Liverpool’s first black footballer who played for the club has turned down his nomination for MBE in protest at the brutality of the British Empire. Howard Gayle, 58, rejected the MBE saying it would have been a betrayal of Africans who had been killed or suffered as a result of colonialism.
Taking to Facebook he said “This is a decision that I have had to make and there will be others who may feel different and would enjoy the attraction of being a Member of the British Empire and those three letters after their name but I feel that it would be a betrayal to all of the Africans who have lost their lives, or who have suffered as a result of the Empire.”
Gayle’s signing for Liverpool in 1977 was celebrated as a victory for the black community of Liverpool.