Two Black activists reflect on their struggles and journeys through the social, cultural and political landscapes of the United Kingdom. Zainab Abbas and Ansel Wong were leaders of the Black Liberation Front, a Third World revolutionary organization founded in North London in 1971. The Black Liberation Front combatted fascist violence in Britain, constructed “central communal combative alternatives” to oppressive state institutions, and mobilized support for freedom movements across Africa, the Caribbean and North America.

Zainab Abbas, British born of Egyptian parents, was International Secretary for the Black Liberation Front. A leading protagonist for women’s rights and social change in Britain, Abbas was also a member of the Brixton Black Women’s Group, a foundational Black Feminist organization in Britain.

Ansel Wong, Trinidad & Tobago born, was a leader of the Black Liberation Front, editor of its Grassroots newspaper, and later served as Chair of the Notting Hill Carnival Trust. In the 1960s, Wong was active in radical Caribbean student movements, and co-founded the Black Arts Workshop and the C.L.R. James School for Black Youths at the West Indian Students’ Centre in London.

Co-sponsored by African Studies, Caribbean Studies, the Women & Gender Studies Institute, and the New College Initiatives Fund

February 3, 2020, 5:00-7:00 PM, Sidney Smith Hall, Room 2098 (Natalie Zemon Davis Conference Room), 100 St. George Street,University of Toronto