Citation

Bourne J. Race Class 2011; 53(2): 1-13.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Institute of Race Relations, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306396811414319

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The author, who has worked at the Institute of Race Relations since 1970, recalls the Spaghetti House siege of 1975, when three armed, young, political black men intent on a small-scale robbery ended up holding nine waiters hostage for five days. The home secretary and senior police officers, anxious that such an event should not be repeated, played down the political element of the crime; the black community thought otherwise. The piece goes on to record the reaction to his incarceration of Wesley Dick (Shujaa Moshesh), one of the 'gunmen' protagonists, who had used the IRR as an educational centre and later kept in touch via letter, visits from IRR staff and by sending out his poetry in two collections. This account is interspersed with Shujaa's poems on black politics, imprisonment and world events.