Howe was born in Trinidad and Tobago, the son of an Anglican priest. He left Trinidad for London aged 18 to enter the legal profession at Middle Temple, but he swapped the law for journalism. He returned to Trinidad, where his uncle and mentor, radical intellectual CLR James, inspired Howe to combine writing with political activism. A brief spell as assistant editor on the Trinidad trade union paper The Vanguard was followed by return to Britain as editor of British magazine Race Today.

He became a member of the British Black Panther Movement, and in August 1970, following a protest, Howe was arrested and tried for riot, affray and assault. He was acquitted after a trial at the Old Bailey. Later, he was the editor of the magazine Race Today and was imprisoned for three months for assaulting a police officer. The celebration following his release was recalled in the song Man Free by poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. The central lines of the song describe Howe's legal fight: "I stand up in the court like a mighty lion, I stand up in the court like man of iron, Darcus out of jail, Shabba!".

Howe organised the 20,000 strong Black People's March 1981 claiming official neglect and inefficient policing of the investigation of New Cross Fire in which 13 black teenagers died.

Broadcasting career

In 1982, Howe began his broadcasting career on Channel 4's television series Black on Black, later co-editor with Tariq Ali of Bandung File and more recently White Tribe, a look at modern day Britain and its loss of 'Englishness'. Howe has continued to write in the New Statesman and fronted the Channel 4 current affairs programme Devil's Advocate. He was a keynote speaker at the 2005 Belfast Film Festival's "Film and Racism" seminar and presented his documentary Who You Callin' a Nigger? at the festival.

In October 2005 Howe presented a Channel 4 documentary Son of Mine, about his troubled relationship with his 20-year-old son Amiri, who had been caught handling stolen passports, shoplifting, and accused of attempted rape.

Howe appeared on the discussion programme, Midweek (on BBC Radio 4), to promote the documentary on 19 October 2005 and, live on air, became involved in an angry debate with American comedienne Joan Rivers. The dispute began when Howe suggested that Rivers was offended by the use of the term "black" and Rivers objected strongly to the suggestion that she was racist and forced Howe into an apology.

Howe was one of several who fell foul of perennial satirist and prankster Chris Morris on Morris' show Brass Eye, in the final episode, 'Decline'.

Howe has been married three times, and has seven children by four different women. He had little contact with many of his children during their childhoods. His son Amiri was threatened with jail for a stolen passport scam, though his other six children have largely been successful. [1] His daughter Tamara was a director of production for London Weekend Television (LWT). He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2007 and has since campaigned for more black men to get tested.