Zainab Abbas (activist)
Zainab Abbas | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 Middlesbrough, England |
| Occupation(s) | Women's rights campaigner, social activist |
| Years active | Late 1960s–present |
| Known for | Black British activism, founding Brixton Black Women's Group, involvement in UK black power groups |
Zainab Abbas (born 1950) is a Black British campaigner dedicated to advancing women's rights and driving social transformation. Since the late 1960s, she has been actively involved in prominent UK black power groups, including the Black Liberation Front, the British Black Panthers, and the Brixton Black Women's Group.
Biography
Abbas was born in 1950 in Middlesbrough, England, into an Egyptian family with Nubian heritage. Her mother, a nurse who relocated to the UK seeking safety and educational opportunities, raised Abbas after her father's early passing. Her mother was employed within the healthcare sector.
During her teenage years, Abbas was deeply influenced by the US Black Power movement, especially after attending a speech by Stokely Carmichael in London in 1967 and being motivated by James Brown’s anthem "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" along with the teachings of Malcolm X.
In 1971, she relocated to Birmingham where she became a member of the Birmingham Black Panthers and contributed as an educator in black supplementary schools. Later that same year, Abbas joined London’s Black Liberation Front (BLF), taking on the role of international secretary and establishing connections with US Panthers such as Kathleen Cleaver.
By 1973, Abbas co-established the influential Brixton Black Women's Group with fellow activists including Gerlin Bean, Beverley Bryan, and Olive Morris, creating a pioneering organisation central to Black feminism in the UK.
She participated as part of the British delegation at the Sixth Pan-African Congress in 1974, reinforcing the dedication of UK Black activists to worldwide struggles against colonialism and racial oppression.
In 1980, Abbas founded the United Kingdom's first Black-owned public relations firm and has since engaged extensively in public affairs work throughout Africa and the Middle East.
Abbas appears in the 2021 documentary Black Power: A British Story of Resistance and played a prominent role at the inaugural Black Lives Matter UK Festival of Collective Liberation held in July 2024, which attracted over 600 participants.
External links
- "BCA and We Are Parable presents Hidden in Plain Sight", Black Cultural Archives, 25 February 2021, via YouTube.
Further reading
- Adi, Hakim (ed.). Black British History: New Perspectives. London: Zed Books, 2019, pp. 125–143. .
- Adi, Hakim (ed.), Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain. London: Pluto Press, 2023, .
- Thomlinson, Natalie. Race, Ethnicity and the Women's Movement in England, 1968–1993. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.