UfuomaBCAResidency

At the start of my research, I aimed to learn more about the background of what went into writing the Heart Of The Race, wanting to understand the context of the period and the complexities of Black women's lives, black women part of political movements and their agency.

I thought it was important to physically document the process/journey of accessing the archives - the act of locating these archives required a physical presence - going in and sitting with the transcripts/documents (as opposed to the oral histories) - travelling to this very specific historical location that holds a vast amount of Black knowledge production.

Is there a reason that we don't know these women's names beyond the archive?

Whatever they deem peripheral we have to make our centre - we have to organise around that as our starting point of investigation.

The history of Black women's lives in Britan is so richly detailed in the transcripts - they feel even more relevant now

These documents highlight the importance of self documentation as a form of self preservation as a form of self determination as a form of self...

How can you make sense of it, whilst your living it?

The Heart of the Race: ‘Black Women and Self’ chapter drafts

A collection of research information used in the book 'The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain' written by Stella Dadzie, Beverley Bryan, Suzanne Scafe. First published in 1985.

Migration was structured around imperialism

Some experiments came out clearer than others

"there was a sense of real sisterhood, real solidarity, it didn‟t matter that we had our differences, the beauty if it was, there were women out of university who were like myself, who were kind of articulate in that sense, there were other women who were just coming out of their homes, from the community who weren‟t necessarily book-read, who were educated in the university of life, and probably had as much to teach us as out mothers and grandmothers, they were women who had lived it, had lived racism, and had a lot to add, so it was kind of good that we were able to organise across class lines as well as across ethnicity. That was my high point. I mean there were others, demonstrations and so on, but that was the one that sticks.

- STELLA DADZIE

From the collection: Heart of the Race, Oral Histories of the Black Women’s Movement Interview Number: BWM07

"IT WAS A RADICAL ENDEAVOUR "

- STELLA DADZIE

Spending time in the archive looking at the documents, drew up thoughts around how archives are maintained, how we access archives and the physicality of the archive as a space to enter. Who has access to it, what is public and what is not. I thought it was important to document my journey to the Black Cultural Archives as part of my research as Brixton remains a central site of Black British political history.

Going through the archives I spent time reading the transcripts and listening to the vast oral histories. What was interesting was that although the Black women’s movement was across the UK including cities like Birmingham and Manchester, what kept coming up was Brixton as a central place for Black political organising in the UK. These collective experiences were shared by Black women across the country who were also organising in their communities.

And if we are not, why ?

For me, it was important to document the process of delving into the archive, the journey, the movement of processing/accessing the documents, the ephemeral material, this knowledge, this history. Contrasted with the physicality of archives as spaces that hold knowledge production, But specifically BCA being the holder of Stella's transcripts, a reminder that black women's knowledge production that can’t and must not be taken for granted. These are archives that have almost become sacred spaces.

"I STARTED ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR OTHER SISTERS

- STELLA DADZIE

Understanding and recognising your/our lives are important and deserve to be archived and recorded in this way - interior structures of the home vs political organising can both produce revolutionary outcomes.

Brixton was an important location for organising for a number of the Black women in the movement specifically Brixton Black Women's Group including members such as Beverley Bryan, Olive Morris and Liz Obi. OWAAD, whose founding members were Stella Dadzie and Olive Morris, held the first Black Women’s conference in March 1979 in Brixton. Brixton and London being a place that Black women organising around the country were looking to. The women of these movements were self-organising and mobilising around collective shared experiences across the country.

As part of my residency, I became even more fascinated by the process of archiving as a political tool and method of self-preservation. What struck me was the relationship between public and personal archives, archiving oneself for the preservation of a movement that went beyond one individual but collective experiences shaped by the condition of British society that positions Black women at the margins. In a lecture-discussion with Cambridge Sociology on Black British Feminisms: The Heart of the Race with Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe as well as Lola Okolosie and Heidi Mirza, Dadzie recalled how the opportunity to write the book, to tell the stories of Black women’s lives was a “radical endeavour” as Black women had so often been silenced.

The array of issues that impacted Black women and the methods of which Black women organised, archived themselves, coming together as a form of self-determination, resistance, political and community expression.