Buzz Johnson

Norris Chrisleventon "Buzz" Johnson (2 November 1951 – 11 February 2014), generally known as Buzz Johnson, was a Tobago-born publisher and activist who in the 1970s relocated to England, UK. There he set up a small publishing company called Karia Press, based in east London, producing books relevant to community and race relations, and making available and better known the work of many key writers, including Claudia Jones, whom he is credited with having "rediscovered". His other campaigning work included support for the anti-apartheid movement and for progressive politics in Grenada and Saint Vincent.

Johnson was educated in Trinidad, attending San Fernando Government Secondary School and then technical college in Point Fortin. He subsequently worked with Alcoa in north Trinidad and with the Neal and Massey group, which manufactured cars. He studied at Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University) and gained a master's degree at City of London Polytechnic, subsequently becoming a student at the London School of Printing.

Though operating with meagre resources, Johnson managed to command respect for his publishing imprint. The Voice newspaper noted: "Fiercely independent and fearless, his Karia Press, which he ran virtually single-handed, was an autonomous voice challenging neo-colonialism, injustice and all forms of discrimination, as well as promoting self-awareness, culture and the arts.

With very little money, the publisher managed to box above its weight, publishing more than 50 books during a period when so-called 'Third World' publishing enjoyed its heyday of speaking truth to 'First World' power; demanding international human rights, an end to Apartheid, social justice.

Karia managed to more than hold its own alongside John la Rose's New Beacon Books, Eric and Jessica Huntley’s Bogle L'Ouverture, Allison and Busby, and Karnak House, the other pioneering black publishers."

The press published influential titles dealing with community relations in the UK, including Lord Gifford's independent report into the Broadwater Farm uprising, The Broadwater Farm Inquiry (1986), followed by Broadwater Farm Revisited (1989). Names on Karia's international list include Chris Searle, Merle Collins, Elean Thomas, Richard Hart, George Lamming, Bernard Coard, Ralph Gonsalves, Amos Ford, Brother Resistance, Hollis Liverpool, Sekai Nzenza, Eintou Pearl Springer, Jacob Ross and Marika Sherwood. Liberation, and the Institute of Race Relations A memorial service was held in London on 1 March 2014 at All Saints Church, Haggerston Road, Hackney,

Awards In September 2014, Buzz Johnson was posthumously given the Adiaha Antigha Lifetime Achievement Award by Hackney Council for Voluntary Service (Hackney CVS) in tribute to his work as a "community champion".