Like many estates up and down the UK, Butetown has something of a reputation. When I’ve told people that I’m currently working down there, they’re quick to warn me that “it’s dead end and dead rough.”
But I’ve found the opposite, if truth be told. There’s bucket-loads of aspiration and we’ve been given a warm welcome everywhere from the local Somali café, Togayo – which does a mean lamb and rice – to the local dominoes night, which was full of septuagenarian party animals more than happy to show off their dance moves.
Of course, I’m not naïve enough to think that there isn’t trouble on the estate. There definitely is. Drugs have come up time and again as an issue. But those problems are caused by the minority. To typecast the entire place and the entire population in that way isn’t fair.
Take Ahmed for instance. He’s often seen walking the streets of Butetown with his baseball cap worn low. Some might judge him purely on appearance and miss the fact that he’s a poet who loves the writings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King; that he’s training to be a teacher; and that he spends every moment of spare time he has, coaching a local football side, Tiger Bay Youth. He’s passionate about ensuring his players do as well off the pitch, as they do on it. You can hear from the team themselves on BBC Radio 1XTRA this Sunday (17th April) at 9pm.
Julie Hamzah grew up just a stone’s throw from where Tiger Bay Youth practice. She was born with spina bifida and went on to represent Wales at the Commonwealth Games. In her life and sporting career, she has faced repeated set-backs, mishaps and misfortune. But she’s still going, she never gives up. It’s an attitude which helped her achieve great things in athletics. You can hear Julie’s inspiring story on BBC Radio 2 this Tuesday (12th April) at 1.30pm on the Jeremy Vine Show.
She’s just one of many successful sport stars from the area. Some of Rugby League’s very best learned their trade on the park pitches of Butetown, playing the Union game. Billy Boston, Colin Dixon and Johnny Freeman are all well known in England’s northern towns - sadly, probably better known than they are here in Wales. The Boxing heritage of Butetown is equally first rate. The likes of Joe Erskine, Darkie Hughes and Redvers Sangoe are some of Tiger Bay’s most-prized fighters.
You can hear more about the area’s sporting past – and whether enough is being done to develop the next generation of stars from Butetown - on Radio Wales Sport, this Wednesday (13th April) 7-9pm.
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