Despite being twice included on lists of influential Black Britons, Olive Morris is still frequently overlooked in British history. Still, she achieved much in her tragically short life and her legacy remains alive today.
Black History
Claudia Jones – Out From the Shadows
Now resting in the shadows of Karl Marx's giant tomb, Claudia Jones was an activist and pioneer who left no mere shadow on British culture, and it is time to bring her out into the light.
Amanirenas, Nubian Queen
In 40 BC, while Cleopatra was ruling over a stable Egypt, their southern neighbours gained a different badass lady as a ruler. Amanirenas was a fearless warrior queen who, despite her kingdom's small size, was able to stand up against the might of Rome.
The Dahomey Amazons
The Dahomey Amazons—traditionally called the N'Nonmiton—were an army of women in the Kingdom of Dahomey, present-day Benin. Their origins are somewhat murky, but there were records of women warriors in the region from the eighteenth century.
Women Who Fought Back: The Igbo Women’s War
In 1929, one of the first major acts of protest against British colonialism in West Africa broke out in Nigeria. In colonialist terms, the conflict became known as the Aba Riots, an attempt to reduce the action to the hysterical efforts of a few, removing women from it altogether. In the Igbo language, it is Ogu Umunwanyi – the Women’s War.
Y is for… Yaa Asantewaa
Now an anti-colonial heroine and a role model for women and girls throughout Africa, Yaa Asantewaa was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her land and culture. As Queen Mother, she held a great deal of power in the relatively egalitarian Asante nation—power which she used to incite a war against one of the largest colonial forces in the world. It was not a war Asantewaa would necessarily win in body, but her actions and what they symbolised produced a type of victory out of defeat.
Josephine Baker – Experiment in Brotherhood
Josephine Baker dedicated herself to breaking barriers and tackling injustice. One of the most famous performers in Europe, she also worked as a civil rights activist and was a spy for the French Resistance during World War II, a task she accomplished with ease despite her great fame.
Miriam Makeba – Mama Africa
Posthumously labelled by Nelson Mandela as ‘South Africa’s first lady of song’, Miriam Makeba has been credited with bringing African music to the West. She was a vocal campaigner against apartheid and often used her songs to spread awareness internationally, though she maintained that her music was not political.
Mary Seacole – Mother of the Crimea
In 2007, Mary Seacole was introduced to the UK National Curriculum. Before this, her life went largely unrecognised, and only now is interest in her beginning to resurface.
Claudette Colvin – The Girl Who Came Before
The name ‘Rosa Parks’ is one that has been - deservedly - heralded globally as one of the first voices in the 1950s American Civil Rights Movement. Not many people know, however, that she was not the first; a girl named Claudette Colvin had been arrested for the same act nine months prior.