My partner Mala and I moved to London and resumed life in boarding houses and bedsitters. I got in touch with the leadership of the British Black Panther Movement, assessed them as serious and inspiring individuals and was accepted as a ‘candidate’ member who had to prove his commitment by participating in the propagandist and agitational activity of the ‘collective’, as they called it.
Altheia Jones, the Trinidadian-born, uncrowned but undoubted leader of the organisation, a PhD student of medical science at London University, explained that they called it a ‘movement’ and not a party because despite drawing inspiration from the Panther Party of the USA, the British political circumstances were different.
Though some junior members of the movement sported American-style black berets, the leadership didn’t indulge any symbolism apart from a flag with a panther on it, which they carried on demonstrations to identify the phalanx of marchers who loyally followed the banner.
