaching Kung Fu to Westerners, even as he happily railed against the robotic exercises of other martial arts that prevented self-expressive violence. One of his admonitions: “Research your own experiences for the truth. Absorb what is useful … Add what is specifically your own … The creating individual … is more important than any style or system.” Despite his readiness to embrace American individuality and culture, Lee couldn’t get Hollywood to embrace him, so he returned to Hong Kong to make films. In these films, Lee chose to represent the ‘little guy’; and so, in his movies, he’d fight for the Chinese against the invading Japanese, or the small-town family against the city-living drug dealers. The films set box-office records in Asia, and so Hollywood finally gave him the American action movie he longed to make. But Lee died a month before the release of his first U.S. film, Enter the Dragon. The movie would make more than $200 million. Bruce Lee’s career ended all too briefly. On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee passed away from an allergic reaction to a prescription medication. A month later “Enter the Dragon” was released catapulting Lee into international stardom. Lee was laid to rest in Seattle, Washington by his friends and family. What he did achieve in his short life has seen him become a cult figure and an inspiration to minorities of whatever making, to be the best they can be.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a theorist and a charismatic mass movement leader, who brought the cause of independence for British colonial India to world attention. His ideas of non-violent protest have influenced both nationalist and internal movements throughout the world. The word “mahatma”, while widely mistaken for Gandhi’s given name, is a Sanskrit term of reverence that literally means “great soul”. By means of hunger strike, Gandhi helped bring about India’s independence from British rule. Inspiring other colonial peoples to work for their own independence to ultimately dismantle the British Empire and replace it with the Commonwealth, Gandhi motivated generations of democratic and anti-racist activists, including fellow EMMA award winners Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, India. At the age of 19, he went to University College in the University of London to train as a barrister. He returned to India after being admitted to the British bar. In India he tried very hard to establish a law practice in Mumbai, though he had diminutive success. Two years later an Indian firm sent Gandhi to South Africa. Gandhi was dismayed to see the prevalent denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants and began protesting and lobbying against legal and racial discrimination against Indians in South Africa. One of the most cited incidents of his initial days in South Africa was the one in which he was physically thrown off a train in Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move to the third class coach, while travelling on a first class ticket. Gandhi was arrested on 6 November 1913 while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa. After World War I, Gandhi became involved with the Indian National Congress and the movement for independence. He gained worldwide publicity through his policy of non-cooperation and the use of fasting as a form of protest, and was repeatedly imprisoned by the British authorities. Gandhi’s other successful strategies for the independence movement included ‘swadeshi’ policy – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that all Indians should wear ‘khadi’ – homespun cloth, instead of relying on British-made textiles. One of Gandhi’s most striking actions was the salt march known as the Dandi March that started on 12 March 1930 and ended on 5 April; leading thousands of people to the sea to collect their own salt rather than pay the salt tax. On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a fast that would last 21 days to protest British oppression in India. In Bombay, on 3 March 1939, Gandhi fasted again in protest of the autocratic rule in India. Gandhi became even more vocal in his demand for independence during World War II, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This soon sparked the largest movement for Indian independence ever, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Gandhi and his supporters made clear that they would not support the war effort unless India was granted immediate independence. Gandhi was assassinated in Birla House, New Delhi on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical who held him responsible for weakening the new government by insisting on a payment to Pakistan. Before shooting Gandhi, Godse bowed before him three times. Gandhi’s dying words were a popular two-word mantra to the Hindu conception of God as Rama: “Hai Ram!” It is seen as an inspiring signal of his spirituality as well as his idealism regarding the possibility of unificatory peace. While there are some who are sceptical about this, the vast majority of evidence and witnesses, as well as popular opinion, support this utterance as truly having occurred. Mahatma Gandhi’s work is not forgotten by his future generations. His grandsons, Arun Gandhi and Rajmohan Gandhi and even his great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, are also socio-political activists, who are continuously promoting non-violence to the world.
Thank you for honouring me the Ethnic Multicultural Media Award for Lifetime Achievement. It is an award I share with all ethnic communities, who have striven to surpass their obstacles and achieve their dreams. As in the United States, Britain is lucky to draw from the talents of a community rich in ethnic diversity. The vital cultural contributions by people of African, Asian, West Indian and Middle Eastern descent are integral to the progress of British culture and business at large.
