(1911-1969) – musicologist, choir conductor

Olive Walke was a Trinidadian musician and ethno-musicologist who was one of the first to collect regional Caribbean folk songs. Between 1961 and 1966, she served as a Senator in the first Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago established after its independence. Founder of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading folk chorale, La Petite Musicale, Olive Walke valued the wealth of folklore and folk traditions in Trinidad, the variety and complexity of these traditions and the multiplicity of languages and influences: Spanish, French, English, African dialects, Portuguese and Indian. Her song collection Folk Songs of Trinidad and Tobago was published a few months after she succumbed to a lengthy illness and is still widely used in the island.  

Olive Walke was our next-door neighbour and landlady and my first piano teacher. As a child I had the privilege of sitting in on the weekly choir rehearsals that were usually held in either her living room or on her porch. 

Dominique Le Gendre

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Walke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXWo84tGwvY

(1895-1994) – Maori Rights Activist

Dame Whina Cooper was born Hōhepine Te Wake, daughter of Catholic catechist Heremia Te Wake and Kare Pauro Kawatihi, of the Te Rarawa iwi, at Te Karaka, Hokianga in New Zealand. Widely respected amongst her community and across the world, Dame Whina Cooper dedicated her life to fighting for Maori rights. Through her activism she fought to protect the land of the Maori as well as advocating for equal treatment of the Maori in New Zealand society. Cooper is often referred to as ‘Mother of the Nation’ for all she has done to protect the Maori community. 

‘I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.’

Lucy Hannah

Read more: https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/129030708/legacy-lives-on-dame-whina-coopers-template-for-leadership

(1944 on) – Activist

Angela Davis is an African–American activist, scholar and writer who advocates for the oppressed. Born in 1944, is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She is the author of many books on class, gender, race and the US prison system, which she experienced first-hand when she was incarcerated for sixteen months after being arrested for buying guns which were used in a courtroom shooting. She was eventually found not guilty. Her books including Freedom Is A Constant Struggle and Women, Race and Class are essential reading.

I read Angela Davis’s autobiography when I was in my twenties and was immediately awed by her ceaseless fight for racial equality and social justice. She seemed fearless to me and the fact that she’s still going strong, still fighting passionately for the rights of people around the world, is inspirational.

Sharmilla Beezmohun

Photo c/o Oregon State University

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis

https://nmaahc.si.edu/angela-davis

(1933-2010) – Trade Unionist

Born in Gujarat in 1933, Jayaben moved with her husband to East Africa in the 1950s and then to the UK, where their middle-class lifestyle ended as they could only find work in factories. Grunwick, a film processing plant, was where she led a walkout of non-unionised workers in August 1976 due to the long hours and poor wages. Most were also immigrants and most were women. After a long battle, the strikers conceded defeat nearly two years later in July 1978. Nonetheless, Jayaben was at the head of a movement which mobilised the biggest number of in labour movement history to support just 200 workers. She also changed the way many people saw black and brown workers.  

I first heard of Jayaben Desai when I was reading an old copy of the radical Race Today journal from 1987, and was so surprised to hear about a woman of Indian heritage who had led a strike in the UK in the 1970s! The stereotype of older Indian women at that time was quiet, unobtrusive types, but here was someone who stepped out of that role to fight for workers’ rights.

Sharmilla Beezmohun

Photograph Graham Wood/Getty Images

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/dec/28/jayaben-desai-obituary

(1940-2011) – Social, Environmental and Political Activist

Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental and a political activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She studied in the USA, earning a bachelor’s degree from Mount St. Scholastica and a master’s from the University of Pittsburgh. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to become a Doctor of Philosophy, receiving her PhD from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In 1977, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organisation focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation and women’s rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for ‘converting the Kenyan ecological debate into mass action for reforestation’. Maathai was an elected member of the Parliament of Kenya and from January 2003 to November 2005 served as assistant minister for environment and natural resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki. She was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. As an academic and the author of several books, Maathai has made significant contributions to thinking about ecology, development, gender and African cultures and religions. Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer in 2011.

A true campaigner who worked for her people and, in doing so, worked for the world.

Sharmilla Beezmohun

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_Maathai

(1960 on) – Women’s Rights Activist

Pragna Patel is the founder and Director of Southall Black Sisters Centre, a multi-award-winning women’s organisation founded in 1979 to address the needs of black and minority women experiencing gender violence. It successfully campaigned for the release of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a landmark case in which an Asian woman was convicted of the murder of her violent husband. The case reformed homicide law, creating greater awareness within and outside minority communities. Pragna is also a co-founder of Women Against Fundamentalism. She stood down as Director of Southall Black Sisters in January 2022, but remains the embodiment of intersectional feminism.

