‘English gent with an African flair’ writes Black history book for children
Robert O.N. Torto was born in Paddington, to parents of the Windrush Generation. Mum worked in the NHS and Dad drove for a living, but when the 1981 race riots swept the nation, and a house nearby to theirs was firebombed, they decided to leave the country they had given their lives to and return to Jamaica.
It wasn’t until Robert became a young man that he returned to the land where he was born. He found the welcome was not as warm as he had hoped after being interrogated for five hours when he landed at Heathrow; a young innocent whose only crime was being Black.
Robert immediately began work in the West End with a cousin and once he had settled in he began studying Electrical Engineering at Lambeth College before going on to do a degree at Kingston University in Civil Engineering, a job he has been doing ever since he graduated.
As well as private organisations, Robert has worked for Southwark Council, Hackney Council, Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent, Wandsworth and Merton councils, much of the time designing road layouts, and, more importantly to this young man with a strong interest in Sustainable Travel, cycle lanes to get the non-polluters around the city quickly and safely. ‘You can see the work that I’ve put my stamp on in many places,’ he says proudly. And cycling is something that Robert does on a daily basis, so he often pedals along routes that he designed.
But these days, Robert does not go out on any old bike; he sits atop a penny-farthing for his trips around the streets of London, where he has become rather well known. And he dresses accordingly: tweeds from another era that suit the cycle he rides, with a camera attached to the bike to catch all the interactions with people who want to talk to him.
I asked how he got into riding one of those ancient contraptions, and it all began when he became a Marshall for the annual Tweed Run, an event for cyclists to dress up and cycle around the capital, showing off their classy clobber and their bicycles. At this point, Robert was already a ‘snazzy dresser’ but not a cyclist who took part in the yearly gatherings.
‘My dress style,’ he reveals, ‘came from my Great-grandfather, Assistant Treasurer for West Africa, James Godfrey Tetteh O’Baka Torto, Esq, MBE OBE – the first Black African to be awarded both an MBE and OBE by George VI – and my mother, who was a fashion designer between shifts on the wards and being a teacher.’ Robert wears traditional tweeds but accessorised with a brightly coloured bow tie or long, vibrant socks that catch the eye. He calls his style, English gent with an African flair.
At one of the Tweed Runs – ‘A Metropolitan Cycle Ride With a Bit of Style’ – a woman insisted he had a go on her penny-farthing. Needless to say, he agreed, and with one thing leading to another, and one or two tumbles, Robert eventually acquired his own penny-farthing bike, and his first major ride with that beast beneath him was from Stratford to Buckingham Palace. He also took the opportunity to create an alter ego and change his name to Rasta Rolla. In that guise, he now regularly posts his rides on social media under that new snazzy name to fit his outfits and outlook on life.
This genial gentleman then told me the story of when his beloved penny-farthing was stolen and had him trailing the thief and his bike across SW London. With the aid of his followers on social media, various shops’ CCTV, and guys on street corners who were sympathetic to his plight, he garnered enough information to confront the crook on his own front door and get his precious wheels returned. A tale that got him in the papers and on the Jeremy Vine radio show, himself a keen cyclist.
Rasta Rolla has always been interested in Black history and always knew he wanted children to learn more because it was never taught in schools. Between engineering contracts, he found the time to write his first book on Black history for children. He decided to write his books about British Black heroes in rhyme to make them more interesting for children, ‘in the style of Benjamin Zephania’, he says, ‘with a touch of Julia Donaldson and Dr Seuss.’
‘Walter Tull is Never Dull’ is the latest in Rasta Rolla’s series of ‘Brief Histories of Black British Brilliance’ books, after already writing The Many Milestones of Claudia Jones, Diane Abbott Beat The Ballot, and Words of Fire From Benjamin Zephania (still a work in progress). The well-dressed author is currently trying to get his books into all schools and council libraries.
Rasta Rolla, the Pan-Africanist, Sustainable Travel Expert, and Penny-Farthing enthusiast, will be talking about his life, his work, his writing, and riding at the Copleston Centre, Copleston Church, Copleston Road, SE15 4AN, on Wednesday 4th March at 2pm. (£4 donation suggested)
If you want to attend, contact an*@*****************rg.uk.
The book can be bought from https://linktr.ee/rastarolla
