Kathleen Wrasama
Kathleen Wrasama(her name sometimes given asKathleen Warsama) was anEthiopian-born British community organiser. As a child she moved to England and became a founding member of theStepneyColoured Peoples Association, an organisation working to improve community relations, education and housing for black people.[1]In 2018 she was cited byThe Voicenewspaper as one of eight black women – alongsideOlive Morris,Connie Mark,Fanny Eaton,Diane Abbott,Lilian Bader,Margaret BusbyandMary Seacole– who have contributed to changing British history,[1]although there has been little documentation of her life.[2]
Biography
[edit]Wrasama was brought to England as a child in 1917 by church missionaries.[1][3]The experiences she suffered living in a children's home inYorkshirecaused her to run away, and she subsequently found work as a farm labourer.[4]Moving to London in the 1930s, she worked as an extra inPaul Robesonfilms.[4]She and her husband later established a Somali seaman's mission in Stepney, and in the 1950s she was a founding member of the Stepney Coloured People's Association, which was committed to improving community relations, as well as education and housing for black people.[1]She told of her life in London's East End in an interview for the 1982 BBC documentarySurviving: Experience of Migration and Exile,[5]and was later invited to visit a school, where she spoke about her early years and her experiences of racism.[6]
References
[edit]- ^abcdLeah Sinclair,"Suffrage 100: The Black Women Who Changed British History",The Voice,6 February 2018.
- ^Paula Akpan,"Meet Varaidzo, the woman using Instagram to teach Black British history",Metro,31 October 2018.
- ^"Kathleen Wrasama: Black British Women Activists Talk",Numbi, 30 August 2018.
- ^ab"Kathleen Wrasama",Black Cultural Archives,1980.
- ^"An exploration of Somali life on screen: Pan African Cinema".Events for 1 August 2019, Numbi.
- ^Celia Burgess-Macey,"Tackling racism and sexism in the primary classroom",in Dawn Gill, Barbara Mayor, Maud Blair (eds),Racism and Education: Structures and Strategies,Sage, 1992, pp. 279–80.