Although I’ve long known about Southall Black Sisters, a women’s rights organisation based near where I grew up in west London, I didn’t know much about founding member Pragna Patel until I’d long left the area. A feminist campaigner, she was one of those few Asian women standing up against and calling out female oppression, particularly in the South Asian communities of the UK, before anyone else. She’s brave and unflinching in her activism.

Sharmilla Beezmohun

Read more: https://southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/activism-is-the-rent-we-pay-to-live-on-this-planet-our-tribute-to-pragna-patel/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/08/pragna-patel-100-women

(1941-2022) – Activist and Publisher

Born in West Hampstead in London and attending school in Bristol, Sarah White studied History of Science and Russian at Leeds University, spending a year in Moscow in the 1960s. Upon her return she began her PhD at Imperial College London and also volunteered for the African National Congress at the Africa Centre. It was here that Sarah met the Trinidadian activist John La Rose, with whom she lived for the rest of her life. Together they were the co-founders of New Beacon Books in 1966, the UK’s first black publisher and bookshop, partly funded by Sarah’s work as a science journalist at New Scientist from 1967. She was also central to many other cultural and political movements which were fighting for racial equality and social justice, including the International Book Fairs of Radical Black and Third World Books (1982-95) among others. John and Sarah, along with other activists, co-founded the George Padmore Institute in 1991, an archive and educational resource which houses many of the archives of the movements they were part of. 

Sarah’s unassuming, behind-the-scenes presence was key to work being done for so many organisations, whether being secretary of the George Padmore Institute or editing many of the New Beacon publications. But above all, she was a dear and wonderful friend.

Sharmilla Beezmohun

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/16/sarah-white-obituary

 (1946 on) – Musician/ Poet/ Author

Patricia Lee Smith is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called the ‘punk poet laureate’, Smith fused rock and poetry in her work. Her most widely known song is ‘Because the Night’, which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen. It reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978 and number five in the UK. In 2005, Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. 

Patti’s feminism, music and philosophy has inspired me since the age of twelve when I first danced to ‘Because the Night’ at the CHE (Campaign for Homosexual Equality) disco in my hometown.

Lucy Davies

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Smith

(1962-2010) – Musician

Ariane Daniele Forster, known by her stage name Ari Up, was a German vocalist best known as a member of the English punk rock band The Slits. She was born in Munich, West Germany where both her parents were involved in the music industry.

Her mother Nora married the Sex Pistols’ lead singer John Lydon in 1979. Ari experimented with the genre, learning to play the guitar from The Clash’s Joe Strummer. In 1976, at the age of fourteen, she formed The Slits with drummer Palmolive. Guitarist Viv Albertine joined the group and was deeply impressed by the young singer: ‘English was her second language. It was not easy for her and she had to fight to be taken seriously.’ By the late 1970s, The Slits were touring as the opening act for The Clash. The group disbanded in 1981. Up’s first full-length solo album, Dread More Dan Dead, was released in 2005. In 2008, Ari Up was diagnosed with breast cancer. She refused chemotherapy. The Slits’ final work, the video for the song ‘Lazy Slam’ from Trapped Animal, was released posthumously in accordance with Ari’s wishes. 

When I was twelve we wrote fan mail to The Slits and they replied and sent us their hair ribbons. I loved her badass feminist attitudes and the punk/reggae fusion music she performed. Years later when she was living in Kingston, I used to see her riding around on her motorbike. We always waved at each other. Sadly, gone too soon.

Lucy Davies

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Up

(1973 on) – Original Dancehall Queen

Carlene Smith was Jamaica’s first Dancehall Queen. She was crowned in 1992 after she and her crew competed against well-known models. There had been other Dancehall Queens before her, but she was the first to garner national attention. Smith can be seen in the 1992 music video for the Chaka Demus & Pliers song ‘Murder She Wrote’ and also featured on other music videos.

The original and the best. At Stone Love, House of Leo on Thursday nights in the 1990s. Carlene was the main attraction. Her outfits, dancing and charm were golden. She was an inspiration to just be yourself and be fabulous. Anyone can be a star!

Lucy Davies

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlene_Smith

Image from the Jamaican Gleaner